Hello! Got my first popup this week!!!

[Ceniza11]

Hello all!!

Excited to be here! My husband went all-in and got me a pop-up camper for my birthday which is coming up next week! It's been a dream to own one for years! Can't wait to use it. It is a 2004 Fleetwood Tacoma in excellent condition. Any tips or advice for our first trip during Thanksgiving to Falls Lake in NC is appreciated!!!

Mari

 

[NMroamer]

Do a camp driveway first to get to know your camper.

 

[Ceniza11]

Do a camp driveway first to get to know your camper.

That's a good idea!! Thank you!

 

[grandpa mikey]

Congrats and enjoy.. wow

 

[BikeNFish]

Hello and welcome from Minnesota!

 

[kcsa75]

Greetings! Congratulations on the N2U Pup and Welcome to the forum from Midway USA.

 

[Camping Party of 2]

Welcome from NC

 

[WrkrBee]

Welcome to the Portal from South Carolina.

 

[bols2Dawall]

Welcome , does yours have the Alumtite roof ( dual racks) ? If so use the search button here on how to bulletproof it to prevent future leaks . Have fun

 

[flingwing1969]

Welcome. Check the date on the tires and make sure they are no older than 5 years and, even then, check them for cracks and abnormal wear - include your spare in the check over. Charge the battery(s) fully and then check it to make sure it holds a charge (at least 12.6 volts) and disconnect it from the camper and check it a few days later to make sure it is holding up well. Run a bleach/water mixture into your fresh water tank (if you have one) and leave it there overnight. Next day, run your pump with every outlet open (faucet and shower, for example) then shut each outlet and wait a few seconds (your pump should turn off and you have not checked your pressure switch on the pump). Wait 15 minutes or so to make sure your pump does not come back on and run for a few seconds - if it does, you might have a leak somewhere to find and fix. Turn off your pump and let the bleach mixture sit overnight. Drain your tank of the mild bleach mixture and refill with fresh water then run that water through your outlets to flush out the bleach.

Check your lights for operation. Check the safety switch under the galley to make sure the lights switch off - turn on a light then lift the galley as if you were packing up and the light should go out. Put the galley back down and the light should come back on. Speaking of lights, of course check all of you PUP's running lights with your towing vehicle attached - brake lights, side lights, tail lights, turn signals. Check your brakes for operation - there are a number of ways to do this I personally like to jack up one wheel with the towing vehicle (TV) attached and hit the brake and have someone turn the wheel, if it locks up you are good now check the other one. Speaking of brakes, make sure you have a good proportional brake controller on your TV. You should then check to see what adjustment on the brake controller is just right . Drive slowly (about 25 mph) on a dry, level surface, such as an empty parking lot. If it takes too long for your vehicle to stop when your trailer is attached, increase the braking intensity output of your brake controller. If your trailer brakes lock up, gradually decrease the braking intensity output. Ideally, you want your trailer brakes to have maximum braking power without the wheels locking up. Remember that setting as it will be the same with the PUP loaded the same way.

If you have a water heater (it was optional on your PUP) and hot water is important to you, you should test it for operation. Fill it when you are doing your cleansing of the water lines by opening the hot water tap with the pump on and the valves to and from the water heater open. You will hear air coming out of the faucet as it fills - it holds 6 gallons. Once you are getting a nice stream of water from the faucet, the water heater is full and you can close the faucet. Then turn on your propane and light your heater. Let it run for a while and see if it heated the water, if so it is good to go. Turn the heater off and let it cool (if you let it get hot and not jujst warm). Once cool park it where water running out of it won't do much harm and remove the sacrificial anode rod in the heather (the big nut behind the water heater door that you opened to light the heater) open the hot faucet and water will run out of the heater (6 gallons, remember). If the anode is pretty much intact, put some teflon tape on the threads and put it back in - be careful not to cross-thread because the rod is long it is front heavy and tries to pull the nut out of alignment.

You might want to consider greasing the wheel bearings but you can also drive 15 miles or so at highway speed and then carefully see if the wheel hubs are hot. Usually they will be cold or only slightly warm which means you are okay to pull the PUP without greasing the bearings for now. You should grease them every few years anyway.

Speaking of lubrication, you should lube your whiffletree and your lift cable pulleys. Here is a manual for your lift system repairs and care and feeding.

Enjoy.

 

[jmkay1]

Welcome from northern Virginia and a fellow Fleetwood owner. All very helpful advice above so I'll just add, take your time, learn from your mistakes, but most of all have fun.

 

[Ladiesman]

Hi and welcome from Chicago

 

[megcabra]

Welcome and greetings from North Carolina to the portal!

 

[Ceniza11]

Welcome , does yours have the Alumtite roof ( dual racks) ? If so use the search button here on how to bulletproof it to prevent future leaks . Have fun

Thanks for the tip! We will do that!

 

[Ceniza11]

WOW! Thank you so much for all the info! We did find an issue with the brake lights which we are getting fixed now. We will do the bleach/water when it comes back along with the checking of the wheels and the whiffletree!

Thanks again!!

 

[flingwing1969]

Congratulations. And welcome.

 

[Suebee222]

Welcome. Check the date on the tires and make sure they are no older than 5 years and, even then, check them for cracks and abnormal wear - include your spare in the check over. Charge the battery(s) fully and then check it to make sure it holds a charge (at least 12.6 volts) and disconnect it from the camper and check it a few days later to make sure it is holding up well. Run a bleach/water mixture into your fresh water tank (if you have one) and leave it there overnight. Next day, run your pump with every outlet open (faucet and shower, for example) then shut each outlet and wait a few seconds (your pump should turn off and you have not checked your pressure switch on the pump). Wait 15 minutes or so to make sure your pump does not come back on and run for a few seconds - if it does, you might have a leak somewhere to find and fix. Turn off your pump and let the bleach mixture sit overnight. Drain your tank of the mild bleach mixture and refill with fresh water then run that water through your outlets to flush out the bleach.

Check your lights for operation. Check the safety switch under the galley to make sure the lights switch off - turn on a light then lift the galley as if you were packing up and the light should go out. Put the galley back down and the light should come back on. Speaking of lights, of course check all of you PUP's running lights with your towing vehicle attached - brake lights, side lights, tail lights, turn signals. Check your brakes for operation - there are a number of ways to do this I personally like to jack up one wheel with the towing vehicle (TV) attached and hit the brake and have someone turn the wheel, if it locks up you are good now check the other one. Speaking of brakes, make sure you have a good proportional brake controller on your TV. You should then check to see what adjustment on the brake controller is just right . Drive slowly (about 25 mph) on a dry, level surface, such as an empty parking lot. If it takes too long for your vehicle to stop when your trailer is attached, increase the braking intensity output of your brake controller. If your trailer brakes lock up, gradually decrease the braking intensity output. Ideally, you want your trailer brakes to have maximum braking power without the wheels locking up. Remember that setting as it will be the same with the PUP loaded the same way.

If you have a water heater (it was optional on your PUP) and hot water is important to you, you should test it for operation. Fill it when you are doing your cleansing of the water lines by opening the hot water tap with the pump on and the valves to and from the water heater open. You will hear air coming out of the faucet as it fills - it holds 6 gallons. Once you are getting a nice stream of water from the faucet, the water heater is full and you can close the faucet. Then turn on your propane and light your heater. Let it run for a while and see if it heated the water, if so it is good to go. Turn the heater off and let it cool (if you let it get hot and not jujst warm). Once cool park it where water running out of it won't do much harm and remove the sacrificial anode rod in the heather (the big nut behind the water heater door that you opened to light the heater) open the hot faucet and water will run out of the heater (6 gallons, remember). If the anode is pretty much intact, put some teflon tape on the threads and put it back in - be careful not to cross-thread because the rod is long it is front heavy and tries to pull the nut out of alignment.

You might want to consider greasing the wheel bearings but you can also drive 15 miles or so at highway speed and then carefully see if the wheel hubs are hot. Usually they will be cold or only slightly warm which means you are okay to pull the PUP without greasing the bearings for now. You should grease them every few years anyway.

Speaking of lubrication, you should lube your whiffletree and your lift cable pulleys. Here is a manual for your lift system repairs and care and feeding.

Enjoy.

Wow!! This is fantastic information and advice. Concise and informative! Even though much of it doesn't apply to my ancient(1984) Bonair (Canadian) pup, a lot of it does.

 

[60man]

Hello and welcome from Buffalo NY. So much great advice above, I can only add dont force anything when putting up or taking down, and it is okay to practice backing up in a parking lot.
Have fun.

 

[MOSCDENC]

Falls Lake will be a nice place to go. It is not in the middle of nowhere so if something happens civilization isn't too far. Like "crud I packed everything for tacos, but the ground meat..." There is a reason I'm so specific about that

Lots of good tips so far. I'll add a couple based on my errors thus far.

1) Packs two sets of keys to the camper. I keep a spare set in the glove compartment.
2) Do the same with the crank. Past spring we went to Morrow Mountain (nice and remote) and I had forgot to pack the box of camper bits, which had both cranks in it. Thankfully was a big enough place that I ran across someone who had one and was gracious enough let me borrow it. From then on one crank in the TV and one in the camper.

Welcome from Wilmington, NC