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[ShawnQ]

Anyone have any good info about towing a pop-up down PINS?

It's a small one, and it's obviously light weight...any recommendations for a first timer?

I've got a 4wd, and have never had any trouble before...and I dont think it will be a problem. My only concern is that it's a little bit low off the ground, and I'm sure the track width is different.

However, I have seen several of them on the beach before...is there a trick?

I have access to one, and may end up towing it down. I'm thinking about towing until I get to the first area of deep stuff, and then parking it. I'll drive further up to fish, and come back for it at night.

Thanks in advance.

Shawn

[snagged]

Wider & taller tires. You may have to move your fenders.
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Jerry

Prepare the child for the path, not the path for the child.

[ShawnQ]

I think if I take it, I am going to stay on the hard sand somewhere. I don't want to drag it through the soft stuff and tear the sand up even more for the other drivers.

I may just take the tents and be done with it...

Thanks
Shawn

[Magic]

I have friends that pull a pop-up down the beach often and it's not a big problem. There are some Cautions though.

If you can replace the wheels and tires with wider. You can find assemblies that are the same diameter but wider. Diameter is the problem due the the clearance under the wheelwell. I think Coleman has a set for their campers that are 10" wide.

Stay in the ruts same as for all the other driving. Don't be afraid to use your 4x4. The little trailer will put on a lot of drag coming through the soft stuff when you have to be in there. Always use 4x4 when leaving camp. Most often you'll be up on the beach and that first move after the weekend will suprise you.

The biggest problem you will have is these campers are not in any way designed for the sand and SALT. You will have to protect the hardware that rasies the top and all of the exposed fasteners.

It will rust badly on just one or two trips. The zinc plating on most of the hardware just loves the moist salt air. ALWAYS wash everything down after a trip.

"Charlie R" uses split foam water pipe insulation tubes to cover the top uprights while in camp to keep the salt and sand out of the slides. Seems to work pretty well.

Hope this helps.
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Magic

[Muskrat]

I have taken a pop up down several times. How far down you go primarily depends on driving conditions and how comfortable you feel in the loose spots. We usually set up between 15 and 20 and try to find an inlet into the dunes slightly as a wind block. Be sure to bring boards or cement blocks for your leveling posts.
Good Luck
The Rat

[thefishingmusician]

I remember reading somewhere of a guy that put some spacers on his pop-up to make it a little taller for the bigger tires. I bought an old pop-up for like $300 that had really good canvas throughout with no rips or tears. The only thing I use it for is camping on fishing trips. After 1 trip to PINS I found a couple of things that I could do to make it easier.

The first and best thing I did was to coat the whole bottom with a layer of sheet metal. The biggest drag I saw was from the tongue and the rear bumper. I cut 2 pieces of sheet metal and welded it to the bottom of the popup. I actually covered the bottom part of the tongue and extended it from the pop-up botom to the rear bumper. This will help everything slide right across the sand and is realtively easy and cheap to do. I wouldn't recommend doing this however to a $5k pop-up. I had $300 invested in mine so it was fine to expierement with. This also helped keep sand/salt out of the bottom of the popup. I'd still do the wider tires too and this may be overkill for some, just looked like a good ideal to me and I had little to lose. It does work fine and I have see a difference in the way it slides across the sand.

TFM