The Insider’s Guide to Buying a Pop-Up Camper

[Regcabguy]

I would agree that Phoenix is very flexible with the designs but the workmanship is terrible at least on our camper we purchased last december...................

PM sent your way.

Same experience for my friend who purchased a Phoenix.

 

[Regcabguy]

Drodio and XP,
While I have no dog in this fight, it is interesting how folks defend their model pop-up to the end, if need be. I really wanted to learn something about pop-ups ( I hard-core, off-road a Dodge P.U. with a small Lance Lite 165-s hard side) and live in Nevada City and see XP Mark and his buddie having dinner at the Five Mile House on occasion. (I live up the street from the Five Mile House, and get a drooling sensation when I see TWO XP's parked there) Alas, I learned only about the size and cleanliness of certain outfits' shops.
Seems Drodio kicked the ant farm here, which may be a good idea. I have no pact with any form of truck camping except form-follows-function, and what I have works for me.
It looks to me that the pop-up forum on here is run by and sponsors 4WheelCampers.
My brother bought a new upscale model of the OUTFITTER! for his Ford F-250 and he has had a lot of woes with it. A lot. It leaks. It gets dusty inside when the wind is blowing across the salt flats. The plumbing was all screwed up from the factory and hard to get to as he has a basement. And electrical issues. He has learned to live with it and likes it a lot, fixing all the woes himself. He paid over $25000 for it delivered to So. Cal.
Au contrare, my little Lance Lite which is lighter than Bro John's OUTFITTER! and about 10" taller, cost $6500 used; it doesn't leak. It does not get dusty inside. In fact, you don't even hear the wind howling at all. The thing is close to air tight. We have long-term camped in it (5 weeks to AK and back to CA), and spent about 250 nights in it since 2002 and find the workmanship is just as Droidio mentioned about large factory units: just good enough to barely pass the consumer smell test.
If money were no object, I would go for the XP in a New York minute. However, I'm retard and this reply-to-thread is as close as I'll ever get to a replacement for the Lance hard-side. I would say too all you pop-up camper afecianados: lighten up and go camping.
Here we are on the Mojave Road last month: click on pic for short vid:

regards, as always, jefe

I'm retired and 63 yrs young now. Having enjoyed our Northstar for 13 yrs now,climbing into it through the Munchkin door and trying to read in bed with the 23" mattress to ceiling clearance(less with bedding) is getting old. We have considered an 8'6" Lance Lite for future consideration. I've enjoyed your posts. Those super singles in the rear must sure help. I've seen srw trucks with hardsided campers struggle in high winds,but there's always a tradeoff.

 

[Mundo4x4Casa]

RegCab,
I'm 69 yrs. old, out of the L.A. Philharmonic for 6 years now, and from the pic in your profile, it looks like you are a tall drink of water. I can see where a cramped space may not be for you. With your truck it also looks like we are chasing after the same rabbit.
I have no regrets on buying the Lance Lite, except that we don't use it enough. But, it sits patiently by, now in it's own machine shed during the winter, waiting to grind up that road less travelled. In front of it is my snow removal device.

Jeanie and I are planning a trip circumnavigating the U.S. in our trusty white box. We plan on hitting every state that has a boundary with an ocean or Canada or Mexico. Our trip to Flag in about 2 weeks to the Expo has a presentation on someone who has done just that. I can hardly wait. How about a trip that lasts 6 or 8 weeks; all domestic? This trip is one reason Jeanie wants to stick with a hard side. No noise. A good night's sleep is important to us now, unlike when we were 20 and 24 yrs. old and camping on the ground. I was searching around for a pop-up that could be used in our declining years and not cost our kids inheritance. One last thing about Droidio: With one change in the title of his tome; exing out "Insider's" in favor of "Neubie's" or something like that, or "my experience in buying a Pop-up camper", he would have not had such a ferocious response from the pop-up faithful. You know what they say about opinions: oh, and secondly,everybody has one.
RegCab, good to hear from you. And I can honestly say that I've never had a problem with sidewinds on the highway. It's the suspension re-do and anti-sway bars.Once in Death Valley, we got a tremendous flat wind that really, really shook us awake!!!! in the TC but nothing on the highway. It is strange that we never heard it coming. Maybe we've been lucky so far.My guess is that it was a 100 mph wind and I did have mortal fear that we would go over, like two elephants pushing on one side. I've rolled my rock crawler countless times, but never a 10,000 pound machine.
regards, as always, jefe

 

[Regcabguy]

Jefe,
That's encouraging! The noise factor is sure important. The soft sides are an epic fail when it comes to sound insulation. At Joshua Tree,Anza Borrego,or the crisp alpine air,sound sure travels. Don Thuren valved some King 2.5's and I'm running a Hellwig swaybar along with with 285-75-17 Toyo AT2's. This combo affords an excellent handling truck. If I go with the hardsided unit,National Spring will build me a special 3" front coil to replace my Kore's. Winter is an issue camping as the popup is pretty cold inside. Sorry for the sidetrip everybody.
Thanks Jefe

Prior to this truck I carried the camper with '98.5 regcab CTD DTT auto.

 

[Runt]

Was not going to post but had to after reading the bad experience on the Phoenix. Zero issues with mine. Excellent craftsmanship and nice parts in the spec. Super happy with it. So experiences vary….you’ll find that with all manufacturers I would bet.

 

[DanoT]

My Phoenix has the arctic package (2 layers of Thinsulate knock off sandwiched between two layers of fabric) so it is quite thick and gets pinched by a fitting on the raise/lower mechanism against the top of the side wall. I also have extra insulation so the walls are 2" thick and the fabric got a hole worn through in a couple spots. I have since cut a 1" wide notch in the inner half of the top of the side wall and patched the holes in the fabric. No further problems.

My other complaint is that adhesive used to glue down plastic mouldings is letting go so I have re-glued and stapled where needed.

Overall I am very happy with my custom Phoenix and got a custom built camper for only slightly more $ than a non custom from other manufacturers.

 

[MacHof]

Funny thread. It's turned out to be more of a "my dad could beat up your dad" kind of a thread.

Chill, it's just a camper.

Trackhead - well said! I appreciate the info that the OP presented, and the work that went into visting the manufacturers. Threads such as these are what we used as research before we bought our camper - an Outfitter - but everyone needs to use their own filter when reading posts. And likely everyone has their own individual criteria of what's important in a camper.

We spent the last 21 months touring in our truck camper, including 12 months in South America. How we chose our camper is discussed in a thread on RV.net

Cheers, Henrik

 

[mac66]

Seriously, $100K for a pop up truck camper? I would never have imagined someone could even find a truck camper worth $100,000.

For that kind of money you could buy a new cheap one every year and sell it for half price while the other $90K you didn't spend is earning you interest.

 

[hallmarkrv]

If we get soft-walls from the same place, I think Robbie is a little behind in paying me. Hallmark builds all soft-walls in house. Glad to show any visitor on any day.