Pop-top or full caravan?

Gerty Dancer · Guru

Pop-top or full caravan?

Technomad · Senior Member

Hi Gerty, one hell of a blow here too, lost 4 large trees but not one hit anything. Was very extreme and not much different I would say with the full or pop top, in this case. Where you were we had 10 people holding onto a roll out awning for 20 minutes and then it was basically over. Whole town Boulder and Kal lost many trees and Mac Donalds huge sign had a big hole in it. Heard people at Fraser Range are still getting the red dirt out. Possible an advantage with the full van if you are quick enough. Leaving here for home on Sunday morning with a meeting with Dis...... and a sniff of an oportunity at Portland, we hope developes. Have a good trip and be safe.

It will take me the rest of the week to get the super pit out of the pool.

Two more fronts on their way, not as bad though.

-- Edited by Technomad on Tuesday 20th of September 2011 07:30:28 PM

Cruising Granny · Guru

For long term travel I think a full van is better than the pop top.
People have pop tops for a number of reasons. 1. The carport roof is too low for a full van. 2. It's lower profile makes it more economical to tow. 3. More compact to tow, easier to manage.
The Vinyl section makes the van vulnerable to everything, and much more fragile. They are harder to keep warm and cool as the seasons dictate, and even the airconditioner will have to work harder to manage the internal environment.
As you've learned, they are noisier. It's also harder to keep the dirt out of a pop-top.
The vinyl will eventually fall victim to the weather, especially if you're on the road full-time or a long time. The sun's UV will eventually turn the vinyl brittle, and it may even shrink before it begins to crack and break up.
My vinyl roll out awning is 6 inches shorter and narrower than it was when it was installed, purely because it's been rolled out in all weather most of the last 5 years. It's brittle and starting to crack up, and that's before I make the jokes, and before John and Billeee turned up.
The stormy weather that has just crossed SA would have tested everything. I have my awning tied down and strapped, but it did a fair bit of shuddering in the gale-force winds. The rain was good though.

kandagal · Guru

We have previously owned both a pop-top & a full roofed in caravan & yes the one without the poptop is quiet in the wind. What we used to do sometimes with the poptop was put a small block of wood (not much bigger than a large cake of soap) on each corner of the caravan & then pull the pop-top down so it sat on the blocks. It didn't seem to be as affected by wind & as me my chauffeur are not too tall there was still enough heafroom to walk around.

justcruisin01 · Guru

The conditions around Broken Hill yesterday were the same, some of the worst wind I have been in. We had 120kl to travell to get here yesterday , with the cross wind & red dust it was a full time job just keeping on the road.

It was very hot as well, cooled off in the arvo , today was much better but a cold wind.

The oil companys were rubbing their hands together. LOL

gold dandelion · Senior Member

dont forget to get some razor fish while in streaky bay.

milo · Guru

even our motor home has been feeling the wind latley, and seems we just missed you at broken hill justcruisin01

Les_Donz · Veteran Member

sorry to hear about your border collie... my thoughts are with you. Donz

milo · Guru

thanks Les, been 12 months this weekend comming...

Elle on Wheels · Guru

I was definitely looking at poptops because of fuel ecocomy and towing. Geez you lot have already talked me out of a coaster or similar :). I figured if I have to replace the vinyl around the pop top every 5 yrs or longer then that's probably justified by the fuel economy. From what I have read a poptop is a lot lighter than a full van so I can get more room. My max TARE is 1000 ( supposedly my ute can tow 2500) and I want to buy a van below that.

Milo also sorry about your doggo. You always miss them.

Onedodger · Guru

We have owned a full van and 3 pop-tops.

We now must have one so that it can be stored under cover in the carport.

We have found that in extreme wind conditions in the full van that it will rock somewhat depending on the velocity. The same in the pop-top however if it is real blowy we put the top down and this reduces the rocking greatly. With the top down shmbo can walk around ok but I must bow my head to do so.

We have found that the greatest advantage of the pop-top is the extra cooling one can get by the flow thru effect when the pop-top windows are unzipped.

As for the vinyl well one van was 18 years old when we sold it and the top was still in good nick and the other was 10 years old when we replaced the vinyl due to bad zippers. The one we have now is 7 years old and the vinyl is in good condition with all zippers working great.

Our choice would still be the pop-top as we bush camp a lot in the warmer climates and do like the flow thru ventilation.

Also due to the pop-top having no solid lid the walls are built stronger to resist flexing so any weight gain is really only minimal. And as for noise coming thru it makes one more aware of the outside world and what is happening.

Just My personal thoughts

Cheers Dodg.

Happywanderer · The Master

I keep reading about the vinyl in the poptops in this thread. Mine is canvas, why is it different to what everyone is saying. Luckily its only been on there a couple of years when the previous owner had the previous replaced. So maybe he had the vinyl replaced with canvas. Who knows.

justustwo · Member

Was swinging between Poptop or full van, pretty sure now that it will be a Poptop. Does anyone have views on Jayco vs Coromal?

Happywanderer · The Master

Might be an idea to start a new thread on this justustwo rather than one from last year.

By the way welcome to the site. Perhaps put it in Techies Corner also.

Gerty Dancer · Guru

We have a Jayco pop-top (see post at top of this thread) and I still hanker after a full van. So recently we went to a couple of caravan dealers and looked at both Jayco and Coromal vans. I liked the Coromal better, but their price was significantly higher. Jayco are good value for money and I've never met a Jayco owner who said their caravan leaked.

Kantiki · Senior Member

We are on our second jayco poptop. I liked the layout andensuite in the coromal but it did not seem to have enough cupbourds and I kept bumping my head going out the door. Im only 5 foot four inches. Happy with the jayco although we are having a battle over the water tanks