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Cherry pop......up cabover

YotaAtieToo

YotaAtieToo

Thick skull
Joined
May 19, 2020
Member Number
142
Messages
12,646
Loc
Bonners Ferry, ID
Since we lost out 97 9' Elkhorn in 2018, we've thrown around the idea of getting another camper. One thing I didn't lile about it was the hit to fuel mileage and the rocking when on anything rougher than a graded gravel road. I've wondered about a pop up, buy the one I want is going to be $20k+, so it's been on the back burner for a while.

Until this 04 Bronco popped up (ha!) On marketplace like 10 miles away for a song with a square body. Paid $2500 for both and quickly sold the truck for $1500 to a friend of a friend.

So I'm in it $1000 and at minimum we can use it this summer and decide if we love or hate pop ups.

Reason I'm making a thread is I'll probably have to fix a few things and probably need help :laughing: and to just document my experience in hard side vs pop up.

It is a short bed version, so I'm contemplating putting it on the F150 for now. When I go to put it in my cclb F350, I'm thinking about mounting it flush
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you can see the repair patch, guess the po ripped the jack off :laughing: seems like he did an ok job structurally.

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some how this piece didn't even make it home. Surprisingly, it had a p# that popped up (apparently i use this phrase a lot.....) right away and was like $10 shipped. I think ill have to remember to take the table top off while traveling.

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single battery for 2011 with most wires unhooked, not sure what I want to do here yet.

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Also the floor bowed down and popped a support off, need to look into that. I am thinking about just grabbing a sheet of ply wood to cover the whole bottom, as I may need a little space anyway.
 
PAToyota said:
Renogy has a sale going on until next weekend: Renogystar

Might be the same prices as on Amazon, but take a look to make sure.
Click to expand...

It is, I think they are, it's their own store on Amazon.

Random side thought. We were looking at this thing today trying to figure stuff out. Noticed thier is a plug with a notation to use it for ac units with ober x amount of power. Then I remembered we have a roll around ac unit :laughing: It will chill down our living room pretty good, so I'd imagine it would chill this thing down easily. Probably a ridiculous idea, but if for some reason we end up heading to the desert in the summer, it might make it easier to sleep :laughing:
 
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YotaAtieToo said:
It is, I think they are, it's their own store on Amazon.

Random side thought. We were looking at this thing today trying to figure stuff out. Noticed thier is a plug with a notation to use it for ac units with ober x amount of power. Then I remembered we have a roll around ac unit :laughing: It will chill down our living room pretty good, so I'd imagine it would chill this thing down easily. Probably a ridiculous idea, but if for some reason we end up heading to the desert in the summer, it might make it easier to sleep :laughing:
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Not ridiculous, our ac roof unit died or may have been always dead, no big deal in Washington, more important in Texas. Had like a 6 month back order on a new roof unit, so we hooked up the 115v plug in, roll around that mybwife bough to cool down our sun room.

Worked successfully, didn't ever run it off the battery, but shore power or generator were no problems
 
FWIW I like our pop up. It’s kinda Redneck and ugly, but it works and never lets me down. Mines a 1988 sun lite hawk. We paid a grand a few years ago pre-plandemic. The only thing that’s kinda funky is the dometic fridge. If I don’t pre cool it on shore power the LP is wonky and takes a while to cool off. It does work though. I guess you gotta be on fairly level ground for it to work right.
 
Provience said:
Not ridiculous, our ac roof unit died or may have been always dead, no big deal in Washington, more important in Texas. Had like a 6 month back order on a new roof unit, so we hooked up the 115v plug in, roll around that mybwife bough to cool down our sun room.

Worked successfully, didn't ever run it off the battery, but shore power or generator were no problems
Click to expand...

I don't even think this has an inverter, I'd have to use a genny or shore power for sure as I don't plan to go crazy with enough batteries and a yuge inverter to run an ac.

WoodburyZuk said:
FWIW I like our pop up. It’s kinda Redneck and ugly, but it works and never lets me down. Mines a 1988 sun lite hawk. We paid a grand a few years ago pre-plandemic. The only thing that’s kinda funky is the dometic fridge. If I don’t pre cool it on shore power the LP is wonky and takes a while to cool off. It does work though. I guess you gotta be on fairly level ground for it to work right.
Click to expand...

Our last one had a few times where the propane fridge let us down. We'd always chill down at home on 120v, then run propane the whole trip. One trip it stopped working while driving through the desert and all the food got warm. :homer: then decided to work, stop working and start working again. Never had that issue before or after though. The propane is really the only way to go with these little campers as 1 battery will die super quick.
 
YotaAtieToo said:
It is, I think they are, it's their own store on Amazon.
Click to expand...

I found the Amazon sale items and then the sale on their site. I think they offer a few more options on their site for different configurations of "kits" of panels, chargers, and such, but if you're just looking at batteries Amazon is probably going to offer the same options.

YotaAtieToo said:
Probably a ridiculous idea, but if for some reason we end up heading to the desert in the summer, it might make it easier to sleep
Click to expand...

I can't imagine that a popup is going to keep the "cool" in very well, so the a/c is going to run constantly to just keep a cool breeze on you rather than cooling the space down. Still, that could make a difference on an oppressive night. Definitely a shore power or generator thing rather than a battery bank.
 
PAToyota said:
I found the Amazon sale items and then the sale on their site. I think they offer a few more options on their site for different configurations of "kits" of panels, chargers, and such, but if you're just looking at batteries Amazon is probably going to offer the same options.



I can't imagine that a popup is going to keep the "cool" in very well, so the a/c is going to run constantly to just keep a cool breeze on you rather than cooling the space down. Still, that could make a difference on an oppressive night. Definitely a shore power or generator thing rather than a battery bank.
Click to expand...

It does a decent job cooling out living room/dining room/kitchen/hallway cool. I can't imagine it having any issues with a matchbox sized camper. :laughing:

If anything it would be just to cool it off after sundown, probably wouldn't need much after that. I'm not thinking about hanging out in there all day in 100* sun.
 
If you do put it in the long bed there might be enough room for a tool box in front of it (the type with the wings for lids) then have some room left on top the box to strap stuff down you don't want in camper or truck.
 
YotaAtieToo said:
Probably going to order a renogy 1000ah battery unless someone says they suck.

Click to expand...

I have that Renogy as my house battery. Installed it before last winter, did a bit of winter camping and it worked great. It’s also pulling double duty as a starter battery because my under hood battery is dead, and I don’t feel like buying another one yet.
 
my pop up has a regular old deep cycle marine battery from Wally World that came with it several years ago. I have never charged it :lmao: and it always shows 12.4 v
 
I had the exact same camper on my long bed 250. I just flushed it out with the back and had a pretty decent covered storage in front
 
Been thinking about one of these myself. Also real curious how your f150 handles it.
 
SHARPMACHINE said:
Been thinking about one of these myself. Also real curious how your f150 handles it.
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Depends on who you ask. Some people think you can carry a bag of concrete in a 1/2t :flipoff2:


We took it on a 3 day trip with no trailer and it Was great. Did squat much really. It was noticeable, but not very much. No body roll and didn't feel too mushy. Stiffer springs would probably be a good idea eventually. 1700lb difference at the local Dot scale. Got around 15 mpg at about 60mph.

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Handled it much better than my 97 F350 with. 4k hard side camper. :laughing:

I have a wd hitch and we're planning on pulling the crawler down to rubicon and Fordyce in a few weeks. So we'll see how that goes.
 
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This is awesome, Can't wait to hear more about your pros and cons vs the hard sided you had.

We have the same dilemma. the hard sided units have the best stuff, but you pay for it in mpg and mobility.

But We are worried about weather and odor with a popup.

I think we need a hard sided unit but just don't want to admit it to ourselves yet.
 
Tiha said:
This is awesome, Can't wait to hear more about your pros and cons vs the hard sided you had.

We have the same dilemma. the hard sided units have the best stuff, but you pay for it in mpg and mobility.

But We are worried about weather and odor with a popup.

I think we need a hard sided unit but just don't want to admit it to ourselves yet.
Click to expand...

So far pros and cons are fairly obvious.

Pros: Fuel mileage, the hard side would practically cut the mileage in half. This only dropped about 20%.

wieght, the hard side was only an 8.5' but was lust lumbering feeling on turns and any bumps. Even on a 1 ton.

The windows all zip down, so I think this may be pretty nice on nice summer nights.

Cons: no shower, shitter or even hot water. No oven, no ac.

Setup, unless you're just popping in to grab something, you have to wind up the sides and do the whole setup thing.

Obviously noise and heat or lack of with soft sides.

Storage, there isn't much in any camper. But the soft side is very limited.


I'm sure I'll find more :laughing:

2big bronco said:
Where are your boys sleeping?
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Depending on the trip, just in a tent, or very snuggly on the converted dinette :laughing:

We're not looking for an rv like set up, more of just an upgrade from a tent. If you start looking at it like an rv, it's a joke.
 
So unfortunately/fortunately no torture test for the F150 :laughing:

Fell into a deal from a buddy for a 2016 F350 DRW, should handle this camper ok :flipoff2:

I haven't even seen the truck yet( long story ) but I'm going to need to make or buy dually jack adapters. After looking at how much they charge and the way mine mount, I just bought some 8x12x3/16 plates and will drill 6 holes in them.

Legally ill have to remove them because ill be like 9' wide, but it's no big deal.

After the trip ill maybe figure out a way to make them fold or something.
 
Flat plates worked perfect. Just pulled them off and threw them in my sweet 1' storage area between the camper and cab :laughing:
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I should probably get a rubber mat or sheet of plywood for it, everything is super close or touching. :laughing:
 
Sweet setup now for sure. For the bed mat I like horse stall mats since they are pretty damn thick and come in different lengths.
 
Ya, that crossed my mind.

I have a rubber mat in my 97 that's made by husky or something that would probably be enough. No idea which truck it will be on more often :laughing:
 
So I thought I only needed 1/4" because it looked like it was just kissing the cab. The noise was annoying enough I grabbed a 3/4" thick stall mat at a north 40 and put it in.

Well it now has 1/4" space and they hit when going over bumps :homer: not sure what's more annoying. Hopefully it won't be too bad on the highway
 
That's the problem with these newer trucks getting deeper beds and taller cabs each generation. The older Chevy/GMC topkicks looked like the camper set on the top of the bed to clear cab.
 
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