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Old 03-20-2016, 02:36 PM   #21
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Hybrid Love!

The trailers of my youth had lots of windows that opened so if you didn't have AC you still survived but today's trailers are ovens without AC so if you like to camp in the state parks and other areas with limited hookups you need a tent, popup or hybrid and I like the bathroom and kitchen of my Roo. Can't turtle in a popup or tent and at my age I love to be able to use the bathroom while on the road. (not while driving mind you) No hybrids aren't perfect but they do allow me more freedom and comfort then most other options. Happy Camping!
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Old 03-20-2016, 06:15 PM   #22
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Had a ROO21SS five years. My PUP on steroids. Miss it for all the right reasons especially all the mods I incorporateed. Loved the 'dance floor'. Now I'm just one of the Class C folk.
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Old 03-20-2016, 07:28 PM   #23
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I still prefer the tent

I hunt from a wall tent. My wife wanted a toilet, a kitchen and a shower. Picky. It tows like a dream, I can park my 21' Roo in my yard, or in small campsites designed in the 50's. We can boondock where others are afraid to go. When we open it up, it is like a 27' trailer. With the slideout, there is room for a table in the kitchen. We had looked at a lot of trailers, but when we saw this one, we knew it was what we wanted.
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Old 03-21-2016, 05:59 AM   #24
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I thought about it for a minute and realized for 99% of the world they were absolutely right. The thing is, if you are the 1% that "get it", you realize you get all of the creature comforts, still get to sleep in a tent, and have the utility to sleep extra people, tow less length, and really have less than 5 minutes extra setup time.

I started thinking about how much I like to mess with my camper. I like setting up, I like modding to make it that much more mine, I like figuring out how to pull just one more ounce of utility out of it.

It reminds me of how unique it felt to own a niche vehicle and how fun it was to be able to experience things that others wouldn't appreciate or understand...not that I blame them a bit. It is pretty fun being part of such a unique group.
Hey RooVader! Agreed. We are living in our Palomino 190X Solaire Hybrid. I love it. But then again, like you, I like messing with my camper... I like the tent ends and the fact that we can go into National Forest roads and tight fitting places where bigger tows cannot go.... and then EXPAND.
We are new to this life and "nomad" feels like home.
Happy Trails!
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Old 03-21-2016, 06:10 AM   #25
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Sounds like you haven't used PUGs or the equivalent solar blankets.
If you had, you would have solved both the bright sunlight AND the condensation issues.
bikendan!!! Glad you posted this... What can we do about the condensation... My guy didn't sleep much last night because of the condensation dripping on his head all night.
How did you solve this issue???
Thanks in advance!
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Old 03-21-2016, 06:41 AM   #26
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Can't imagine wanting anything else. Most of our time camping is spent outside, but on days when the weather isn't cooperating, we have a comfortable sofa, reasonably comfortable dinette, plenty of cooking space, and beds for a siesta. The few extra minutes of setup and teardown is more than made up by the ease of towing and storage, and the closer to nature feel of sleeping under canvas.
Granted, we aren't full timers. Strictly weekenders and vacationers. Maybe if we were fulltimers , I would be more concerned about satellite tv, power access steps, auto levelers, wine racks, and...omygawd..can I fit in that space? That's ok. To each their own. Love my IK.
Wine rack, wine rack you say?
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Old 03-21-2016, 06:59 AM   #27
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bikendan!!! Glad you posted this... What can we do about the condensation... My guy didn't sleep much last night because of the condensation dripping on his head all night.
How did you solve this issue???
Thanks in advance!
Disa, search this forum for "popup gizmos" and "reflectix".

Also this link
http://www.popupgizmos.com
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Old 03-21-2016, 08:04 AM   #28
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After reading through this thread I have to ask. Do most of you have leaky bunk ends?
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Old 03-21-2016, 08:04 AM   #29
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No, I would assume most of us don't.
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Old 03-21-2016, 08:08 AM   #30
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That's good. My pop up would leak in the corners when it was a heavy rain. It is a pain when your mattress and sheets get all wet.
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Old 03-21-2016, 08:11 AM   #31
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That's good. My pop up would leak in the corners when it was a heavy rain. It is a pain when your mattress and sheets get all wet.
If the ends were seasoned properly, and care was taken to dry the canvas out before storage, you shouldn't have leaking. Then again, hybrids and popups use essentially the same ends, so by nature hybrids aren't going to be any more or less prone to leakage.
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Old 03-21-2016, 08:17 AM   #32
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I had a Fleetwood with the sunbrella fabric. It seemed to almost just soak through after extended exposure where the water ran off at the ends. The other brands material appears to be more of a vinyl/plastic substance that looks more water proof to me. My 23ikss should be coming in soon and I do plan to season it with a few lite sprays.
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Old 03-21-2016, 09:04 AM   #33
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We went to an RV show in 2008 looking to upgrade from tenting to a high wall pop-up. It was there we discovered hybrids, specifically a Shamrock 183. 2 door fridge, actual bathroom, 3 queen size beds, storage, all in a 20 foot towable.
We gravitate towards state park sites without electric and limited generator hours so we appreciate the openness since we aren't running AC. Love sleeping under canvas with the screens open.
Only way I can see us not having a hybrid is if we full-timed.
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Old 03-21-2016, 10:24 AM   #34
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If the ends were seasoned properly, and care was taken to dry the canvas out before storage, you shouldn't have leaking. Then again, hybrids and popups use essentially the same ends, so by nature hybrids aren't going to be any more or less prone to leakage.
The tents on hybrids and popups are the same, yes, but how they are sealed when closed is not the same.

Popups have a roof that lowers and completely covers the interior. If the roof doesn't leak and the seals around the edge of the roof that contact the main body are in tact they won't leak.

If a hybrid leaks, it's typically going to leak water past the door seals when the bed doors are closed. You have 2 or 3 large holes in the walls that must have good seals. Prior to the current design with permanently attached tents, if water could get past the door seal it would get into the trailer.

I think the vast majority of hybrids do not leak, but when they do it can be very difficult to fix permanently.
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Old 03-21-2016, 12:10 PM   #35
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bikendan!!! Glad you posted this... What can we do about the condensation... My guy didn't sleep much last night because of the condensation dripping on his head all night.
How did you solve this issue???
Thanks in advance!
Have you gone to PUGS website or did a search here on them?

Generally, tent end condensation in hybrids and popups can be solved by:

1. Popup Gizmos - PUGS
2. Allowing for air movement by cracking open a roof vent and opening a corner window flap. Also running the bathroom fan on low will help keep air moving.

Many newbies close up their hybrids like a submarine, at night.
With no air movement, the furnace running and humans exhaling moist air, no wonder they get condensation.
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Old 03-21-2016, 01:14 PM   #36
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Never treated my ROO tent ends but always used PUGS, reflectix inserts in the tent ends as well as the slide windows (for the slide more about extreme heat and cold temps). Condensation was non-existent.
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Old 03-21-2016, 01:42 PM   #37
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I started camping in the 70s with a tent. Later on we move to a truck camper and back to tents. In 1980 we purchased a 31 foot fiver and enjoyed it with the kids. Once the kids moved out and I got sick with West Nile Virus, the fiver was too hard for me to handle and the wife did not want to drive it. We tried tents again, but that did not work very well. We did not do any camping for years. Ops I got sick again and my daughter her family moved in, so the house filled up again. As a New family we decided to start camping again. We started looking at pop-ups but decided that I could not put up by myself. Well we move on to the hybrids. I found a great Kiwi 23B, my wife and I did not open the bunks on one nighters if it was just us. That Kiwi got vandalized in storage. The insurance company totaled the trailer. At this point I found a Roo 23SS on the Internet. The roo is at a different storage lot. The roo has beds for the whole family and only 24 feet. We would have to go to 30 plus feet to get that many beds in a hard side trailer. Also the TV might have to be larger. My current TV is a 1500 Ram, it tows the roo like they were meant for each other. My roo is very easy to set up, it has all the electric stuff. Oh that's to this forum I have many mods to make camping even better, I got the pugs ready for the first trip.
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Old 03-21-2016, 02:07 PM   #38
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I’m with the 99%, hybrids are not for us... We also enjoy camping in state parks next to natural attractions, etc… Although it would be great to drop the bunk-ends & enjoy the sights & sounds of nature (plus keep a better eye on the kids), you also get the (unwanted) sights & sounds of your camping neighbors, stormy weather, loud animals, etc… And campgrounds are only getting more crowded w/campsites closer together...

But our original plan was to buy a (new) $20K hybrid and pair it with a (used) $25K full-size SUV so I spent about a YEAR looking at hybrids… Unfortunately, (fortunately?), I couldn’t find a $25K SUV without Ohio rust and/or high miles. Instead I found a 2 year-old Ram 2500 CC w/no rust, 3000 payload, & balance of warranty for just $14K…

Meanwhile I noticed a large number of gently-used hybrids lining every dealer’s lot while friends/colleagues seemed over-anxious to sell their hybrids to us… After inspecting used units at dealer lots I realized that 99% trade-up because they don’t keep-out the weather or noise very well…

So for the same $20K we bought a gently used 2-slide bunkhouse that is our roomy retreat when the weather turns or when the neighbors talk around their campfires deep into the night... We prepare most of our food outside using our outdoor kitchen & eat under our expansive awning. We also bring a portable awning to place near the fire so we can still enjoy the outdoors in light rains. But when it starts raining horizontal, we retreat indoors where we can still get a good night’s sleep… We live in the country so we like it quiet at night...

In Ohio we've had 4 nights of heavy storms which first chased-away the tent folks, then the popup folks, and then the hybrid folks... During the days we had the CG pool & hiking trails to ourselves so keep buying those hybrids!
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Old 03-21-2016, 02:47 PM   #39
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I had a Fleetwood with the sunbrella fabric. It seemed to almost just soak through after extended exposure where the water ran off at the ends. The other brands material appears to be more of a vinyl/plastic substance that looks more water proof to me. My 23ikss should be coming in soon and I do plan to season it with a few lite sprays.
Light spray is OK, but ensure that you saturate the material and the threads. There should be instructions on seasoning the tent material in the paperwork that comes with the trailer. Read it.
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Old 03-21-2016, 05:34 PM   #40
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After reading through this thread I have to ask. Do most of you have leaky bunk ends?
Ours is a 2014 and we have NOT had any problems at all. I think there was a change in design at year.
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