Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Wall tent or pop up camper?

I have a small wall tent for sleeping, but am thinking of buying a larger one for cooking, etc. Tent is going to run around a $1000 and I have more stuff to store and load, so was thinking maybe a pop up camper may be a better route. What do you prefer and how do pop ups fair in snow? Thanks

I'm not sure what weather you're going to be using the pop up, or how basic you'd be getting one. Things that I would be concerned about are the temps you're anticipating hunting in as well as the road you'll be going in on. My old pop up had about 7" of clearance, plus you're getting different angles which could increase or signifantly decrease the clearance depending upon the terrain and the angle of the tow vehicle in relation to the camper.

If you're getting below 35 and are going to be using the plumbing you'll need to be really careful as to how well (if at all) it's insulated regarding the plumbing. If you have a break and/or leak it's a real pain to deal with and could get expensive.

If you don't have road problems and are not freezing - it would be a great setup though.

I've considered finding a used in-the-bed truck camper. That would get the clearance issues and most of the plumbing issues out of the equation.

Just my 2 cents.

Mike.

One good solution to the camper in bad country debate is to get an older pickup camper and make a trailer out of the back end of an old pickup truck. You can even lift it if you want more clearance. You could also lift a popup camper ifyou wanted and put bigger tires and axle on .

My experience with popup trailers isn't real favorable. They don't like dirt roads and rocks very well, and if it gets cold and snowy you can't get enough heat in the darn things.
If you want a trailer of somekind to go with the wall tent , look around for an older pull camper. Lots of times they can be found in great shape for 1000 or so.

We've been hunting out of wall tents as long as I have been going out of state. Trailers are convenient, in that you don't have to freeze your arse off if you need to grow a tail in the middle of the night, but there is just something about having a real fire in the tent that warms your bones, and dries your clothes out like nothing else.

I also like having the room to move around, shoot the schit and relax.

The down side of tents is that they take a lot longer to get set up, and if there is already snow on the ground it can be a real PITA. You generally need to find a pretty large area, and sometimes finding suitable soil to drive the stakes into can be a dicey proposition.

I think you are on the right track, in wanting to have a second tent for cooking. That is how we do it. A 15x21 for sleeping / lounging, and a 16x16 for cooking and eating. Keeping them separate, keeps your hunting clothes from reaking of bacon and smoke.

This fall, we went with a slightly different group of guys. Part of the group brought a trailer, and we brought our sleeping tent. It was nice having a shower, but by the end of the trip, the guys in the trailer were asking about buying their own tent. Except for eating, we spent most all of the time either outside, or in the tent.

It really depends on how much you want to spend. If you're spending less than a few $k, then I'd think a wall tent would be the way to go.

I bought a tent camper last year, and it rocks. It does just great off road and will go anyplace you could reasonably want to take a camper. I've done plenty of cold weather camping in it, and it works great for that, with a few disclaimers....

You can't plan on using the water during cold weather. Bring it in jugs, just as you would tent camping.

You'll need to insulate the tops of your bunk ends in cold weather (15 degrees or less) and if you're using a portable heater. I use sleeping bags tucked up on the inside, on the underside of the bunk ends. Completely eliminated condensation, and helps keep the camper warm. Some use space blankets on the outside of the bunk ends, or custom "bunk end covers".

Take the seat cushions before you go to bed, and lay them up against the fabric walls on the bunk ends. Goes a long way towards keeping things toasty.

Space blankets under the mattresses are a MUST. Otherwise you'll freeze your butt off in 50 degree temps, let alone anything below freezing.

Portable heaters (like the "Big Buddy" heater that can hook into the campers low pressure tanks) work great at taking the nippy edge off in the camper at night. Mine will keep the camper at 10 deg above ambient low, 20 above on med, and 30 above ambient on high. I supplement that heater with the furnace when needed (usually only 10 minutes before climbing out of bed to get dressed). Furnace use should be kept to a minimum, because it really eats batteries.

I've gone 10 days at 10 to 15 degree temps at night on 2 bottles of gas and 2 batteries by using a portable and saving the furnace for heating the camper up to "dressing temperature" in the morning.

Buy at least 1 CO detector if you're planning on using heat. I have two in mine, one hi, and one low. To use any heat in a camper (even the factory furnace) and not have a CO detector is asking for a long nap you won't wake up from.

I've not had it in any significant snow yet, but I keep a broom handy to sweep any significant wet snow accumulations off the bunk ends and top if need be.

Here's my camper. 2004 Jayco Baja.




Elk camp 3 weeks ago...



Couldn't be happier with the camper. Bought it used last year from a guy who used it 3 times in paved camp grounds. He bought it because it "looked cool". When I bought it you couldn't tell it from a showroom new model. Got it for $5k less than a new one, and it was only a year old. Gotta love posers.

How are you going to wiggle that pop-up into your pack horse�s panniers? I believe that you first must ask yourself; when and where I am going to need this shelter? Pop-ups certainly serve a purpose. However, they are a fair weather deal that I would not want to get too many miles off of the gravel during hunting season. With as little as 8� of snow on the ground, it does take much of trailer to make getting back to the gravel road with your four wheel drive a real chore.

I have a 2-up ATV that I use in my timber appraisal business in Montana, Idaho and Wyoming. Because of the size of the ATV, I have to use a utility trailer and have a 1 ton short box diesel 4x4 with limited- slip that has some good aggressive tires to pull the trailer around. I cannot tell you how many times I have had to chain-up (mud and snow problems) to get in or out of work because this 1300 lbs boat anchor is tied on to my pick-up. If you want to go off the gravel roads and in all seasons, I would get the wall tent. CP.

If I was you one the things that I weigh heavily in this decision is whether or not you're gonna be dealing with either snow and or mud. As the fellas b4 me mentioned that would be my biggest worry.

I can usually get a pick up out but dragging a trailer can be another thing and does warrent consideration.

Where we go elk hunting there is usually little or no snow when we go in, but when we come out it has at times been very challenging and pulling a pop up would be a bigger challenge yet.

I would most likely go the tent direction and have one for cooking and one for sleeping. We use a 16x20 for all right now and if we added on it would be a smaller unit for sleeping only.

Good luck to you in your decision.

Mark D

Thanks all! I am looking at the off road campers.
http://www.fleetwoodcampingtrailers.com/series.aspx?id=3&sn=Evolution
I wish I had horses, but in NM there are roads all over, so packing in is easy. We do get freezing here in NM, so the heat thing is a issue. We had our wall tent cooking this year. I just have so much gear piled up in the garage thought a camper would eliminate some and add to the comfort level. Experience and opinions very welcomed. This was my hunt this year in September.

Here is my experience. 3 of us went on a 6 day elk hunt this fall in Colorado (our first) and we used a Coleman popup camper with 8' box and 2 full size slide out beds. The temps were around 35 in the day and 25 at night and we used a propane heater (similar to Mr.Buddy) with a carbon monoxide detector and we did not use the indoor plumbing. We were also about 8 miles from the highway on a fairly decent gravel road. Overall it worked pretty well and with the heater we never got cold, actually a little too warm from time to time. The main problem we had was space. We kept some of the stuff in the truck but by the time you got 3 guys, clothes, boots, gear, etc it was just real crowded. The camper will work without a doubt but I think that a wall tent may give a litte more space. I am planning on selling the camper this spring and picking up a good wall tent before next fall.

Plus the wood stove always seems to dry out clothes quickest..

Get the wall tent. No comparison for comfort space and versatility

If you're honestly going to pack in. Use a tent. Packing in consists of going where you can't take a truck.

If you can drive there within reason use a pop up. The majority of guys that use wall tents without horses,do so to play cowboy bob rather then out of actual need.

The majority of wall tent users via pickup scare more game out of the area then they see. The result of setting the tent up right where they should be hunting,then running a chainsaw for two days trying to heat the tent.

Been there & done the pop-up deal. Problem with pop-ups: if it's 26 degrees outside, it's 26 degrees inside. The other problem was that I couldn't pull two atv's & the pop-up. It was one or the other but not both.

I put some effort into coming up with the right solution. Depending on your need, you could purchase a single axle cargo trailer. THis solves several problems like dry storage during travel and it'll carry atv's depending on what size you buy. I bought a 16'L x 6.5'W with 6.5' ceiling. It now has a permanent bed in front with underbed storage. The rear bed folds up and I drive both atv's inside. I can pitch a cot for a third person as there is 10' between the beds. It has a 6' kitchen countertop, sink, filtered water inlet & supply, microwave, 21 c.f. Fridge, Roof top A/C. I pulled the cheap paneled walls out and installed 1" styrofoam insulation between the 1" square steel tube frame studs. New walls were 3/8 plywood. Soffit material made the ceiling very very nice. It'll hold two atv's and I added a hitch to the rear for my 10" utility trailer that I pull behind the atv once I get to the hunting place.

I have $5200 in it rolling and that includes the price of the trailer which was $3800. I rigged it for two people to hunt comfortably out of it and it has more than surpassed my expectations. I could not afford the toy box travel trailers and I thought they are all cheaply built anyway.

If you rig one out for just yourself, you could make do with a single axle lightweight job that would afford you a dry bed and dry storage and carry your scooter in the back of your truck.

I have seen some slide-in campers mounted on trailers that also allowed the atv's to be loaded on behind. I like simple and uncomplicated. I will be building another trailer next year and it will be a gooseneck which will pull easier and allow me the over-hitch storage.

Simple and functional is to my liking. Really simple is a 14' single axle cargo trailer with a cot pitched and a drop light or battery lantern. With the styro insulation and a small heater, 1500 watt or less, you'll stay very comfortable. Going this route allows you to rig it as you like it as your money comes available and you are not in debt for half the price of a new home.

My father spent a very long night in a tent camper during a brezzy night elk hunting. He told me that if they had gotting out of that thing it would have blown away for sure, The nexted night they moved in the tent I was in.
Never saw that camper again.
I don't think this pic would be as nice with a tent camper in it.

I guess I am a Cowboy Bob now then. I have used a wall tent for 40 + years, with and without mules. Now days, I am too old and it's too much work to pack in.

Count me in as "Cowboy Bob" as well........grins

Mark D

Wall tents are great but you can't beat even a basic shell on a pickup in really bad weather or around nosy bears. No trailering problems and a place to secure some gear while hiking.

I've spent more than my fair share of topper as well. It works and is a lot better than a zip lock in some bruin country...grins

Mark D

I just got a tent camper and have a spring over conversion so it handles the rough stuff very well. I hunted out of it this fall and did find it has some limitations. It really makes for a nice bedroom and cook shack, you might mix in a card game. That is about it. I brought my old tent as a gear shelter and everyone stored their gear in there. I have two small kids so the thing has more use than just for hunting season. I hunt on foot so hauling horses or ATV's are not an issue. Certainly qualifies as luxurious compared to the cold camps I have had in the past. I have the 8' box one as I could not fathom one bigger for what I have planned for it.