Hassle-Free Family Camping in a Lightweight Pop-Up At about 1,800 lbs, fully equipped for camping, the JayThrush is light enough to be towed by many properly equipped SUVs and minivans. It uses a standard 4-pin trailer connection and does not require a brake controller, so if your vehicle has the appropriate tow rating, a hitch receiver and a working 4-pin plug, you may already have everything you need. If you’ve ever had a U-Haul trailer hitched to your current vehicle and been sent on your way, chances are you already have the hardware you need. You’ll just need to confirm your vehicle has enough towing capacity for the JayThrush. We’ll even supply the hitch! But before we go much further, let’s be real: our mighty tent trailer is not winning any beauty contests. What it is good at is making family memories under the stars. It is a well-used 1989 Jayco Thrush that has spent more than 30 years doing exactly what it was built to do: taking families camping. And we love it for that. It is lightweight, dry, mechanically straightforward, and in good shape where it matters. It also has enough bumps, patches and history that you do not need to spend your weekend worrying about whether your kids touched something with muddy hands or added another little scuff. Inside, you get two queen sleeping areas plus a dinette that converts into a third bed. We think five adults is comfortable: two on each queen and one on the dinette. Six is workable, especially for families with kids, with three distinct sleeping spaces to spread everyone out. Why a pop-up? Our first family camping trip was in a big travel trailer at a fully serviced RV resort with power, water and sewer right at the site, along with a pool and movie nights for the kids. It was fantastic. The next season, we bought a similar hard-sided trailer. Then we started spending more time in Alberta Parks and Parks Canada campgrounds. Almost none of the places we use offer power, water and sewer hookups right at every campsite. More often, you get electricity if you are lucky, while potable water, washrooms, showers and sani-dumps are shared campground facilities. That changes what you actually need from the trailer. If you are staying at a fully serviced RV site, a larger hard-sided trailer will usually give you more amenities. If you are heading somewhere with power only, or no hookups at all, this little Jayco starts to make a lot more sense than spending your weekend worrying about how full your grey or black water tanks are. You still get real beds, a furnace, a fridge, lights and somewhere warm and dry to sit. You just do not need to tow around a full bathroom, shower, large water and waste tanks, and a bunch of systems that are less useful when the campground is already providing those facilities. One of the first places we took it was Miquelon Lake, where the kids came out under the dark sky and lit up seeing stars we simply cannot see from Edmonton. That is really what this trailer is for. Warm, Dry and Off the Ground The JayThrush keeps the parts of tent camping we actually like. You still get canvas walls, big screened openings, fresh air and the sound of rain outside. But instead of sleeping on the ground, you get proper beds, shelter from bad weather and a furnace for those cold Alberta nights in the shoulder seasons. The fridge and furnace can operate on propane. At an electrified campsite, the trailer plugs into regular campsite power. The lights also operate from the trailer’s 12V system when you’re camping without electricity. The trailer does have a small fresh-water tank with a hand-pump sink, plus a city-water connection when available. There is no onboard grey-water tank; sink water must be collected/disposed of according to campground rules. We Keep the Cooking Outside We provide an outdoor Coleman stove and the equipment needed to connect it to a conventional propane cylinder. That is partly because cooking outside is nicer and partly because pretty much all of Alberta is some form of bear country. We would rather not turn the place where you, or we, sleep into an advertisement for bacon. The trailer carries a 20 lb propane cylinder, and a smaller 5 lb cylinder can also be added to your trip for cooking, if that suits your trip better. Inside, there is a dinette for eating, cards, games, reading, hiding from the rain and the other important business of camping. We also provide a cordless vacuum for dealing with the inevitable crumb situation that kids and camping seem determined to create in every sleeping area. Bring Food and Bedding The goal is to make getting away easy. We provide the basic cookware, dishes, utensils, chairs and campsite equipment you need. Bring your food, clothes and bedding and go camping. Do not own sleeping bags, or just do not want to pack them? We rent clean single and double sleeping bags for $10 per bag per trip, with any combination available up to six. They are cleaned after every rental. Setup Is a Process, Not a Test This is a folding trailer. It takes more effort to set up than a hard-sided travel trailer, but less than most family tents. We walk you through everything before you leave. We will put the trailer up, pull out the beds and pack it back down with you in real time, if you have the time and patience for the full lesson. We also provide short videos for the parts that are much easier to understand when you actually see somebody do them. Once you know the sequence, it is straightforward. Our tent trailer is not trying to be a luxury RV. For us, that is the point. It is trying to be much nicer than sleeping in a tent, much lighter than towing a full travel trailer, and exactly enough camper for the provincial and national park sites where we spend most of our time. It has been used. It has been loved. We expect you to use it too, and we hope you love the time you spend doing it.