Desert Armor - Deals | Specials | Flash Sales

Really, a China thing, sounds like a cheap thing to me. I hope that’s the only China thing on my tent. Part of me hopes it doesn’t arrive tomorrow, after reading your statement. I sure as fuck hope it’s not and expensive cheap piece of crap. Not going to be good when I explain to my wife why we spent over 3 grand on some thing with so many China things happening.

We will see tomorrow/this weekend when I get it and open it up.

 

Well that's the blunt, honest answer.
I still think the tent is a good quality tent. Everyone can nick pick anything they buy..

I will say this, lots of people have bought the tent. Waited. Complained. Some had issues. And yet, they still have and use them and you don't see them for sale here on TW. Yes, some have modified (Me included) the tent, but sometimes that happens. Look at what we do with our perfectly drive able truck from the dealer....

 

Also, I was told that there is some foam under the ladder that is supposed to be peeled off. That drops the cover down flush.

 

Honesty is what I preach, I didn’t spend over 3 grand to modify. That being said, I haven’t seen my tent yet, so I have nothing to bitch about.
But my response was to your let’s just call it a China thing and sweep it under the carpet type of response. I hope that’s not the type of response I get from Desert Armor if I have an issue.

 

Naw. If you have an issue they’ll take care of it. I’m not saying sweep it under the rug. I’m just suggesting we’re human and mistakes happen. And it seem like more in China than anywhere..

 

But I don’t foresee any big problems with orders.
Sometimes there are cosmetic issues. I’m not saying it’s okay. And I’m not saying you should necessarily accept it as that, especially with the price. I understand where y’all are coming from and the best thing I can suggest is to reach out to DA. support@desertarmorshop.com

I send your guys/ gals feed back to them. Sometimes they want more info. Sometimes they want to talk to you, the customer. And sometimes there isn’t anything they can do other than apologize and offer to do whatever they can do.

 

So after being told my tent would be picked up this last weekend, still no update on my tracking. I guess after waiting months for DA to receive the container, we still have to wait multiple weeks for our orders. Why all the false information about when FedEx will be picking up? So ridiculous.

 

This is what has been most frustrating. All responses from them are generic copy-paste responses. No one is actually taking the time to look at specific orders and provide honest feedback.

 

Looks like even Fed EX is even delaying these things. Some sort of delay was reported earlier today, doesn’t look good for getting the tent here today.

I am starting to think there is some magical force trying to stop us all from getting our adult forts.

 

Hey guys.. been lurking in the background of this thread waiting for the right time to jump in. I'm one of many who had been waiting what feels like forever to receive his truck fort. After alllllllllll the delays I finally had my tent delivered this afternoon (was supposed to be yesterday but FedEx Freight pushed it back a day - the most frustrating thing ever). I just got home from work so let me crack a beer and grab a bite then I post some pictures of what I got.

 

For starters.. here's how I received my pallet. I almost didn't sign for it but I figured the insulation add-on for the tent was used to absorb the delivery drive across country. Ha.. but not really funny.

Everything ended up being alright.

 

Here she is thrown on top of the BillieBars. I dont think I have pictures of the brackets before I mounted the tent. They're really not that bad, but the way the tent mounts into the track system will not allow for me to use the Wheel Every Weekend anti-theft mounts I picked up. I'll have to get some different hardware to make them work. And probably have to remove the tracks all together in order to slide the new hardware into the correct positioning. For now the DA factory mounts will have to do.

Which brings me to picture 2 - The broken bolt in the mount bracket. I should have taken a little more time to look over everything before throwing it on the truck (after reading a couple QC concerns other members have had). One of the bolts had a burr which caught the nut. I removed the bolt and threw it in a vice but it was too late.. it was locked in. While trying to PB Blast it and loosen it up the bolt gave way.. as in sheared off. So I ground the head of a 14mm and rigged it in place till I get a chance to reach out. Pretty minor so I'm sure they'll cover a piece of hardware. But moral of the story - check your hardware before you put it on your truck.

 

At first glance when the tent is deployed I feel pretty good about it. The fabric all looked pretty solid and well seamed. The interior looked fine. I didn't take out the mattress and check underneath for shavings, but there were shavings outside on the tonneau cover that kept shaking out. I'll do a deep clean and inspection when I have more time.

 

The only real area of concern so far seems to be that there is some slack in the cables for the hardshell fasteners. They're made from nylon-coated braided wire and have crimp fittings so there doesn't seem to be any adjustment. Easy enough to get a new section of wire and take some slack out for a more secure fit. I doo worry about th corners though. There is alot of gap that I feel will catch water during rain, or dust and mud while offroad. Not sure how to address this particular concern yet. If I can get the slack out of the fasteners by tightening the cables then I think that will take care of alot of what I'm talking about. But still.. those corners...

 

Does anyone know if similar tent brands like the iKamper have that same gap? I would imagine that after one day on dirt roads the inside of that tent would turn into a sandblaster.

 

This!!
Same thing happened to me. I have a frozen bolt/nut. The threads on these bolt fasteners are very rough. I'm going to have to cut it off with an angle grinder.

 

I’m concerned about my lack of mechanical skills and the need to make things right on these tents.

 

So,... I used the tent over the last 3 days. 1 night in Mojave desert and 2 nights in mountain Yosemite. I wanted to give the tent a fair shake.

The aluminum shell on the Tank has some issues, as covered already; namely misaligned badges, bad latches, and fastener hardware is defective. The gaping holes in the corners need to be retrofitted as well, but I've solved it for the moment with rubber garage door flashing and black closed cell foam carved to fit the corner holes. I've already talked to DA and they will send me replacements for the other affected issues.
That is where I stop dinging on the tent as a whole. There are some good things about it as well. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the quality of the tent platform and fabric is actually pretty good. I was dry and comfortable in wind/desert/mountain. It felt rock stable with me in it, and I'm 6'2" 210 lbs.

For the $3K price, I do feel like we got factory prototypes on the turtle shell side of the tent, and if I had seen and compared it in a store with something else in that premium price range, I would have not made a move with DA. Oh well, moving on.

However, ugly warts aside, for me, its worth repairing and modding, instead of sending it back. I feel it has potential, because the actual tent platform is decent quality, and as long as DA doesn't leave their customers left hanging with poor shell components, I'm willing to work with them. Granted this is my personal opinion, because I feel I have all the tools necessary and the know-how with identifying and retrofitting.

That being said, I completely understand other peoples view on the matter, such that at $3K it should already be perfect, and they should not have to do any mechanical work or modifications. Each person will have to make that decision themselves as to how far they want to go, and I wouldn't blame them considering all the delays and crosstalk we got. That experience will weigh pretty heavily on people, as it does me still, to be honest.







The last thing I should call out is this tent is spec'd at being 126lbs. Hell no it aint', it's more around 165-170 lbs. They even call it out in the rack section, but still list the wrong weight for the actual tent. I'm waiting for my dads hanging scale that he uses for weighing pig carcasses so I can get an accurate weight on it. This is not something minor, as it dramatically changes the metrics and calculations in place with the type of rack you have, and active/dynamic load limits. I absolutely felt the added weight as I was driving, an extra 50 pounds up top makes for some serious weight distribution issues and stressors on the rack mounts, and especially when I go off road and start bumping and banging and sliding around.

 

For real, not 126 lbs. I truly don’t know what to fuck I’m going to do. Jokingly earlier I was thinking FED EX needs to lose my tent, now I’m not joking. I thought the rack requirements had more to do with using the tank rack system. Being light weight with rack was the selling point. My tent has been stuck in Middletown PA since yesterday morning, it’s showing it’s a shipment exception with no arrival date now. Looking at the shipment weight, it’s listed as 188 lbs on a pallet. So that puts it around 158 (30 lbs pallet), what other kinds of packing material did they use?