# pop up camping tricks tips?



## waylon1979 (Jan 7, 2009)

Hey everyone,

I just have to say this a great bunch of michiganders on this website. I was just wondering if anyone had any really good tips for pop up camping. I just bought a 2004 starcraft and plan on doing some family vacation kind of camping, also going to use it for fishing and hunting. Anything from storage to using the actual thing. I love this thing so far it looks idiot proof lol. Thanks guys and gals....


Bryan

BIG LURE---BIG FISH!


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## unregistered55 (Mar 12, 2000)

Welcome to the camping world Bryan! 

I can not say that I can offer a ton of advice since my husband and I only took one trip last summer in the pop-up we purchased before we decided to upgrade to a 23' Hybrid but here is what I do suggest:

Check out popupgizmos.com We purchased the bunkend covers and found them very helpful for our pop-up and now our hybrid. Here is the info on the "gizmos":

*The PopupGizmos Solar Bunkend Cover's unique features, rugged construction and sun reflecting abilities are outstanding. *_The multi-layer construction gives excellent strength while remaining extremely light weight. Each cover is fully edged with a heavy duty, durable UV resistant poly binding. When installed on top of your camper's bunkends, the pure aluminum coating of the cover does an outstanding job of reflecting the Sun's heat which results in a significant temperature reduction inside your camper's bunkends. Your entire camper will be cooler inside. The PopupGizmos Solar Cover's aluminum coating is protected by a clear plastic film top coat. This prevents the aluminum coating from rubbing off or staining your camper's canvas like some other reflective materials can. The PopupGizmos Solar Covers are easy to store in your camper because they fold up flat, no bigger than a folded twin size bed sheet._[/COLOR]​ 

We also added more "storage space" by doing the following:
We purchased this item at IKEA: ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/90102532
and this rack: ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/16684783 
We would fold this down while travelling and then put it up when we arrived at our campsite and store food, clothing, towels, ect. The pop-up we had was a bit older and did not have a great deal of storage so this worked out nice for us. 

We also take our two Labrador Retrievers camping with us and we bought a large indoor carpet. We remove the mattress on one of our beds and put up the dog's crates on that bed, with the carpet beneath them.

There is also a great website: popupexplorer.com which has a nice message board dedicated just to pop-up campers, many of which have done various modifications to their unit to increase storage or help suit their needs better. You may want to check that out!

One more suggestion that is VERY IMPORTANT!!! Make sure you DO NOT crank up the roof too far!!!!! There are cables inside and if you raise it too high, they will snap and you will not be able to get in because you will not be able to keep the roof elevated!! We actually saw this happen this last September while we were camping at Tawas State Park. The poor people had to go to the local lumber store (thanks to my husbands suggestion) and purchase 2X4's use them to hold up the roof, after 10 or so guys helped lift the roof up. Once this happens, I would imagine it would be very difficult to repair.

I can not think of anything else we did off the top of my head but I will ask my husband tomorrow if he has any more suggestions for you! Good luck and happy camping!!!

-Amy


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## 7iron (Feb 28, 2005)

The most important advice be to dry the canvas before you put it away. If you have to break it down wet to go home set it back up at home to dry it out. This will lenghten the life of the canvas and keep the mildew away.


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## unregistered55 (Mar 12, 2000)

Very good and very important suggestion 7 iron!! You would not believe how many used pop-ups we looked at while we were shopping that were full of mildew because people put them away wet.


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## Happy Jack (Jan 21, 2003)

Tip #1 Make real sure all Top latches are latched. I saw one on the side of 69 a couple years ago that looked like a pretzel. I had one years ago when the kids were little a had a blast. Best times deer hunting were heading North with 3 boys and parking it in the woods.
Tip #2 Start saving for the day you want to move up to something self contained. Enjoy


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## fowlmen-too (Apr 21, 2008)

what amyinmich said it true dont crank it up to tight cuz thats exacly what happened to ours...i thought she was telling our story...2x4s and everthing and yes it cost us about $600 dollars to fix:yikes: not good when the camper only cost us $300:rant:

SO ANYWAY ENJOY


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## RGROSE (Jan 16, 2005)

If you dont have AC, I bought a window unit with a remote control. mounted it on the top next to the top vent, vented it down. We made a cover for it so it looks like part of the camper. Works great on those hot nights, or when we leave the dog in there when we leave for awhile.


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## Chuckgrmi (Nov 6, 2007)

If you plan on using it during Michigan's gun deer season, make sure it has a very good heater in it and test it out (during the winter) before you use it. This comes from a real cold night experience.


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