Since having our son last year, my wife stated she no longer wants to tent camp with a little one. I can't say as I blame her all that much, but I also don't think it's as bad as she thinks it'll be. Plus, another year and my son will be old enough to make camping easier. She really wants the "Marriot" camper in the woods, but that would mean the bronco doesn't go with us, plus we can't afford that. So I am looking at the other end of the spectrum. A small pop-up on the front of a bumper-pull trailer. Which might work out well for me in regards to a trailer upgrade. I have a 7k trailer now, but would like to upgrade to at least a 10k or more because my bronco is right at the max hauling capacity now. I'd like to be able to haul someone's broke down tow-rig if needed. However, when you add 1500lbs of camper to the front, I almost need to go to more capacity.

I am looking for something like this in the end:

Probably face the door of my camper towards the rear if I can find a camper small enough to fit sideways.

Anyway, I know trailers pretty well and know what I want, but trying to figure out the length I'd need to haul the camper and the bronco is a little tougher. My bronco is 14ft end to end, but I'd only need about 12ft of deck space. That's from the rear tire to the front of the front bumper.

Also, don't know the first thing about pop-ups, but are probably going to buy used, so would like any pointers there. This is not likely something that will happen this year, but hopefully maybe over the winter when camper prices aren't so hot.

Another option maybe to get a really nice 16ft car hauler and weld on a hitch to it to pull the pop-up. Anyone ever done this? I could then get a somewhat larger pop-up and have the versatility to just pull it if we were only going ing, or pull both if I wanted both. And maybe even use the bronco to pull the pop-up if the road got a little rough for my truck.

Anyway, just wanted to open the discussion up. Thanks!

J.D.

Why not get a camper for the bed of the truck instead?

I have considered that, but I don't want to fool with removing my topper, loading and unloading the camper and reinstalling my topper. Too much effort each time and I can't fit in the garage with anything higher than the can either so leaving the camper on isn't an option either, nor does it look nice.

J.D.

You have some valid points. If my HOA would allow me to store things in my yard, then it wouldn't be as big of a deal. Still I don't want to fool with removing the topper and installing camper each trip. There is enough to do to get ready. Now, if money grew on trees, and I could get a dedicated truck for camping that would still tow the bronco...

J.D.

Another idea would be a trailer to haul the Bronco and tow the pop up behind the trailer. I would imagine this has been done.

Well, we did it. We bought a 12ft camper last night. It's a 2005 Rockwood Premier Pop-up. Has a slide out for the kitchen table and offers a fair bit of room! While it's too long to fit on a trailer, I think I am content with pulling doubles when the bronco has to go with. I just need to procure a heavier trailer to add the hitch and extra wiring to. Don't know a thing about pop-ups, so we'll figure it out as we go. As long as I can get the heat to work and we have food, I am sure we'll survive. Ours does not have a shower in it, but it does have hot water and A/C.




It wasn't as well kept as I would have hoped, but it was the best deal we could find within the last few days.

My goal is to look at the suspension difference between ours and the off-road versions and see if I can lift ours up and maybe put taller tires on it.

J.D.

Congrats on the popup addition, after many years waking up with a flat air mattress we decided to take the plunge and go pop up back in 96. You could do an axle flip from the top of the springs to the bottom. Thats what the off road lift consisted of for my old Coleman popup anyway. I never did tow it behind my EB because I don't like towing with the locker in the rear but thats just me. Mine was pretty good sized so limited off roading even behind my 83 full size Bronco. My brother in law had an old Coleman that we used to tow off road and it worked great as a base camp a few times when we were in the San Juans wheeling for a week.

Thanks!

It's got torsion axles, so a lift is a little more involved than SOA, but certainly on the to do list! Larger tires too. Would love to find some nice wheels, but ain't going to get too carried away.

Would really love to camo wrap it, even the wife said the one I found looked cool, but again, don't want to pour money into this thing.

J.D.

Here's my setup from the weekend:


7.5 miles above Cottonwood lake. Nice setup, but was getting worried at 10pm when we couldn't find a camping spot. Turned out great, would have been perfect had we been allowed to have a campfire.

How'd it work for you? Looks like you got a pretty nice spot.

It worked great. First night was cold and the heater couldn't keep up and we didn't have enough blankets. But the second night was nice. Pretty comfortable to sleep on although we may see if we can find a thin memory foam topper. We spent a lot of saturday napping and organizing the trailer. Just have a few more odds and ends to wrap up and she'll be as good as she can be.

Yeah ended up having a great spot, although would have been nice to have been off the road a ways. When I go camping I'd prefer not to see another soul! Part of the reason I got into wheeling!

J.D.

PS anyone know what size extension cord I should be running on it to power everything including the A/C should we ever hook up? I bought a 12/3 last night, but was hoping to find a 10/3.

resurrecting this thread...............

J.D. - did you ever end up towing the pop-up behind a trailer with your EB on it ? If so, how did you like it, etc ?

I was thinking about a long trailer to mount a pop-up on and carry an EB around but then your stuck trying to get that long ol trailer up a trail.

I don't think a truck camper will work for my family as they aren't big enough for 4 and I would like to throw a couple dirt bikes in the bed of the pick up.

So it seems a short trailer for the EB with the pop-up tagging along behind would be the best for me.

Just a bit nervous about how it would tow, etc.

No, I never did end up pulling it all at once. I have been wanting to, just didn't have the time or need to justify it. Maybe this summer, but we'll probably be selling the pop-up. I will let you know if i do. Just need a couple hours to kill to get it all hooked up and a test drive...