Our first trailer was a pop up tent trailer. It was our first step into the RV life. We quickly learned the ins and outs of a traveling with a pop up tent. We had great fun in our pop up tent trailer and traveled many miles. It was just not suited for what we do on vacation. It was easy to take to places we could never have gone with our travel trailer and the gas costs were not nearly as ghastly as running a big truck that pulls a big trailer.

If you use a tent trailer for camping and stay in one place for several days they are a great addition to the camping experience. You have a small fridge that runs on battery, gas, or electric. You have a cooking area an indoor table and sink. They are easy to pull and can go be towed by less expensive vehicles with smaller engines. They will go where big trailers would never could on back roads. What else could you need for that purpose? In my mind the tent pop up campers are just that, campers. They are wonderful for camping but not long for long distances and daily traveling.

If you take your pop up tent out of the camping setting and start traveling across the country you start to understand several things about tent trailers. You have little space for supplies for long trips, you must move all your supplies you can carry to the storage areas inside and to the floor, and you will have to set up and put down your camper at every RV Park every day you travel.

Some of the new larger models now have a bath room but most are only shower curtains and not doors or real enclosures. Some RV Parks charge for a shower and we have been charged up to three dollars a person a day for showers and the bathrooms. Not all parks are this expensive but any extra charge takes away from your vacation money.

This means you will not be able to reach supplies beyond the door when the tent trailer is down and you better remember your medications or any supplies you need from the inside the trailer daily. It may only take several minutes to put up your tent and unless you have done this in a down poor with wind whipping at your heels you can not appreciate the meaning of wet.

When in a storm the inside of the tent can condense moisture on the tent portion of the inside and have the same problems you would get in a normal tent. You will have gas heater but you will still have cold outside air that creates condensation. The heater works fairly well but it is a tent and there will cold air that comes coming inside and the person sleeping on the outer side can become cool in a windy night. In some areas of the country we have stayed, we have wondered if we would blow away or tip over in the strong winds. You can watch the top portion of the tent move in the wind.

I will add that in an RV Park you are packed in close and in a tent type camper you hear every noise made all night long. I might add that they hear every noise you make as well. We always had movies at night and the radio going in the day time.