Our popup camper is a 1984 Starcraft Starmaster 21. We purchased it in the Spring of 2001. I was looking for a popup because I'd heard they were lightweight and easy to tow. At the time, our tow vehicle was a 2000 Jeep Wrangler with a 4 cylinder engine and a maximum towing capacity of 2,000 pounds.First we went to a new RV dealer, who literally drove us out to the middle of nowhere (way in the pack of the lot) and left us when we told them we wanted a popup instead of a big trailer. Apparently there is some kind of a profit-margin issue to popups vs. the 12,000 pound behemoths you see out there. After that charming experience, I went to looking for used campers in the newspaper, and found this one.
While a 1984 model was older than anything else we had looked at, it had a gross weight of exactly 2,000 pounds and a length of less than 16 feet. It seemed perfect, even though it needed some work. After towing around the block, I made the deal and brought it home.
Since I wrote that, quite a bit has changed. The Jeep is long gone, having been replaced with a Suzuki Samurai of about the same vintage as the Starcraft (The Suzuki is a 1987). Since towing anything with a Suzuki Samurai defies a number of laws of physics, I also acquired a new tow vehicle: 2002 GMC Sonoma. It can tow either the Samurai or the Starcraft quite nicely. I wish there was a way to tow them together, since was are back to tent camping if we go on a 4 wheel drive trip, but it hasn't been enough of an inconvenience to trade up just yet.Since I wrote that, quite a bit has changed. (What a tremendous sense of Deja-Vu!) It finally did become enough of an inconvenience, so we are now the proud owners of a 1985 Itasca Sundancer 24 class C motorhome. The popup was sold in June of this year (2004) to friends. I am leaving the page up, but will probably not be adding to it. I am still happy to answer questions as best I can. Thanks!
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Here are some detailed pictures of the camper
Specifications
Here are the dimensions and capacities of the Starcraft Starmaster 21
Modifications
Here are some of the modifications I've made to our camper
Links
Here are my favorite popup web pages on web