camper size determines tow rig. Then, do you want to live with a tow rig? Buddy bought a 3/4 ton duramax for their large camper. And drove it 6 miles to work. Said it never got hot during winter drive.
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Iâve owned pop-ups for over 20 years. First one Iâd still own if it wasnât destroyed by my neighbor driving home drunk one night.
Mold problem - You put it down while wet. They are just like tentsâŠthey need to be completely dry when taken down and in storage. I still have a large Canvas tent thatâs almost 40 years old and doesnât have any mold. There were times I had to leave the camper or my tent up for over a week because of rain. It can take 2 days to thoroughly dry.
Critters - Never had a problem. Make sure itâs completely buttoned up. They should not be able to get into a closed pop-up - at least theyâve never been able to get in mine.
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Back when my wife and I still took vacations, our definition of âroughing itâ was staying somewhere that didnât offer poolside service of cocktails and snacks.
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To be clear, Iâm not against campers, RVs, or anything like that. I just think that sometimes folks fall in love with an idea and donât fully consider the cost on the front end. But to each his own.
A while back we were tent camping in a local state park. I was in the bathhouse shaving and showering early one morning. A gentleman walked in to shave as well. We struck up a conversation, and he mentioned he was staying in the (very nice, expensive) RV just across from the bathhouse. At that moment I paused and thought, âwell look at this. One of us is in a cheap tent, the other in a nice RV, yet weâre both using the same bathhouse.â Interesting.
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Yeah. Unless you have one of the really high-dollar bus conversion rigs with a full sized bathroom, RV bathrooms suck. No room whatsoever. Plus, every time you use it youâre creating work for yourself if your black tank enzymes arenât properly balanced. You can end up with a pyramid of human waste and toilet paper in the tank that requires jamming a hose down the toilet to break up, etc.
I had a motor home awhile back. I only used the onboard bathroom when I was set up somewhere that public bathrooms werenât available.
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I looked at a popup with a bathroom. Technically yes they have a bathroom. Not worth the extra money.
When I was a kid we had a '79 Starcraft popup. Exact same bathroom as the first one that guy reviewed, but it didnât have walls. Curtains!
If I hadnât had that experience I would never have thought a Portapotty could be viewed as high luxury.
Anyone remember toilets on train cars: âDo Not Flush While Train is in Stationâ?
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Boston Commuter trains still have them.
Commercial aircraft are the same, or at least were in the 1970âs. One of my friends had a summer job at the airport and someone cleaning the septic tank was drenched when a toilet in the plane was flushed.
At least the passenger bathrooms flow into holding tanks. A lot of single-pilot private jets have a little funnel under the instrument panel so the pilot can urinate without having to leave the controls to go back to the toilet. And that funnel leads to a hose that exits right out the bottom of the plane. Thereâs even a heating element in the hose so that the urine wonât freeze at altitude.
So⊠In a sense, weâre all walking around in an occasional cloud of rich-people pee. 
That was because whatever was in the toilet simply flushed onto the tracks
They also had/have attendants that look like they teleported here from 1890. I havenât ridden the T in some years but when I moved here 18 years ago, I felt like it was a twilight zone episode with the uniform and punchâŠ
We were fishing on a charter boat, the skipper drank a case of beer during the eight hour charter yet never came down from the flying bridge. Made us wonder.
I remember it well: about 10 years old, on a train going west toward the Rockies, holding my foot on the flush lever and looking down at the railroad ties flashing by at, like, 90 MPH.
Excellent answer.I can only add one should install a auxiliary cooler for the automatic transmission, Todayâs cars are built so marginal, and to save weight! So get the largest and place it in front of the A/C condenser. And watch out, some manfârs will try to void the warranty if you pull a trailer⊠make sure that itâs IN WRITING sales folks will tell you anything what they think you want to hear :^(
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Agree I did not think about the transmission cooler as every thing I have owned for many years has been a manual transmission.
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Youâre wise to ask the question, there are objective facts to learn about both about trailers (and campers) and subjective things to learn about yourselves. As the choices are broad and itâs such a big investment, consider talking to people at trade shows, dealerships, and campgrounds, and renting several types and sizes to gain experience. You might love it, or you might find its not for you.
When I was growing up my family tent camped all over the place and loved it, we even had fun in the rain - at some point I bailed on the family tent and my dad got me my own. My parents continued tent camping into their late 70âs when they purchased a Class B camper which they loved for 14yrs, lived in for 3mo. at a time in the southwest dessert for several winters, and they still tent camped when they wanted to feel close to nature. They considered this period a highlight in their lives. My wife and I tent camp on long trips with periodic stays at air B%Bâs (bath tubs!), it keeps things simple, but there might be a small trailer in our future.
As for vehicles, consider one with 3 row seating, to separate toxic kids. We tent camped with a van, friends are happy towing big stuff with Suburban-size SUVâs, and one family towed a Casita trailer (fairly light) for years with Toyota Sienna without a problem.