The FW and I are looking to upgrade our tent and buy a used pop up camper this spring. What do I need to look for when buying one? Obviously cleanliness, rips and tears in the screen, I know some of the things, but what else is there? Is the screen room attached to the awning useful? Is A/C necessary? Stabilizer jacks? A little help would be greatly appreciated!!!
After owning a pop up and selling campers for years this is what I have learned. A non water damaged roof and good canvas is everything. Screen room attachments are a huge pain and rairly get used. Most will come with jacks or could be easily added, but are a must. AC is nice, but a very pricy option that can usually be added aftermarket if it is important to you. Be ready to act quickly when you see the right one, because they do not last long. Many people looking for a “used pop up”. Good luck and feel free to PM me with any questions. 
Ryan
I would think there should be lots of decent campers out there for sale, come spring. I would suggest to “skip” the pop-up…(most people who buy them, use a season or 2 and then get a camper trailer).. might save you some money and there are lots of camper trailers to be had
We went through the camping progression, tent, popup then travel trailer. What we did different then most was to buy a hybrid model. Our travel trailer is an 18 footer, with ends that fold out like a pop up. This extends it out to about 25′. We have a queen bed on one end, a full on the other, and two doubles inside. Full bathroom (still small), oven, fridge, microwave tons of storage good AC etc…
The biggest thing for us was to have something easier to pull and set up without having to worry about outgrowing it. Ours weighs about 3500lbs and tows very well. My personal favorite part of the whole thing is being able to leave most of the stuff in the camper and not have to bring 80% of it in the house after a weekend.
To leave for the weekend we pack clothes, new bedding and food. I typically only sleep on the couch in the camper (it folds out to a double) as it’s by far the most comfortable place in the whole camper.
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We went through the camping progression, tent, popup then travel trailer.
Same here we now have a 24′ travel trailer and we like it much better than the pop up, like wimwuen said the best part is not having to load and unload the camper before and after a trip we just leave everything in the camper. For the most part now we keep the camper in Lake City and go on the road with it only a couple times a year. Eventually we will get a seasonal lot and trade up to a bigger unit, after all the different places we have traveled to and camped at I have found that my favorite place is practically right in my own back yard pool 4 on the Mississippi river. If you do go with a pop up make sure you go with a big one with lots of storage.
Probably a little pricier then you are looking at but… I know Scott Stiel does / used to run one of these.
Lots of good clean used ones on C—-‘slist right now!
Have you considered a truck camper instead? I like the idea of a hardside travel trailer, but then I consider the fact that I’d have to leave my boat home and that doesn’t sit too well with me. Truck camper seems to be a fair trade-off to be able to experience the best of both worlds.
A lot of what I’m thinking has already been said.
I too, have done the tent, to pop up, to travel trailer, to hybrid camper. And now I’m done for a while. I love our hybrid.
I do NOT think it’s a bad idea to start with a Pop-up. It will get you ready for something bigger when you get to that point. Make sure the furnace works well, for any spring or fall camp outs. A/C is a must if you have little kids. Otherwise my advice is to look at a few before you buy. AND YES, THey go very fast! So be on your toes and dont be affraid to drive an hour or two if you find the right one. Good luck!
I remember when I was a kid and asked Dad about going camping with a tent. He said he had camped all over Europe during the 40’s and it wasn’t really that fun. 
I edited my first post and rewrote here what I meant to say about the mattresses in a pop up.
The other thing you will want to do is to put a sheet of foam insulation under the bed mattresses as the plywood that supports the mattresses is not very thick and it can get very cold on cool nights. Found this out the hard way and a sheet of hard foam insulation made all the difference. On top of the mattresses add the egg crate foam Matt’s as the mattresses are not very thick and by themselves are not very comfortable.
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