There are a lot of great ways to go camping, from tents to motorhomes and everything in between. If you have a spouse that is not sold on the idea of roughing it in a tent, though, a pop-up tent trailer is a great alternative to traditional tent camping. Here are ten great reasons to consider a pop-up tent trailer for your family camping solution.
Sleeping capacity
Pop-up tent trailers have large, foldout beds and usually a dinette that can also convert to a small bed and can comfortably sleep five or six in a pinch. This is a real advantage for family camping, because a pop-up tent trailer offers plenty of sleeping space for family and friends.
Sleeping comfort
Their mattresses won’t win any awards for comfort, but compared to the cold hard ground in a traditional tent, the relatively thin and hard mattresses in a pop-up tent trailer are a much more attractive alternative for many non-outdoorsy spouses.
Because the bed platforms on a pop-up tent trailer are open to the air underneath, they can get cold in the winter. Some people close-off the open air space by wrapping a tarp around the outside of the bed platforms. Another alternative is to lay a space blanket underneath each mattress.
Airflow
Pop-up tent trailers have very large mesh panels, surrounding the foldout bunks, that provide much better airflow than many cabin-style family tents. These large mesh panels eliminate the closed-in, dark and stuffy feeling that turns some off to tent camping.
Amenities: rustic to extravagant
A basic pop-up tent trailer may have just a sink and a two-burner stove, but higher-end models can have refrigerators, toilets, showers, and even air conditioning.
This flexibility allows you to tailor your camping experience to meet your family’s needs and maybe the needs of your non-outdoorsy spouse, without completely giving up on the outdoor experience that tent camping provides.
Cargo capacity
Pop-up tent trailers are more than just rolling tents. They also provide storage space inside for your gear and many make this space externally accessible even in their folded configuration, through a cargo hatch. Some pop-up tent trailers also offer external storage trunks in the front, or back of the trailer. These are important features if your family vehicle is too small for all of your family camping gear.
Toy hauling
Pop-up tent trailers have hardtops that support racks for bicycles, surfboards, canoes and kayaks. This allows you to not only take all of your family’s camping gear, but also the outdoor toys that make every family camping trip a memorable experience.
Towing weight
Many cars, minivans, and small SUVs are rated to tow 3,500 pounds, which is well-suited for the majority of pop-up tent trailers, most of which are in the 2,800 pound (or less) range.
Easy to tow
The low profile of a pop-up tent trailer makes them much less susceptible to buffeting and sway from wind and passing trucks. They are also much more economical to tow and can be towed by lower-power vehicles, due to their low wind resistance.
Lowest cost RV
Pop-up tent trailers are about half the price of a hard-sided camping trailer. In addition, their relatively small size allows them to fit in a driveway or even a garage, which can save hundreds of dollars every month in RV storage fees, over a camping trailer or motorhome.
Extensive online support community
If you are looking for advice from other pop-up tent trailer owners, look no further than PopUpPortal.com, where you will find a wealth of information from pop-up owners – including tips, tricks, and technical support. If you are looking for more information on pop-up tent trailers, be sure to checkout their forum.
See also…
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Good points in support of tent trailers. I lived in a semi-converted Ford Econoline van for two six-month periods about a decade ago.
I sometimes miss that ability to go anywhere I want in the outdoors and still have a comfortable place to sleep and a lot of my books and toys, so I’m evaluating options like another van or a tent trailer.
John Soares’s last blog post..Castle Lake Clean-Up This Saturday, July 25
Another benefit since moving to a tent trailer last year is the ability to extend my camping season to the winter months. If I can find a site with electrical hook-ups, I can run a small ceramic heater and keep the tent trailer nice and cozy. We camped last January at Morro Bay State Park and the temperature dropped to 36 degrees one night, yet we were snug and warm in the trailer. I would like to recommend Pop Up Times forum as another resource for tent trailer owners.
http://www.arveeclub.com/index.php
Craig Travis’s last blog post..California Camping Online Upcoming Trips
We bought our pop up in March, and just love it! We joined Pop Up Portal a couple days after gettin the camper, and it has become a valued source of information.
John – I have my heart set on a 4×4 Sportsmobile someday (post kids, of course) http://www.sportsmobile.com/
Craig – we love camping at Morro Bay SP. There’s a great beach at Morro Strand, across town, and a great park downtown for the kids. I thought about bringing the golf clubs, but I’m not sure that would fly with my wife Lisa
Melanie – that’s great! We have some friends that just bought one, too, and are really happy with it.
We used to have (what we called) a trailer tent when I was a kid. Not quite like the pop up camper you describe, no hard top for example, but a similar idea.
It had beds that folded out from the central trailer section pulling the roof up as they went, so it ended up like a giant mushroom. We went to Wales mostly (I’m in the UK) and the sheep on the campsite used to sleep under the folded out beds. When they got up in the morning they used to bump their heads on the underside of the bed – a very bizarre alarm call.
Recently I came across the Sylvan Sport IT which is a similar idea and looks like a really clever solution.
in-a-tent – I love the Sylvan Sport, it’s a very innovative trailer that can be used for several different purposes.
Plus…they’re much less hassle than the pop up hotel…