Will a popup work for us?

[way2tyred]

.

 

[chartle]

9 in a pop up is a lot. its usually 4 people in the two fold outs and maybe 4 on various things that fold down like the couch and table. its also going to be very close. maybe if you bring a tent.

maybe some thing like this is big enough.

i think 9 is max for a something like a 5th wheel.

 

[North of Mouse]

Nine people would be quite a squeeze in any pop up I've ever seen - don't think it would be possible to sleep that many. Also, TT's would have to be fairly long to accommodate the same.

If I were you I would go to a local RV center and look at, and price out, some units that would meet your needs. I can tell you though that they won't be cheap, nor will they be small. Sorry!

 

[N365PA]

We had 6 in a pop-up and anytime as kids we would bring friends, we would bring tents. Throw up a tent behind the popup and voila. More space. If you get a screened in awning (or even closed in awning porch area) you can throw up an air mattress in that area as well.

Clint

 

[tinan]

I agree with others that 9 in a pop up is a lot! We just recently sold our pop up which was one of the largest on the market and it slept 8. Although you could fit 8 bodies in there and with little ones we probably could have squeezed a 9th I couldn't imagine it being comfortable. If you are willing to do as others stated and put a tent with a pop up then that is very doable. While looking for an RV, my husband and I saw a lot of travel trailers that could easily accommodate 9.

 

[Cousin Ed C]

A pop-up and a nice big tent would fit your needs. I can't think of any RV in which 9 would be comfortable!

 

[bama_ed]

Not to sound like I'm piling on but I agree with the others - I don't think 9 will work in a popup.

Most popups have the two big bunks (duh) and the dinette that converts to sleeping quarters. A few are laid out to have a U-shaped couch on one end in front of the bunk that can be converted to a sleeping arrangement also. But I don't see how you can get to 9. On a weeklong trip, I think it would get old breaking down dinettes and tables for beds then in the morning doing it all in reverse. Every day. Oh, you could do it, sure, but it's not pleasant. And we are storage-challenged with 5 of us in our pup at 1 small suit case/bag per person. I can't imagine 9 bags inside.

You mentioned wanting air-conditioned quarters (I assume for all) so I don't know if the pop-up plus tent strategy will work. For example, if you wanted to come to the Fort during the summer, a tent outside is NOT comfortable sleeping in the evening heat and humidity.

I would suggest you consider a bunkhouse type travel trailer which usually has 4 bunks in the back, a regular bed for mom and dad, a couch, and a dining area that will get you to 9 sleeping inside. Make sure you stay within your tow vehicle limits. But camping is a great family activity so I hope you find a solution that works for you.

Bama Ed

 

[DisneyDiva8401]

We have fit 8 in our pop up which has 4 beds (king, queen, full, twin). With children you can definitely sleep more than 2 in a large bed. We rarely use the tables inside so taking down and setting up tables wasn't a problem. We actually fit more in our pop-up than our grandparents rv. Just set up tent to keep your clothes and stuff in, and anybody that doesn't want to stay in the pop-up can sleep in the tent.

 

[FortForever]

You could probably fit 9 in an 8 person pop-up with young children, just to sleep. As others have suggested, bring a tent along for stuff. We always had one that we kept our clothes in and used as a changing room.

In my experience, pop-ups seem to make better use of space as far as sleeping goes. I've had class C's, pop-ups, and travel trailers. My parents have a huge class A that really only sleeps two.

If you decide to remodel a travel travel, be very careful about ripping stuff out on the inside. Many times that stuff is all that is holding them together. If you start gutting, you could take away all the stability. I'm not going to admit to how I came about this knowledge.

Just a couple of safety notes that the grandma in me feels compelled to mention:

If you get a pop-up, never let anyone in or near it when up until you have safety bars in place for the arms that raise the roof. We had the corner of our roof fall and it could have killed someone. At the time, I didn't even know there were supposed to be support bars (not sure the real name) as our didn't come with any.

If you have young children in the bunk ends, put them in between older kids or build "bunky boards" to make sure they can't slide under the tenting. We had just a thin, painted pieces of plywood on piano hinges that folded down under the mattress. At night, we would fold them upright, where they were held in place by the mattress.

 

[shelby101301]

Ok, let's say you manage to fit everyone in the pop up. Can I just say, the Ac's in a pop up really just take the bare minimum edge off. Meaning you will probably be comfortable at night, but not really during the day. NAND the minute anyone opens the door, the AC has to start all over cooling.

I LOVED our pop up, but for FL camping, we needed something hard sided with a serious AC unit.

Good luck!

 

[steeleshark2]

There are some hybrid models that may work for you.

 

[steeleshark2]

Jayco Jay Feather X23F sleeps 8-10 Gross Weight 4995lbs.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAl1w0j8mzA

Full size trailer no slideout:
Jay Flight Swift 263BH Sleeps 7-9 Gross Weight 6,500lbs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6M5VGTKeefg

This would be one of my favorites if I had your restrictions:
Apex Ultra-Lite 288BHS Gross Weight 7000lbs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1BOqS78NPo


There are several others. You just have to look.

 

[Nixie]

My best advice is to start going to dealerships and take everyone with you (I know it is a pain). Actually walk thru the unit. Put everyone on the beds like how they would be if you were sleeping. Go through the motions of cooking while inside. See if everyone would have a place to sit or hang out if it was raining and you needed to be inside. That will give you a better feel on if everyone will fit or not.

 

[Nixie]

Have you looked at a Rockwood Roo 233S? It would be well within what a 'Burb could tow and could sleep everyone if everyone doubled up. With the couch slide it would be easy to throw a little pack and play or cot in the middle if you had to.

9 in one camper is really pushing it no matter what kind of camper it is. We are a family of 6 and had a heck of a time finding a TT that would sleep us all that was within the tow limits of our vehicle. You will be probably putting up a dinette and couch every single day. Also the other problem you are gonna run into is seating for 9. If everyone has to be inside because it is raining, things are gonna get tight fast. An Add-A-Room added to an awning can help a little with that by making the outside space a little more usable.

 

[way2tyred]

.

 

[steeleshark2]

Thank you all for the replies!

We camp now without AC so I think we would be fine with even the little bit in a popup (we keep our therm at home at 80, even). And we live in humid, hot SE Texas so we are used to high temps.

I'm thinking we would probably leave the "table" as a bed and not bother to put it down.

It's not that tent camping is a horrible pain as much as it is difficult and time consuming to try and pack tents, air mattresses, etc, etc. We are to the point where we need a trailer just to carry gear and so much set up takes forever.

5 of the kids are elementary age and 2 of those are still baby/toddler, so they pack pretty well as sardines

Popups take a bit of setup also. It normally took my wife and I over an hour and that was with a power roof, that would raise it when I was setting up. Also, there is little room to pack inside of a popup since it is folded down into itself. I would definitely look at least in a hybrid like the 1st choice in my last post. I have not seen a single popup that can handle 9 people.

 

[DisneyDiva8401]

How long it takes to set up I guess is unique to each situation. It never takes us over 30 min. To set up or take down. The more you do it, the quicker you get

 

[steeleshark2]

I had several kids which makes for a lot more things to move and stow. The OP is saying 9 total which I am assuming mostly kids. Probably will take a while to set up either way.

 

[FortForever]

We are to the point where we need a trailer just to carry gear and so much set up takes forever.

This is the exact reason for buying our first camper way back in the day. We only had five kids and with a full size G30 van still ran out of space.

Keep in mind you will still likely need to set up a couple of tents. We had one that we kept all clothes in and used it as a changing room. A large screen tent was always a necessity since it was too crowded to eat inside a camper, or in case of rain.

All of our campers made camping easier since I despise dealing with air mattresses. They are heavy, take up a ton of space, and are always developing mystery leaks. Being able to get rid of those made it worth it.

Although we still cooked outside, having a fridge was a huge plus. We still kept drinks in a cooler outside, but I loved being able to pack real perishables in the fridge before we left and know what temp they were being kept at.

As far as the A/C goes in pop-ups, I found it to be more than adequate in ours. We live in Florida, have camped in the hottest part of summer plenty of times, and had the A/C keep it downright cold. I have read of people using tarps over the bunk ends to help with temperature control. There is even a company that sells custom made ones that I believe are called pop-up gizmos. You would have to Google that.

The best thing to do with any camper you think you might be interested in, is go check it out in person. Set up all the beds and see what you think.

ETA: When all the beds were set up on our pop-up, we still had space to set up a pack n' play. Take a tape measure.

 

[Lilliputian]

I'm a mom of 5 who's praying for more. I think you can do it. A lot of your children are young and small, and you're used to camping and not having a lot of personal space. You won't find a pop-up that claims to sleep 9, but you can make it happen.

We had a pop-up years ago that had 2 kings for the bunkends. I don't know what the floorplans are like now, but if you can find that, it's the way to go. You can get 3 little ones in one of the king beds easily. If you had to, you could even put parents in one of the convertible beds and have 6 in the bunkends. That's 8 of you taken care of right there. If the couch and table both convert to beds, you could easily take care of the 9th person. Otherwise, you might just want to use the floor for the 9th person.

A tent for your clothes will work really well. There are some campgrounds that don't allow that, but you could use the car for clothes storage at those campgrounds if you had to. It would be a pain moving everything every time you wanted to use the car, but it would work.

Since you're used to tent camping, your main plan can be to use the tent for the older ones except when the weather is really bad, whether that means very cold, very hot, or rain. We have 5 boys, the oldest of whom is 10, and we intend to start putting the older boys in a tent in a few years. Actually, we've even thought about trading in our travel trailer for a pop-up when our family gets too big. Because of the big bunkends that pull out and don't take up floor space, pop-ups seem to be a little better at packing people in with a small amount of space (and weight).

The unfortunate truth is that we big families can't haul the biggest RVs because our cars don't have the towing capacity. We have a 12 passenger Nissan NV. We really love the Forest River Salem 26 TBUD that we tow, but we can't go any heavier or longer than that. You may want to look into that if you decide that you want something with hard sides. It has 3 bunks, and while the bunks are tiny, you can fit 2 tiny people in one of them. There's a queen bed in the "master," plus the table converts to a double and the couch folds out to a small bed. That's an advertised 8 person sleeping capacity, and it's easy to file one more in. The layout has a lot of empty floor space, too. Someone sleeping on the floor can even use an air mattress.