Trailmanor vs. popup

I have never owned either and am comparing the Trailmanor to a Fleetwood popup with the hardsided bath. For those that have owned both what are the pros and cons of each?

Time time time. We have had three popups before we got our TM. It takes forever to get that popup up in the evening and down in the morning. I'd guess it was taking at least an hour to get the popup ready for the road, a little less time to get it set up. We would stay in a Motel on the road rather than fight getting that thing up at night.

The TM is up in 5 minutes and down in 10 and hooked up to the truck. No cranks, no stuffing the canvas in no fuss. And no %$#@!!! language.

Furthermore the canvas is always getting rips and tears. We replaced canvas on two popups, $700 each time. And were doing constant minor patches. TM has aluminum sides.

Our popup wasn't well balanced and we would get sway. That made driving a white knuckled tense operation especially on wet roads and around semis. The wife refused to drive it in the rain. The TM is a dream to drive, not the slightest hint of sway.

Lastly there is no comparison in the room available and finish of the interior. TM is vastly better. I've yet to see a bathroom that I would want to use in a popup.

We, as you can tell, were just fed up with camping in a popup. We got to the point of hating the idea. Now this took us a while and we do 5000 mile trips every summer so we were pushing that popup past it's design limit. If all you want to do is an occasional weekend then you may find one tolerable. YMMV

BK

There is nothing really wrong with the Fleetwood, but go stand in the TM and you will immediately see the difference. I haven't owned a Fleetwood, but I looked at plenty of them before buying a TM.

The Fleetwood is really a tent camper. Nothing wrong with that just that it is different than the TM. The Fleetwood is also cheaper than a TM and is heavier than a TM.

The Fleetwood hardside bathroom is certainly a lot better than their softside ones, but it pales in comparison to the TM bathroom. The walls of the TM are much more significant.

Probably a better comparison would be to compare the TM against a Hi-Lo. Hi-Los are hardsided trailers like the TM. Again they are significantly heavier than the TM and are cheaper than the TM. Some of the larger Hi-Los have better bathrooms than TMs (at least in my opinion). Again Hi-Los are heavier than TMs which is something to consider if you are planning to go up hills.

The TM, Hi-Lo are not tent campers. These are hardsided trailers that are much tougher than tent campers. I think they are more comfortable and a better value than a Fleetwood.

A good idea at this point is to for you to tell us a little about what you envision doing with your camper and how much you are willing to spend.

We had a very high quality Starcraft tent trailer as our first foray into the world of trailers. The Starcraft was as easy to set up as the TM, but much more difficult to take down, mainly because you have to keep tucking the tent in. The Starcraft did allow some access to the inside when down, the TM needs to be set up. Towing was very similar. The Starcraft had no holding tank for grey water, a major minus. You can compare the features of the tent trailer and the TM forever, but for us the bottom line was...do you like living in a tent? They are very cold and noisy, and flap like crazy in the wind. After using the tent trailer for a year, we sold it and moved to something that we enjoy much more, a TrailManor.

One other thing about tent camping...all it takes is a knife or razor blade to get in.

It's the difference between a tent and a travel trailor. We have owned both. I agree! Go see one, put it up and stand in it. THere is no comparison. Queeniereads

We graduated from a Starcraft to a TM this year. We had the popup for 5 years and enjoyed using it, but found a number of particular things that encouraged us towards the TM.
Someone mentioned the gray water tank. Our Starcraft had a drain, but we had to connect a 15 gal low profile "blue tank" to catch gray water, and then empty it at the end of a weekend. And we typically filled it up. 15 gals of water is no mean feat to lift into the back of a truck or SUV to take to the dump. I actually messed up my back last fall trying to get ours out of the SUV at the dump. Not fond memories.
Second is bears. We camp a lot in the Colorado mountains, and every state park and most if not all Forest Service parks require you to store food in a hardsided vehicle at night and during the day if you are gone from your site. Got really tired of that with the Starcraft.
Third is storage. The Starcraft had storage under the seats, and a small cabinet - but those were easily filled with cooking gear and a few other camping items. No room to store food or clothes when traveling. The TM has the ability for us to load up the trailer and carry almost nothing in the TV. When DW transferred all our gear from the Starcraft to the TM, she was amazed at how much space we still had left to use.
Negative? The 5 yr old Starcraft cost us $4400. Our 5 year old TM was $17000. But well worth the difference.
Hope that helps.
Alan

One other thing - there has been significant discussion here about oven vs microwave in the TM. In just few campouts I've found our oven to be a significant improvement over what we had in our popup (only a 3 burner range). Few popups will have an oven, and having an over makes a world of difference in what and how you eat while camping. Obviously you can't use a microwave while boondocking!

Ditto most of what's been said, especially what PopBeavers said; with a family of 5 we wanted as much bedspace as we could get, and you can't find that in a HiLo that fits in our garage. Aliners and Chalets are not serious options with this many people.

Popups were a serious consideration, and have lots of bedspace for the $ because, like the TM that we bought, they have beds that slide out on both ends. The one we rented had a bathroom, but the TM's bathroom is just so very much nicer. It was hard to get the kids or the DW to get enthusiastic about the popup bathroom, but there is no hesitation at all in the TM. The TM's shower is actually usable also; vs the marine toilet setup in the popup that was laughable. Also, it rained some in the middle of our popup rental camping trip; not enough to be a problem, but enough to open my eyes as to the impending disaster if it rained when I was trying to take it down. That mild little rain did more for encouraging me to look elsewhere than anything else.

We owned a 2004 Fleetwood Sequoia pop-up. It was loaded - Built-in microwave, 6 gallon water heater, hard-side bath, king beds on both ends, furnace, and A/C. Loved camping in it on weekends, but then came the trip from NE Tennessee to Utah.

Let me tell you, it got real old real fast setting up at the end of a long day of driving. Then the take-down the next morning, drive all day, and set up again. It was OK when we stopped for a couple of days in one place. Unless it was windy - May in southern Utah appears to be VERY windy. We actually had a support rod bent from the wind. Not a lot of fun. We travel with three Boston Terriers and worried constantly about them.

It was very easy to tow. But our TM is just as easy if not easier. We have LOTS more room inside (for rainy days). We just feel 'safer' in bad weather. We went to Tucson in March of this past year (very windy in south Texas that time of year, also) - the TM withstood the wind gusts extremely well (up to 55 mph winds).

Pop-up was $9,000 and our current TM was $30,000 - big difference in price BUT we feel like we have a much better camper. TM is so much easier to set up and take down. I wouldn't go back to a pop-up now (I'd give up camping first!).

Any specific questions I can answer re: the specific pop-up we had, feel free to ask.

Bob