pop up

[dogear52]

Anyone try to live in a pop up in AZ in the winter (valley of course).....I've got reservations re esp cold nights and canvas walls are'n't my idea of proper shelter barrier.....hard side could work ok I guess.

 

[LongInTheTooth]

I've heard of people making insulated "walls" for them. I'm sure u can find directions and/or other solutions if you google around a bit. Try www.popupportal.com and search for their winter camping pages

 

[Zil]

Lower elevations days are warm to hot. A good sleeping bag could deal with nights.

 

[akrvbob]

It's a bad idea. The wind blows in the desert a LOT! And it is much colder than you would think. I have a friend who retired and bought a nice new pop-top camper and spent his first winter in the area around Quartzsite and Yuma. In the spring he sold it and bought a hard-sided camper. And it was an unusually warm and mild winter.

They just don't work in the desert to live in.
Bob

 

[Willy]

I lived in a fiberglass pop-top camper for abt. 3 yrs up here in BC. Winter time I always kept the top down. It was surprisingly warm and easy to heat.. but cramped. ..Willy.

 

[dogear52]

Thanks everyone. Hard sided is the way to go then.

 

[sushidog]

Yep. I like my hardsided Aliner pop-up. For many years I towed it with my 4cly car. It has all the amenities of a bigger camper but the insilated hard sides allows my 5,000 BTU ac to kep it cool with a little 1,200 watt genny. A Trailmanor is also a lightweight, hardsided pop-up, while the now defunct HiLo are heavier but more suitable for full-time use.

Chip

 

[light trip]

Hey sushidag, Aliner has gotten my attention for some time. Not just because I thought it was a great idea,,, I like the way the "A" frame looks inside and out. I also think I feel more secure with hard-sided walls, maybe wrongly so.

But always wondered, have you ever had a problem with the seals? Any leaks? How long have you been using one?

I've looked at them pretty closely, and they seem very well made, and well thought out. Even the joints on the "pop-up" appear to overlap so not too allow water inside.

 

[sushidog]

They are much more secure then tentage, especially in foul weather. Just don't erect them in high winds without one of the "wind kits" that are readily available as a sudden high gust of wind can severely damage it. After erected they can take some very high winds - I think as much or more than a regular box shaped TT.

The foam seals need to be replaced every few years as they do weather and age over time. This is a simple and inexpensive procedure you can do yourself from foam weatherstripping from a big box hardware store. I've had mine since 2006. All campers develop small leaks over time that will need to be calked. The Aliner probably less than most. If all the seals are intact water cannot get inside, however I recommend cracking a window in cold weather, regardless of what kind of heater you have as the moisture in the iar will condense on cold inide surfaces causing dripping inside.

Overall, we are very happy with ours. Ours is the XLE model which is the loaded one. There is very little room to move around inside but you never feel claustrophobic because the cieling is so high. I'm 5' 11" and I can't even reach the peak of the cieling on tippy toe - and I have the low wall model. The high wall model has even more room inside, as do models with a dormer.

Here's a few shots:
Here's one of the kitchen, galley area. Note microwave, 3 burner stove and 3-way freezer/fridge that runs off of propane, 12v d/c and 110 a/c power. To the right is the shower/cassette toilet area. The cassette is easily removable from outside and holds about 1 week's of bodily waste. It can be easily and cleanly dumped at any dump station or toilet - you don't even need gloves like a typical RV.

Here's DW sitting on the sofa that transforms into a king sized bed. We added a 1" memory foam topper to the bed to make it super comfy.

Here we are set-up at camp. BTW it takes 30 seconds to pop-up on the side of the road for quick lunch and potty breaks. Setting up a complete camp takes longer, of course. Popping up and over-nighting in roadside rest areas is a piece of cake, something you would probably not want to do in a cloth sided pop-up that takes maybe 20-30 minutes to get fully set-up.

I pulled it with a 2.4l Chevy Cobalt till this year when I switched to a F-250 in preperation to getting a bigger trailer. The Cobalt's gas mileage drops from 31-34mpg to 22-25 when towing. My F-250 diesel gets 17-19 towing. The motorbikes in the bed get 100mpg and will hit 60 mph. Here I am at 2 different tips to Big Bend, NP, overnighting at the same roadside rest area on both trips with different tow vehicles.

They make bigger and smaller models. From this:

to this:

The latter are from the Chalet XL series with dormer.

Chip

 

[light trip]

Wow sushidog (got UR name right this time), thanks. Lots of great information. I've never owned or live in one, but have been inside one that was setup at the RV dealer and I agree, the very high ceiling gives it a very spacious feel.

That one also had the toilet / shower setup. One more thing that I liked is that the A/C was a standard window unit, that can easily be replaced if and when it breaks.

Thanks again.

 

[highdesertranger]

nice write up sushidog, with pics too. highdesertranger

 

[akrvbob]

Sushidog, great write-up and great looking rig! Are you full-timing in the Aliner or jut taking trips?
Bob

 

[dogear52]

Nice set up, Sushidog.....thanks for posting the pics/info.

 

[sushidog]

Sushidog, great write-up and great looking rig! Are you full-timing in the Aliner or jut taking trips?
Bob

I'm just taking trips now, as I work 6 days/wk - every week with only 2 wks vacation/yr. I'm preparing to full-time in just under 4 years, but it will be in a little bigger rig. I just recently purchased a 2008 F-250 6.4l diesel long bed and I am saving to buy a good, slightly used travel trailer for my DW and my FT travels.
A few years ago I was thinking about FTing in a Chalet XL, then thinking of FTing in a HiLo or Trailmanor pop-up TT till I crunched the numbers. Both of these campers are very expensive. This means from purely an economic perspective it would take many years to recover the difference in price between these higher MPG campers and a more affordable TT. I figure I could get a regular TT for about $10,000 less. If I could save, say $1,000/yr in fuel costs (a difficult task requiring lots of travel) that would give me a 10 year payback -over 15 years when one considers the time value of money (loan interest I would have to pay.) Then there's the additional comfort (and political considerations with DW) a more conventional, larger rig offres. We have decided to move monthly (enjoying low cost monthly RV park tares) and boondocking to save on fuel costs. We have also purchased a pair of 100 mpg motorbikes to explore the local area, run errands, etc. sparing our fuel bill even more. Besides it's hard to fit 1,000-1,500 watts of solar panels on the roof of an Aliner to boondock with. Not to mention where I'd put the 500lbs of batteries I plan on carrying to run a high efficiency, mini-split DC air conditioner I'd like to install to boondock in warmer weather - allowing me to move less.

An Aliner may be OK for one person to FT in, but not a couple as there is too little space to move around inside - sort of like 2 people living in a van - pretty tough from a relationship perspective. Now if it were pulled by a van (doubling one's space and storage) it might be doable for couple, giving each their own private space.

Chip

 

[akrvbob]

Thanks for the feedback Chip! Would you be interested in doing a blog post about your Aliner? It sounds like you have NO extra time! But, you have the pictures and really all I would need is what you wrote above and captions for each photo.

If you can't make it work I can understand!
Bob