Cold weather camping limits

[Itwrx]

What are the limitations of cold weather camping? Can you camp where it may snow? Or anywhere as long as it stays above freezing? How does the canvas react to cold weather?

[Decon Blue]

Could of weather ?

[bikendan]

Popups have very little insulation values. Canvas has virtually none.
I owned 2 of them so I know.
You could use Popup Gizmos and Reflectix to try to retain as heat as possible.

[Itwrx]

Originally Posted by Decon Blue

Could of weather ?

Lol. COLD WEATHER. don’t know where the could of came from. I guess auto correct
That will teach me to pay more attention when typing on my phone.

[rsdata]

pop ups in cold/wet weather suffer from condensation on the inside, mostly from the water vapor from your breathing condensing on the cold vinyl/canvas on the tent ends. Also your body heat against a cold mattress will often condense against the colder outside surface under your bunk and cause a damp mattress. Keeping air moving in the tent ends helps, as does putting some insulation board under the mattress.

As was mentioned, if you want to extend your camping season, then look into getting Popup Gizmos to cover the tent ends (outside) and add reflectix insulation (inside) to the tent ends...

Of course you have to worry about freezing a fresh water tank.

There are many threads on here about what some owners have done to insulate and prepare for some cold weather camping. Do a search...

[TheGerman]

Also, the poor insulation makes the heater run a lot, which uses quite a bit of gas and the heater blower drains the battery if you don't have hookups.

[NMWildcat]

We backpack in freezing weather and have appropriate gear. We used to have a pop-up that we used all year long. Not much difference between sleeping in a one man tent with a good sleeping bag, and using that same bag in a pop-up during cold weather. The main difference for a pop-up is having enough insulation UNDER you.

We mainly used the little heater to warm things up in the morning. The heater will never keep up overnight when it is really cold. As far as the water tank, if it was really cold, we just drained it and used bottled water we kept from freezing in ice chests.

There were a few times we would wake during the night and beat the snow off the canvas as it grew heavy. Same as a tent. Never had much problem with condensation as we made sure to ventilate (same as a tent). A few times we would place towels at edges to catch drips before they reached bedding.

When packing up, we always waited for the sun to warm the canvas and vinyl windows at least a little bit. When we got home we would open it up and ensure all was dry before storing.

Never had any damage to the canvas from winter usage. Sold the pop-up after several years for something bigger, and less noisy in the wind. Getting older changes lots of things.

The only limitations are what you need for the level of comfort you are trying to attain.

I do miss camping for weeks in some of those spots that we could get the pop-up in.

[wmtire]

Originally Posted by Itwrx

Lol. COLD WEATHER. don’t know where the could of came from. I guess auto correct
That will teach me to pay more attention when typing on my phone.

I edited the title for you.

[IsleDog]

the plastic windows do not like to be messed with when the temps reach around 10 or so. that was in the manual for our popup.

[JohnD10]

Originally Posted by Itwrx

Lol. COLD WEATHER. don’t know where the could of came from. I guess auto correct
That will teach me to pay more attention when typing on my phone.

Funny that 'auto correct' put in 'could of' instead of 'could have' or 'could'a '...

[Mike91]

I've had 4 campers altogether, 2 pop ups and 2 travel trailers.

I've done as much camping in colder weather as warmer weather mainly because I can get into nicer state park campgrounds easier, and in better sites. Plus I have less family events going on in the colder months as the warmer months.

Being so, my campers have usually been still winterized so the bathrooms and sinks are none functional.

What I usually do, especially if my wife and daughter comes along, is to put up a potty/shower tent and put a porti potty in it. Usually the campground toilets are very nasty and unkept since it's the off season. Showers are better, but can be busy since only the family bathroom/shower room is open.

Also, I had a Starcraft pop up with aqualon tenting. I should had not let snow get on the bunkends. Since this is a vinyl that is soaked into the material opposed to a vinyl coated material, it has no elasticity, and has a very bad memory. Snow on my bunks must have opened all the needle holes and they never closed up. Later in warmer months, water literally POURED in through the needle holes and never was able to get them to seal up properly. Bunkends were both replaced, then I went to a Travel Trailer right after.

Had snow on my Rockwood bunkends, which had vinolon, vinyl coated material, and never an issue with them ever leaking.

I would now never open up in times where it's possible to get snow.

Also vinyl windows will crack in very cold temps. I really wouldn't want to camp in lower than 40 degree temps with maybe lows at night in the 30s. Just wouldn't be that much fun when it's colder than that anyhow.

Always open up a small corner in a window of each bunkend so that there's air circulation to keep condensation from happening. Never had an issue with condensation doing this.

Good luck.