EGG or POPUP

[Gus B]

Have you had an Egg and a Popup? Which has been have you enjoyed the most? Intend to travel many miles and Parks with short stays, looking for opinions.

[John Perry]

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Have you had an Egg and a Popup? Which has been have you enjoyed the most? Intend to travel many miles and Parks with short stays, looking for opinions.
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Welcome Gus,

I have had just about every kind of camper. Tents to class A's.
I started with a tent trailer when my youngest was about 2 yo. I was OK if we were going somewhere and staying for a few days in warm weather. I would not reccomend any cold weather camping in a tent trailer. Every time you want to make a sandwich or just take a quick nap you have to crank up the tent trailer and then crank it down. I now have a 13' Scamp and it is the greatest camper I have ever had. It tows well and does not cost me much in fuel. On average I get about 19 MPG while towing with my Toyota Tacoma PU.
If you are going to be on the road for awhile and just stayin for short periods of time in different areas you will find the tent trailer to be a pain in the rear. With an Egg everything is always set up.
If you want to lose money buy a tent trailer and then try to get even a small portion of your investment back.
With an egg you should always be able to get most of your investment back, if not a little more.
Hope this helps,
John

[Mike Watters]

I've had a 13' Boler and currently have an 18' Esterel (a wierd, solid sided French-built pop-up. Photos are on my photo site. Linky in sig).

Anyway - I can't point-blank say one or the other is better. One is better for some things, the other is better for others.

I like very much being able to garage the trailer when not in use. That's normally a nod to the pop-up, but my Boler was REAL short and WOULD roll into our garage (barely).

I DON'T like dealing with all the set-up/take-down associated with the pop-up. Heck, and I don't even have tenting and slide-out bunks to deal with!!!

Storage was better in the Boler. Pop-ups have lousy storage because they have to fold down to nothin' so almost all their internal space it taken up by themselves (beds, kitchen stuff etc). I find the lack of decent, convenient storage in the big pop-up trailer somewhat irritating. The only really decently sized storage is the underseat areas - which is a hassle to access usually. I'm kinda a storage space nut though. Check out the PlayPac rebuild if you have any doubt.

Boler was cuter. Anyone who doesn't agree with this statement should be banned from the list.

Are ya single? The Boler attracts women. No kidding... I wasn't in a position to take advantage of it - but we got comments (good ones) and questions about it nearly CONSTANTLY from women. I can't possibly be the only one who's noticed this...

A 13' egg will likely weigh less than any pop-up you can buy. All that pressboard is heavy stuff!

Given your statement of "many miles with short stays" - I'd think that the set-up/take-down involved in a pop-up would get tiresome. To be honest - the big factor that moved us into the wierd Pop-up was partially the overall size (about the same as a big egg) but mostly the size of the rear bed. Our Esterel has a true queen in the back while the Boler's bed was 44/48 inches wide MAX (ignoring the curve). That was the real deal-maker. Someday I'd still like to get a beater 16' Scamp and rebuild the interior to have a bigger bed in the back.

If I was looking to fit a really big family in the trailer however - I'd be looking very close at the larger pop-ups (normal ones with the slide-out bunks that is). That's where you get small packages that sleep 6 or more easily. That kinda capacity is hard to pull off in an egg (Casita Spirit Standard with double-bunk option is about it).

Mike

[DonInChatt]

Mike: Your Esterel reminds me of the 26 foot sailboat I used to have. The promo literature claimed it could be fully rigged and into the water in 20 minutes by a 10 year old child. The trouble I had was in finding that 10 year old.

[Roger H]

Mike: Your Esterel reminds me of the 26 foot sailboat I used to have. The promo literature claimed it could be fully rigged and into the water in 20 minutes by a 10 year old child. The trouble I had was in finding that 10 year old.

Don, it must have been a MacGregor!

Roger

[Roger H]

Gus, like John, I've had one of just about everything over the years. With those my parents had over the years too, I think we HAVE had one of everything!

A pop up requires a minimum of four setups/take downs for every trip. Once to load. Once you're there. Once to head home, and once to unload. It gets old really fast. Add to that foul weather, wet fabric/bed mattresses, and just plain cold and you start just not going. On top of that, although they're short when folded in, they're heavy.

Eggs are easy to take, easy to load and easy to pull. Resale is excellent, and you can still buy them reasonably. They don't take a huge truck to pull them, and they're great in foul weather.

I don't think there's much comparison.

Roger

[Gus B]

Thanks, for the replies. Really helps. I plan to do most trips solo for 6 to 12 weeks. With a few one weeker's a year. I was leaning toward a popup but now see the cons.

[Christi W]

Hi Gus,
We had a pop-up and I agree with all about the hassle of up and down !! Plus, the thing always listed and, even though I had the roof propped up with twoXtwo's when open, I was always afraid it would come crashing down on us They were never designed to carry the roof A/C. One time, we had hauled it to the Mo State Park, thumbed our nose at the cute little rock houses where we usually stayed and headed down the road. Putting up the trailer we heard a huge BANG and down came the roof - fast!! Lucky one of us wasn't in the way. The whole park got a kick out of the howling and yelling of my husband as we took the thing down and headed to the rock lodges That is known as the whiffle-something and we never really trusted it again. WOW - do we like our Burro!! - always ready and there's no canvas to drip and leave up until the rain stops and you can(maybe) put it away without mildew. No Contest fiberglas rules!!
Christi

[Donna D.]

I think one of the best reasons for having a molded lightweight fiberglass RV, is that it's always ready to go...throw in the clean clothes and food...out on an adventure in a flash.

[DonInChatt]

Don, it must have been a MacGregor!

Roger

Roger: B-I-N-G-O 1998 MacGregor 26. When we lived across the street from the marina and had it in a slip it was terrific. On the trailer it collected dust.

[Doug Mager]

I've had my 'pop up' since 1965 and usually it takes us a full two hours from the 'Rise n Shine Woman' till we are actually on the road.

This time only includes usual the morning chores, NOT the bacon n eggs routine, LOL!!!

[Alf S.]

Hi: Our 1st. camping experience was in a pop up w/ 3 young kids... 1st night thunderstorm...what a howler in the am. everything soaked so off to the laundry-mat to tumble dry...cloudy damp n dreary...eeeeeeeeeew!!! 2nd exp. a 35' motor house w/ 2 roof airs 3 tvs and my wife says "What no dishwasher"??? 3rd exp. Our Boler aaaah I feel like Goldilocks... This one's just right
Alf S. North shore of Lake Erie

[Doug Mager]

Yes, it 'pears that Eggs DO have it over 'pop ups', hands over fists!!!!

[Vivian]

We had tent camped for years while our children were growing up and found destination camping better than travel camping. We purchased a brand new 1996 Coleman Santa Fe
("popup" is a misnomer) thinking it would be lightweight and easy. On the second night of our first trip, we stayed at an Oregon State Park near the Snake River in Eastern Oregon and left a light on while we took showers. When we returned, the trailer was FULL of moth millers! That was the beginning of the end, but we kept the trailer five years and it never got easier. We sold it for half of what we paid. We really enjoy our Scamp 16' for all the reasons others have stated. For a single person, a 13' would be even more ideal.

Vivian

[peterh]

We considered pop-ups, RVs, and hardside trailers before buying our Scamp.

I've seen people put up and take down their tent trailers before. It's time-consuming, doesn't look like any fun, looks like even less fun if it were raining, and the beds don't look comfortable, either. Tent trailers also collapse down so tight that there's very little storage space left over for other camp gear and they leak heat (and sometimes water) like a sieve and since most of them weigh more than an egg, what's the point?

We eliminated RVs because of the cost of insuring an extra vehicle, the need to tow a second motor vehicle if we wanted to drive something more nimble around at our destinations, the poor gas mileage, and the problem of what to do -- overhaul the RV or replace it -- if the engine developed mechanical problems. And, thus, the idea of an RV was out.

We picked our 5th wheel over other options because (first) it has a permanently set up "bedroom" that just one us two lovebirds can collapse into while the other sits at the table undisturbed, and we like the space and amenities it has to offer. All this and it weighs less than many pop-up trailers and not much more than a well-equipped 16' or 17' Scamp or Casita. The only down-side was our small SUV can't tow it, so we had to buy a small 3.0L pickup truck, which pulls it like a champ.

Yup, fiberglass trailers are our portable palace of choice.

--Peter

[Karalyn]

EGG, less room by far!
Pop up, much more work by far!
if needing room, pop up, if needing easy set up, take down and off to next check point, by all means----------egg.
Here we went from tent to pop up and then to egg. sticking with egg here. However if back with 3 kids, friends and hubby, it would have to be the pop up, but not happy about all the work involved with owning one. (hubby and kids off enjoying the weekend and wife stuck with 99% of the work). Set up and take down was close to 2 hours each time I set up and took down.
I vote for a more cramped egg with 2 beds.

[james kent]

We had a Cranky-up [pop up] for many years. It had a 10 foot box, and 4ft slideouts at each end. This made it 18ft long when set up. Could set it up {in the rain] in under two minutes . WHEN ALL THINGS Worked right.
When something stuck in the cranking system it could take forever and turn the air on a summer day BLUE.
Have now had the egg for 14 years. Back in, level-up, crank down, open door , open brown pop. AHHHHHH!

[Patty S.]

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Have you had an Egg and a Popup? Which has been have you enjoyed the most? Intend to travel many miles and Parks with short stays, looking for opinions.
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I had a popup. Now have the egg. Idefinitely enjoy the egg more - no more folding down the popup. I can keep stuff in it year round.

[Christi V.]

My first trailer was an older pop up...it wasnt hard to set up but a hassle... I took it out a few times but really never felt safe in it... I think the EGGS are a luxery compared to them.....
The newer pop ups do have electric set ups now thats alot easier than the ole crank ups.. but i wouldnt ever invest in one again..... for the price of what they want for them you can get a nice Scamp ( basic models)

[Anne H]

Another combination that I was looking at was the full height trailer (for kitchen, bath, dinette) with 2 pop-outs at either end for the beds. I figured that way I wouldn't have to fight my dogs for the bed, I wouldn't have to do as much set-up, and the kitchen/dinette area was always ready for a quick lunch.

In the end, I remembered all the years of trying to dry out the canvass on my VW Westfalia camper van pop-top and all the mildew problems when I didn't get it quite dry enough - and went with fiberglass.

I'd have to agree also that the eggs are quite the conversation starters - generally someone has asked about it almost everywhere I've camped.

Good luck in finding the right trailer for you!