TL;DR - currently I have 12V LED strip lighting in my tent and it works great. However, I want to update the lighting to use 5v, so I can power it from a (more versatile) USB port, rather than using a 12v receptacle. One of the things that my newly found perfect charger illuminated for me is that charging my laptop can be done with any USB-C charger; I don't need to use the power brick that came with the laptop. As such, I'd like to update the power box in the bed of the truck - currently equipped with…
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TL;DR - the aluminum plates that I installed to address the holes forming where the ladder standoffs were wearing through the floor skin have worked great. Highly recommend. With a 2x2.5" pad of aluminum, there's plenty of surface area to spread out the force of the ladder standoffs.
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TL;DR - The two spots where the ladder rests on the bottom of the tent have developed holes in the aluminum floor. My Mt. Shasta Pioneer roof top tent (RTT) from Cascadia Vehicle Tents (CVT) has been fantastic since I ordered and picked it up in 2016. Sure, I've had the standard issue of the zipper on the cover getting stuck and wearing out (which I've covered in several rig reviews), but CVT support was fantastic and got a new cover sent out to me free of charge. Combined with an Exped Megamat (acquisition, 1-year review), I really couldn't be happier…
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TL;DR - The zipper finally failed catastrophically. Both CVT and YKK had amazing customer service and solved the problem in different ways. While exploring the backroads of Oregon's Hart Mountain, the zipper on the cover of the CVT tent finally failed. This has been an ongoing issue for the last several years, and I've been babying the zipper by cleaning it every time I close the cover. End of the road. When the slider finally failed, it was time for a different approach. I started looking for a new slider online. Mine had the marking YKK 10RC cast onto the…
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TL;DR - Dropping poles into the RTT pole bag is asking for trouble. Nothing a little sewing can't fix, though. Not much to say here except that through normal use, the pole bag will wear out (or holes will be worn into the bottom of the bag as poles are dropped in). Pick up a needle and thread and fix it yourself; there's really no reason to put up with the inconvenience of poles falling through, or buying a new bag.
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TL;DR - For the last several trips, I've had to lubricate the zipper on the @Cascadia Vehicle Tents tarp *every* time I close it up. That sucks. I mentioned in a previous rig review that I was having trouble with the zippers. For a trip or two, some lubricant (water) worked just fine to get the zipper cleaned out and zippable when I put the tent away. However, that solution stopped working for some reason in January, and I've really been struggling to get the tarp to close. In fact, it was so hard that I just left it open…
Leave a CommentTL;DR - The tent is still great, but I've got some qualms with the tarp/cover - part of it is coming unstitched, and the zipper sucks whenever it gets dusty. I won't go into all the reasons I like my CVT Mt. Shasta tent - there are many. On this last trip, two issues that have been simmering over time came to the forefront. First, the cover has some reinforced areas that keep the ladder on the top of the tent from rubbing through. One of those patches has started to come unstitched, and I'll need to re-sew it. Second…
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TL;DR - After cinching down the cover for the tent a few hundred times, the stitching for one of the buckles on one of the cover straps ripped out. I sewed it back together and everything is good again. I think there was probably some very minor manufacturing defect in one of my straps that only reared its head after I used the strap a couple hundred times, since I inspected the other strap and it looks just fine. This is one of those things that some might feel like they needed to buy a new strap for, but fixing…
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To get the tent all squared away, I purchased some Gear Aid (previously McNett) Zip Care Cleaner and Lubricant. It's probably some expensive scam for what it is, but I spread it on the zipper and it was like magic. I'm not sure how often I'll need to reapply it - but with 2 oz. of this stuff, I've got plenty to last quite a while. Problem solved. ...And honestly, I don't think that the problem would have solved itself as I was originally hoping - once the zipper gets dirty, it's too hard for it to clean itself.
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Bobby at CVT @Cascadia Tents was able to get a stargazer-less rain fly to me for the Mt. Shasta tent, and that got installed just during the second Anza-Borrego trip. While it didn't rain in Anza-Borrego at all, we did get one night of rain, and one morning of (light) snow in Utah and the new fly behaved exactly how I hoped it would - as the sun came out, it absorbed the heat and dried off nearly immediately. In fact, even when it snowed a little bit - this fly didn't get nearly as wet as the previous one. Perfect.…
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TL;DR - if you ever feel like your RTT mattress leaves a little something to be desired, don't buy a foam topper to try to increase it's thickness. Get an Exped MegaMat Duo 10 LXW. You won't regret it even though it's pricey - this is the most comfortable sleeping experience I've ever had. For the last few trips, I've started to notice that the foam mattress in the @Cascadia Tents Mt. Shasta Pioneer has started to be a little less "supportive." I think this is mostly due to age - it's been used for over 100 nights at this point -…
Leave a CommentThe zipper for the rubber cover got dirty (muddy, not dusty) and that made it really hard to get closed. I'm going to clean it well, and then keep an eye on it over time, since I've never had an issue with it before.
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TL;DR - I continue to be really happy with the main tent, for the most part. I am not however, happy with the rain fly on it due to the "stargazer" windows never ever drying off.
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