The very first camper Peggy and I bought as a couple was an ancient Jayco pop-up trailer that we bought for $500 from a friend. That trailer got hauled all over the place and, while nothing in it worked, it was still better than sleeping in a tent. To us.

And that’s some of the thinking in a new line of pop-up tent trailers from Rockwood. Except a big difference is that everything works.

While you might think of Rockwood as making premium travel trailers they have also produced more affordable pop-up trailers for years and years. Now there is the Freedom series which is the most affordable of Rockwood’s tent campers but with features that may be appreciated by owners.

Why a tent camper?

There are actually a lot of great reasons to buy a pop-up tent camper. Potentially the largest reason is that they are relatively light weight. But, more importantly, when they are in the travel mode they sit completely behind the tow vehicle so they create much less wind resistance.

While everything you tow is going to have some wind resistance, a traditional travel trailer is actually quite the air dam. These are much less so.

Vehicles that may not be otherwise able to tow a traditional travel trailer could very well be able to tow these.

A lot of people ask what kind of mileage one gets when towing a traditional travel trailer and the answer is almost invariable 8-12 miles per gallon. This is simply because the size of the tow vehicle’s engine is almost less of a factor than the tremendous amount of energy it takes to overcome wind resistance when towing.

Tent trailers also easily fit into garages and carports. This means far less exposure to weather. Pretty great.

Of course these are also far less expensive than a traditional trailer which is a bonus.

What’s inside

These are actually good units for families. Each end of the camper has a pop-out bed and I got on the bed to test it. The supports underneath the plywood base are pretty substantial and even with my gravity-challenging physique everything felt solid.

That was quite different than what our old Jayco felt like but, to be fair, that old Jayco had seen a lot of years of camping and several of neglect.

The mattress on the front of the trailer is a full 60” X 80” queen-sized bed and the one at the back measures 48” X 80. When folded into a bed, the dinette is 40” X 74”.

The canvas cover over each end of the trailer also has a netted storage bag so you could throw your coats or digital distractions up there and be just fine.

Note that the mattress on each end is also heated so if you’re concerned about a chill in the night, a nice heated sleeping surface can alleviate that. There’s also a furnace in this trailer.

If you’re bringing the whole crew there’s also a gaucho in this that can convert to a bed. And, of course, the four-person dinette can do so as well.

Meal prep

Of course there’s a kitchen in here with a two-burner stove. A very small bar-sized fridge (check if this is 12 volt) sits under the counter and there’s also a sink.

Since the whole roof comes down on this the kitchen is sort of a two-piece affair where the stove and sink have to be lifted down onto the floor for transport. They’re not overly heavy so this is no big deal.

As with most Rockwood products this also comes with an outside griddle which I use quite frequently. There’s a rail along the exterior of this trailer into which the griddle slots along with a companion metal table.

One of the things that makes this trailer stand out is that, even though these are very affordable, Rockwood still manages to include a high-performance vent fan in the ceiling. This is called attention to detail.

That’s in tents

One of the things that went wrong in our old pop-up trailer was that the tent canvas was put away wet and then not aired out. This is never a good idea with these. However even in that old trailer it never leaked in the rain.

These new Rockwood trailers use a different tent canvas material that is sectionalized in the event that you need to replace a portion of it. They also carry a five year warranty.

Storage

One of the areas that is not a strong suit of this sort of trailer is storage. But, there is a storage trunk on the front of this model which should suffice for most things.

When Peggy and I had the pop-up trailer we would load those plastic drawer things with what we needed for camping and then place those on the floor during travel. When we got to our destination we’d simply put them on top of the cabinets in the trailer. It worked pretty well.

There are some storage compartments here but if you hope to camp in your tuxedo there isn’t really a place to hang it.

Some thoughts

I think these trailers make a lot of sense for a lot of people. They can easily be towed by what you might be driving today which, by itself, can be a big savings. They also fit into a garage which, again, means no storage costs.

Unlike my old tent trailer these have such luxurious features as a water heater and water pump that actually work.

There is also an awning and even an outdoor shower.

In fact if you get one of the SylvanSport Privy Bivy privacy shelter and a Camco travel toilet to go into that you can really take advantage of the outdoor shower that this trailer is also outfitted with.

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