lfloom
Pasadena
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Joined: 09/03/2010
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Personally, I think the showers in the popups are not a great experience. I dismantled ours (the toilet is much nicer without the shower curtain taking up what little space there is.
If you can give up on the shower, then you have a lot more options. At that tow capacity, you should look at the 10 ft popups. If you give up on the potty, you have even more.
Consider finding a used Coleman Santa Fe. Great trailer and floorplan. It has a potty option. And, then you can pull your Santa Fe with a Santa Fe. Really - that is about as heavy as you probably want to go.
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JLTN_James
Colorado
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Joined: 02/03/2009
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lfloom wrote:
Consider finding a used Coleman Santa Fe. Great trailer and floorplan. It has a potty option. And, then you can pull your Santa Fe with a Santa Fe.
X2 on the Santa Fe. Really like the layout and has/had many options. Most Coleman/Fleetwood pop-ups were made with thrid-party components so much of what you may need to repair is available.
We looked at a 2006 model and really liked it, but the same dealer had the 2005 Sun Valley/Allegance with the same options as the Santa Fe and a similar floor plan for the same price. Tow weight wasn't an issue for us. That said, the scales show my 12' pup at 2300# loaded for a week with water in the tank and food in the fridge.
2004 Toyota Tundra SR5 (V8, 4WD, TP, TRD)
2005 Fleetwod Allegance with axle flip
Honeywell 2000i Generator
DH, DW, DS, DD, Dog & Cat
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Dream Girl
Winnipeg
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Joined: 07/05/2011
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Here is a good pop-up unit for your Santa Fe:
Forest River flagstaff 228 (or 228BH)
Unloaded weight: 2,050 lbs. (228BH is 2247 lbs.)
GVWR: 3080lbs. (228BH is 3000 lbs.)
Cargo Capacity: 966 lbs. (228BH is 845 lbs.)
Hitch Weight 331lbs. (228BH is 360 lbs.)
-Front King Bed 70x80 and rear Queen Bed 60X80.
-Shower and cassette toilet
-Sleep up to 8
-*228BH has Forward Storage Deck w/Diamond Plate
See pic gallery (228BH) here.
Lost in the see of RV's...
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tatest
Oklahoma Green Country
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Joined: 05/14/2005
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Been there (looking at a 2500-3500 target for my tow vehicle) and found 3000 pounds is just about the balance point between camping in a RV or dragging a small house around to live in.
Pop-up can be as small as 1500 pounds (well under 1000 for some tent trailers) but won't have all the amenities of home until the size gets up to 3000-4000 pounds. Not that they can't, but in the current market, they don't. When you get to around 2000, you can get your home amenities in a small "egg" trailer but you don't get all the sleeping space of a larger popup. In the larger sizes, the egg trailers will be back to your towing limit.
When we finally figured out that the wife's minimum house to drag around meant a large enough TT that we needed a full-size pickup to move it around, I went for the 7.5 mpg motorhome instead.
Any TT (folding or not) with all the space and amenities of a 24-foot C is going to cost you 8-12 mpg worth of gas to move it around, for any tow vehicle capable of moving it easily on grades and at highway speeds.
Tom Test
Itasca Spirit 29B
2001 Ranger Edge
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whitetruck
Boulder City Nevada
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After a good deal of thought we decided that we are going to keep and use what we have ... at least for the next year ..
The cost would be to high for us what with a new travel trailer plus a TV to tow it. We'd have to go back to work (we're retired and approchiong 70) and we don't want to.
Tatest We're with you" on your decision.
bob and jackie
1991 rear bath 24 foot ford 460 gas motor and no slides 7.5 MPG Have a 2004 Hyundai Santa Fe and love the mileage.
Good Sam RV Club Member
Had a 2007 Cross Roads Zinger ZT290FB one slide and 7915 lbs SOLD
2004.5 Red QC CTD 11500 GVWR 3500 dually SOLD
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Francesca Knowles
Port Hadlock, Washington
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Joined: 02/23/2011
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Rightsizing...good choice!
" Not every mind that wanders is lost. " With apologies to J.R.R. Tolkien
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RoyB
King George, VA
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Joined: 04/13/2008
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You will increase your MPG number with a POPUP coming up from the 7.5MPG you are getting now.
I would really think this out before jumping in and getting a POPUP. It definately will be a shell shock for your guys especially if you have never done any TENT camping or previous POPUP camping before. The lifestyle is not the same by any means.
We have this POPUP and floorplan.
The biggest thing for us (we are in our 70's now) is packing up the trailer and setting up at the camp site. We have found out over the years, you have to use every inch of your inside space to store things and you dont have the option of pre-storing much items like you do with more cabinet space available. You will lose all storage above the floor mounted cabinet tops due to the requirment for the two tent beds to slide-in to the trailer for travel. I will admit us having the added feature of the front deck area we would have traded out of this mess a long time ago. between the front deck area storage area and my truck bed along with the rear seat of the truck we can can some serious camping bring along things with us on our trips. Back in our tent camping days with our Jeep and 5x8 utility trailer it most often took 2-3 hours to setup and get everything like we wanted it to be and get that first cold beer sitting in the lounge chair. When we traded up to OFF-ROAD POPUP we thought being somewhat larger and off the ground etc it would save us a whole lot of setup time. I would save the average time to totally get eveything like we want it is around two hours now. Everything inside the POPUP trailer has to come out as soon as your arrive so you can pull out the bed ends and get the outside all setup. We use 9x12 tarps over both bed ends which really helps alot on heat/cold transfer through the tent fabric.
We have really enjoyed our OFF-RoAD POPUP over the years and have almost traded up to some hard walls but never did it. Probably too old now to worry about it haha...
The biggest thing for use was when the POPUP trailer is in travel mode it sits very well behind our truck and we get real good gas mileage. Usually between 20-21MPG if we use Shell gasoline. Having no wind drag is the answer to good gas mileage. Our POPUP weighs in around 4000LBS loaded.
I would imagine you could find one of the JAYCO walled trailers around the 20-24-foot size and pull with a 1/2-ton truck real easy and get around 14-15MPG. SOme folks report higher MPG but I wouldnt count on that being the norm. It also depends on how your drive.
My other big selling point for pulling a POPUP is we can still pull through the McDonald Drive-thru window and order a Big MaC from the window haha...
I dont see any difference of not having all the toys/appliances that the big camper trailers have. We do everything the big guys do. Some new POPUP folks have a hard time with living with all the outside noises assocaied with the tent fabric beds and wall. I'm always thinking our HDTV is too loud etc...
We are also all setup for camping long periods of time in the woods off the power grid which we love to do. We do everything we do at a regular camp site with electric hookups except NO AIR CONDITIONING. I do have to re-charge my battery bank the next morning using my 2KW Honda generator in a short 2-3 hour generator run time when allowed to use my generator at the camp site.
My really honest comment to you guys is to RENT a POPUP like you may be thinking about and load her down and go camping for four to five days somewhere. Giving up your comfort zone just to save gasoline might not be all that important to you once you find out what the big difference is going to be.
The biggest problem associated with this is you have fill in every bit of the trailer floor space and cubby holes with plastic containers and stacked boxes all neatly arranged to get get the most use of the floor space as you can. We use six of those 24-gallon ACTION PACKERs containers (Lowes) with two inside and four outside in the front deck area.
We have a neat shelf arrangement for the inside that will hold our microwave, and other items we want to have readily available when setup. This all has to break down and be stored in the floor space when in travel mode. Since there is only the two of us we use one slide-out bed area for the day-time storage of items and we pull the curtain on it to hide it as best we can. We use the front bed area to sleep in and the back area behind the wrap around seating for the day-time catch all storage of things.
Due to crowded space inside we gave up on trying to deal with the kitchen table. We leave this is the wrap-around seating which makes it into a large sitting day bed type seat with nice cushions around the sides and back. Great for lounge arrangement watching HDTV for the the two of us. We either eat sitting in the lounge area or outside in inder the awning in our big outside folding chairs.
We do have the indoor potty and sit down shower as most new POPUP trailers now have but for us it is more for those emergencies in the middle of the night. We still both go to the shower room at the park to take showers. I had to get use to sitting on the potty lid to take a shower. I always passed on to folks that the potty lid being up was optional.
My Posts are IMHO based on my experiences - PM/EMAIL me
Roy and Carolyn
RETIRED DOAF/DON/DOD/CONTR RADIO TECH (42yrs)
K9PHT (Since 1957) 146.52M
"We always have a PLAN B"
2010 F150, 5.4,3:73 Gears,SCab
2008 Starcraft 14RT EU2000i GEN
POPUP PHOTOs-Pg53
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sushidog
Abita Springs, LA
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Joined: 08/02/2007
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I can't tell from your post or ptofile the number of people that will be casmping with you. However, if it is just the 2 of you, you might want to look at A-frames, such as Aliner, Chalet and the Flagstaff models. Like a Trailmanor they are quiet and secure with fully insulated hard sides. They come in a variety of sizes and features. I tow an 06 Aliner LXE (a medium size model - 1,700lbs loaded) with a 4 cyl. car. It has all the bells and whistles of a larger camper, just with very little room inside. My model is loaded with features, like a king bed that folds up to a couch/dinette, a 3 burner stove, microwave, shower/cassette toilet, air conditioner, 3 way frige/freezer, etc. We use our shower every trip as we often boondock in remote places without amenities. Even the largest A-frame models should be easily towable by your TV. BTW, my little rig gets 22-25 mpg towing (depending on speed and terrain.) You would hardly notice a drop in mileage behind your TV pulling one this size.
Chip
2006 Aliner LXE
2006 Chevy Cobalt SS
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