TM - ease of setup?

gcubed's question about moving from a folding TM to an Elkmont prompted me to ask this question...for those of you who have had a traditional canvas pop-up, how do the folding TMs compare to pop-ups for ease of setup?

We had a Jayco 10' pop-up for 4 years and thoroughly enjoyed it, though the hassle of setup and break down grew tiring after a while.

Obviously, a TM is more work than a travel trailer, but how much less work is it than a pop-up?

We are not in a financial position at this time to even consider a well-used trailer, but we're hopeful for next year. I just think about it a lot!

over 22 years my wife and I went from 1 to 3 and down to no kids. During that time we went through a Wheel Camper, a Coleman and Jayco Jayking popups.

I think the Trailmanor 2720SL takes a little more work but its worth it. We love the additional space, full bath facility, hard sides that aren't damp in the rain, etc.

I have camped with my brother and his standard trailer. Its convenient to go in to it anytime but it has drawbacks. Lots of wind resistance, needs a big hauler to pull it, etc. It does take the same amount of time to level, stabilize, connect to water, sewer and electric, turn on propane, unhitch.

My best advice is to go to a dealer that has a TM, preferrably a used one and set it up and take it down.

Honestly, no one can answer the question but you. Find a TM (dealer, friend, whatever) and go through the setup routine yourself. I am 68 years old and have absolutely no problem setting it up by myself. But we all are different, so you need to try one for yourself and make your own decision.

When we first started looking at campers we were going to go the popup route. Honestly, the bathroom was the big issue with me, because I knew when the pardette wanted a private moment, I was going to have to be forced to 'walk the dogs.'

However, it became really obvious that the Hi-Lo and the TM were the best way to go. Certainly the Chalets can enter into that mix or maybe the Casitas (though not a popup, but really light). Now that Hi-Lo is gone, it really leaves the market to TM.

As far as set up and knockdown is concerned among popups and TM, TM has everyone beat hands down. There just isn't anything as nice or as easy as a TM to setup.

Once you have the TM up, its pretty much like any other TT. It is not a anything like a canvas trailer and why the TM can be popular. Most popups have wet baths, which are not really that bad, but not that nice either. Not only that you have fulltime beds that only need the pillows removed to foldup the unit.

The biggest negative to all the trailers like these is that everything must be cleared from the tabletops before closing the unit. The truth is you really can't leave things on tabletops in a conventional trailer either, but they are little more forgiving of this than popup styles are.

Since the government seems hell bent not to drill here and little will be done to control spending, I expect high gas prices will be around through 2012 and beyond. We are keeping our 3326 because it is the most fuel efficient TT out there today...

Like mentioned above, see if you can find one on a lot somewhere and try it out. We traded a pop-up in on our 3124KS. It was a big Coleman (14' box) with hard-wall wet bath, microwave, furnace, fridge (much like our TM), and king beds on either end. Thing was a monster to crank up, beds were heavy when you got them pulled out and then had to raise them slightly to brace them.

In our opinion, the TM is much easier - raising the shells could be considered to be the 'hardest' (and I use that term loosely) part but with the way the torsion bars work, it's really pretty easy.

Then, when it's time to pack up and go home, you have to get all that canvas stuffed back underneath the top of a pop-up. And if it's wet, it's even worse. Taking down the TM is a breeze. Like others have mentioned, everything has to be stored below countertop level, but that's true of a pop-up also.

We can actually have the TM set up completely (including the water and electric being connected) in about 10 minutes after backing into a site. Took us at least 15 minutes with the pop-up.

Regards,

Bob

I spend more time getting my TM level, level enough to fry an egg in the middle of a frying pan, than I do popping the TM open and setting up the wardrobe, bath walls and hanging cabinets.

Backing in sometimes takes longer than either one, and I am pretty good at backing.

Then there was the time I made a 19 point u-turn with a 22 foot truck and the 27 foot TM amongst the trees that easily took half an hour. I wish I had a video of that one.

[countrygirl]

I wish someone had taped the 19 point U turn.

Originally Posted by fallsrider

gcubed's question about moving from a folding TM to an Elkmont prompted me to ask this question...for those of you who have had a traditional canvas pop-up, how do the folding TMs compare to pop-ups for ease of setup?

We had a Jayco 10' pop-up for 4 years and thoroughly enjoyed it, though the hassle of setup and break down grew tiring after a while.

Obviously, a TM is more work than a travel trailer, but how much less work is it than a pop-up?

We are not in a financial position at this time to even consider a well-used trailer, but we're hopeful for next year. I just think about it a lot!

On one of our Forums there was a video of setting up and taking down a TM anyone know how to find it???

[scrubjaysnest]

Originally Posted by fallsrider

gcubed's question about moving from a folding TM to an Elkmont prompted me to ask this question...for those of you who have had a traditional canvas pop-up, how do the folding TMs compare to pop-ups for ease of setup?

We had a Jayco 10' pop-up for 4 years and thoroughly enjoyed it, though the hassle of setup and break down grew tiring after a while.

Obviously, a TM is more work than a travel trailer, but how much less work is it than a pop-up?

We are not in a financial position at this time to even consider a well-used trailer, but we're hopeful for next year. I just think about it a lot!

We traded up from a pop-up to the TM last Oct., set is just a little different.

[Barb&Tim]

On one of our Forums there was a video . .. . snip

Easier to just use Google/Video and search for trailmanor