TL;DR - The Exped Megamat for the RTT continues to be one of my most "worth it" purchases, and Exped (the company) stood behind it - years after my initial purchase - when it developed a slow leak.
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.
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.
May 22, 2023 With the Tacoma living in Las Vegas now, it's harder to perform various maintenance tasks as they pop up and between trips. As such, with a few general maintenance issues - oil changes, tire rotations, etc. - and a few items in recent Rig Reviews needing attention, I drove the truck home from the Three Days of R&R trip for a little TLC (Tacoma Loving Care). On my list for a warm spring day were the following tasks: Routine maintenance - Change the oil, Rotate the tires Grease drive train. Check the new SPC UCAs for play in…
TL;DR - The zipper finally failed catastrophically. Both CVT and YKK had amazing customer service and solved the problem in different ways.End of the road.
TL;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.
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.
Being a heavy user of my Cascadia Tents (CVT) Mt. Shasta roof top tent (RTT), I get asked - somewhat infrequently - what I think about it after all those nights on the trail. And, I often find myself evaluating it against other RTT offerings that I see on other rigs. So, rather than keep all that bottled up in my tiny little skull, I figured I'd share my thoughts with everyone - after 3 years and some 250 nights on the trail and in the tent. Brands (and durability/longevity) From what I can tell, they are all pretty much…
So after having my Exped MegaMat 10 Duo LXW for a little over a year - during which time I've spent about 90 nights on it - I figured it was time to share my long-term impressions as well as a few things I've learned. "Pro tips" as it were... or at least, "tips." I should also note here that I'm not sponsored by Exped in any way, and I paid full price for my mattress. I'm just a fanboi, and want to help others get a great night sleep. TL;DR - I really like the Exped. Of everything I've…
TL;DR - If you don't carry a small 2'x3' door mat for the bottom of your tent ladder, or in front of your tent, you should. Keeps the tent clean and is a great mat to work on when something goes wrong with the truck.
May 10, 2019. When I originally built my bed rack back in 2016, I was sure that the rack was going to be something that was only installed when we were out on an adventure. The rest of the time, I'd remove it using the pulley system in the garage so that the Tacoma could be it's natural self. Oh how naive I was. Turns out, there's no reason to stop adventuring in the winter, and quite frankly, the rear suspension on the truck is much more comfortable with the couple hundred extra pounds from the tent. Plus, I don't really…
May 3-5, 2019. If you're going to turn a 4Runner into a family adventure vehicle to replace the Tacoma, one thing is for sure - it's going to need a way to carry the CVT @Cascadia Tents Mt. Shasta that we sleep in every night. With an Exped Megamat 10 Duo, it's some of the most comfortable sleep I've had, really. So with most of the mechanical work done for now, I figured the next bit of work was to figure out the roof rack situation. I generally start with a mid-level design for these kinds of projects, but this…
TL;DR - I replaced the rainfly on the CVT Mt. Shasta tent with one that had no Stargazer windows. It is so much better, and now dries (relatively) quickly when it gets wet.
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.Those are a lot of promises in one marketing picture.
TL;DR - The 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.
