DoGMAtix
Senior Member
I’ll preface this post by saying that I’ve spent quite a lot of time looking through this web site and have gotten a lot of useful information in preparation for buying our first *used* pop up camper. I apologize in advance for posing some questions that have been answered to some degree in other posts, but I’m hoping to get as much information specific to our situation as possible; if something directly relevant has been posted previously a link would be appreciated.
My wife and I have 21 month-old twins and are looking for a camper to take us through the indefinite future (we’re stopping at just the 2 kids). We're used to backpacking in the mountains and exploring canyon country, and need something that's relatively light and strong, and won't break on rough high-clearance roads - since we live in Albuquerque, we're within easy striking distance of the southern CO Rockies and Canyonlands. We need adequate space for sleeping, storage, and (slightly less important) somewhere for the kids to sit and do art projects and such when the weather isn't conducive to sitting outside. We've got a 3/4 ton short bed diesel truck (Ram 2500) with rear suspension air bags, which should have no problem taking a relatively lightweight 8' camper with the tailgate down. After reading a lot of posts on this site and talking to some very helpful folks at FWC and Hallmark it seems like we've narrowed down to 4WC Grandby vs one of the 8' models made by Hallmark. It seems like the tradeoff is that the 4WC is more lightweight and streamlined (we're climbers and mountain bikers and have a thing for lightweight, streamlined, well-engineered gear) and the Hallmark is a bit heavier and more luxurious (but still not too heavy for our truck as long as we don't pack TOO heavy). We still need to get inside a Hallmark to verify our impressions, but they seem to have a more living-roomish feel, which isn’t what my wife and I would normally gravitate toward but may not be a bad thing trying to maintain “creature” comfort for the kids.
SO, our current list of questions for those who have relevant experience (either with kids or similar needs) include the following:
1) What works/ does not work for sleeping space for 2 adults and 2 growing kids/ teenagers (or might as well ask, for 4 adults)? We'd love to find a front dinette Grandby, which seems to have comfortable seating for 4 and two nice big beds (the lower bed is 48 x 77 inches, vs 35 x 73 for the rollover couch model; I believe the side dinette bed is smaller yet and probably wouldn’t serve our purposes). Stan at 4WC says there’s an edging section of cushion along the wall of the rollover couch that can be made flush with the couch to widen the bed by maybe 8-10 inches. Hallmark’s side dinette bed conversion is 39 x 74 inches, which would be OK for kids, at least until they get bigger, and Hallmark does a hammock mod so that if the twins prefer a bunk bed configuration that would be an option. Anyone have experiences (good or bad) with any of these arrangements? By the way, I'm just shy of 5'10" and my wife is about 5'7" so we don't expect to be raising giants.
2) Any thoughts on sitting/ hanging out arrangements for a family of 4? Seems like the rollover couch won’t allow for comfortable family meals or much in the way of art/ homework sessions for the kids, so we’re leaning toward a dinette model. Though (again) we’d love to get a front dinette Grandby, these are very hard to come by used and we’re not in a position to buy one new, so we’ve pretty much given up on this as an option. Our main question is whether the side dinette Hallmark is roomy enough for a family of 4 to eat comfortably, and for 2 kids to spread out with projects. Or, has anyone done a table modification on a rollover couch Grandby that would work well for the above activities? We realize that the best solution is to sit outside, weather and bugs permitting, but we know the environments we’re planning to spend time in and we do need a good functional interior setup regardless.
3) Regarding storage, we’re pretty much convinced that a shorter camper (such as the 4WC Hawk) won’t meet our needs, unless someone has come up with some pretty innovative storage modifications. Anyone have any successful experience raising kids doing long trips in one of these? Even if we buy an 8’ camper I’m sure we’ll hit storage limitations pretty quickly, so we’d appreciate any general comments on storage specific to kids in campers that would be good to know before buying.
4) Any other experiences with basic configuration specific to family life (fridges, electricity/water limitations, toilet vs porta potty, etc) that would help us get things as close to right as possible the first time round, so we don’t end up having to do a lot of expensive/awkward mods or (worse yet) have to sell what we buy within a relatively short time and start looking all over again? We’ve pretty much determined we’ll need solar given our off the grid needs and will plan on 200W worth of panels, but we don’t need to get into that discussion here because it’s well documented elsewhere. Ditto for fridges, unless someone has advice that’s specific to families with kids.
Thanks in advance for sharing the WTW wisdom!
- Dave
My wife and I have 21 month-old twins and are looking for a camper to take us through the indefinite future (we’re stopping at just the 2 kids). We're used to backpacking in the mountains and exploring canyon country, and need something that's relatively light and strong, and won't break on rough high-clearance roads - since we live in Albuquerque, we're within easy striking distance of the southern CO Rockies and Canyonlands. We need adequate space for sleeping, storage, and (slightly less important) somewhere for the kids to sit and do art projects and such when the weather isn't conducive to sitting outside. We've got a 3/4 ton short bed diesel truck (Ram 2500) with rear suspension air bags, which should have no problem taking a relatively lightweight 8' camper with the tailgate down. After reading a lot of posts on this site and talking to some very helpful folks at FWC and Hallmark it seems like we've narrowed down to 4WC Grandby vs one of the 8' models made by Hallmark. It seems like the tradeoff is that the 4WC is more lightweight and streamlined (we're climbers and mountain bikers and have a thing for lightweight, streamlined, well-engineered gear) and the Hallmark is a bit heavier and more luxurious (but still not too heavy for our truck as long as we don't pack TOO heavy). We still need to get inside a Hallmark to verify our impressions, but they seem to have a more living-roomish feel, which isn’t what my wife and I would normally gravitate toward but may not be a bad thing trying to maintain “creature” comfort for the kids.
SO, our current list of questions for those who have relevant experience (either with kids or similar needs) include the following:
1) What works/ does not work for sleeping space for 2 adults and 2 growing kids/ teenagers (or might as well ask, for 4 adults)? We'd love to find a front dinette Grandby, which seems to have comfortable seating for 4 and two nice big beds (the lower bed is 48 x 77 inches, vs 35 x 73 for the rollover couch model; I believe the side dinette bed is smaller yet and probably wouldn’t serve our purposes). Stan at 4WC says there’s an edging section of cushion along the wall of the rollover couch that can be made flush with the couch to widen the bed by maybe 8-10 inches. Hallmark’s side dinette bed conversion is 39 x 74 inches, which would be OK for kids, at least until they get bigger, and Hallmark does a hammock mod so that if the twins prefer a bunk bed configuration that would be an option. Anyone have experiences (good or bad) with any of these arrangements? By the way, I'm just shy of 5'10" and my wife is about 5'7" so we don't expect to be raising giants.
2) Any thoughts on sitting/ hanging out arrangements for a family of 4? Seems like the rollover couch won’t allow for comfortable family meals or much in the way of art/ homework sessions for the kids, so we’re leaning toward a dinette model. Though (again) we’d love to get a front dinette Grandby, these are very hard to come by used and we’re not in a position to buy one new, so we’ve pretty much given up on this as an option. Our main question is whether the side dinette Hallmark is roomy enough for a family of 4 to eat comfortably, and for 2 kids to spread out with projects. Or, has anyone done a table modification on a rollover couch Grandby that would work well for the above activities? We realize that the best solution is to sit outside, weather and bugs permitting, but we know the environments we’re planning to spend time in and we do need a good functional interior setup regardless.
3) Regarding storage, we’re pretty much convinced that a shorter camper (such as the 4WC Hawk) won’t meet our needs, unless someone has come up with some pretty innovative storage modifications. Anyone have any successful experience raising kids doing long trips in one of these? Even if we buy an 8’ camper I’m sure we’ll hit storage limitations pretty quickly, so we’d appreciate any general comments on storage specific to kids in campers that would be good to know before buying.
4) Any other experiences with basic configuration specific to family life (fridges, electricity/water limitations, toilet vs porta potty, etc) that would help us get things as close to right as possible the first time round, so we don’t end up having to do a lot of expensive/awkward mods or (worse yet) have to sell what we buy within a relatively short time and start looking all over again? We’ve pretty much determined we’ll need solar given our off the grid needs and will plan on 200W worth of panels, but we don’t need to get into that discussion here because it’s well documented elsewhere. Ditto for fridges, unless someone has advice that’s specific to families with kids.
Thanks in advance for sharing the WTW wisdom!
- Dave
