M.I.A Tents - From the makers of Waterport.

Back in stock at Costco. https://www.costco.com/mia-overlander-large-2-person-rooftop-tent.product.100691990.html

 

fffuuuccckkkk i want one. sell my tepui for it? shit. i think i should...

ive read some of the reviews and it doesnt seem too far off from other brands in terms of quality... it would match my waterport too...

 

It has some minor issues but so does the Ikamper mini. I can attest to that. At this price point you won’t even notice. FYI the shells is matte black and textured. It’s not gloss. The shell it’s very low profile.

 

Just saw this, $1500... That’s a ridiculously good deal.

https://www.costco.com/mia-pioneer-large-2-person-rooftop-tent.product.100726444.html

Ah sh*t I just noticed it’s a soft shell... Read on, don’t mind me

 

Dude great video! This is exactly what I wanted to know before pulling the trigger on one.

 

Man, I really have to venture away from the coast and see the night sky like that last photo, with my own eyes. Simply stunning. I don't think I'd ever be able to look away. Thanks for sharing

 

How is the quality of everyone’s MIa? Costco has it now for 2399.

 

I have one being delivered today. I'll let you know what I think. I'm pretty on the fence about RTTs in general, but Costco makes it pretty easy to give it a shot. I'm hoping it goes on sale in the next month and I can request a price adjustment, but it's in line with the price of similar tents (Tuff Stuff Alpha 2, Desert Armor Warrior, etc).

 

Well it showed up but it had no hardware... not a great start.

 

Here’s a question for you guys. Looks like the Overlander is the same price on the Costco website and the MIA website. Do you think it would be smarter to order thru Costco or MIA?

I’m going honking in terms of returns, shipping times, delivery.

Who did you order thru, and what was your experience.. Thank you!

 

Costco. Hands down. They estimated 2-3 weeks to deliver but it was drop shipped to me directly from MIA in only 5 days. Now, I did post earlier that it didn’t have hardware but that was not a Costco issue and to MIA’s credit they overnighted it to me today (soonest they could ship it).

With Costco’s return policy they’ll literally come grab it from your house since it was delivered that way.

 

Exactly what I was guessing! My trip is coming up in October and I was between this tent or the Osprey mini. It seems like there is more info on the Overlander and it is in stock.

thank you for the heads up!

 

Hardware arrived and I finally got it fully set up. My impressions right now are mixed.

Pros:
- Looks awesome; great color scheme
- Pretty spacious and comfortable inside (my two kids fit in there pretty easily along side me, and I'm a big guy).
- Setup is fast
- I really like the design of the side windows/flys
- Shell is very sleek compared to Alpha 2 and some other RTTs
- I like all the velcro and bungee attachments to try and keep things taught (it's still not THAT taught but it's pretty good)
- So many shoe bags (could be a con for some I guess)
- Fabric is thicker than Alpha 2 (Rainfly: 420D on MIA, 210D on Alpha 2; Tent: 300G on MIA, 280G on Alpha 2)

Cons:
- Takedown is not as fast as I've seen from similar tents; there's nothing that pulls the sides in when you close it so you have to go back and forth to both sides to tuck things in and it takes time (I'm wondering if it can be modded to add a bungee or stratchit to pull it in, but I probably won't do that).
- The alignment on some components isn't right. On one side the rail is closer to the edge of the tent than on the other (from side to side, not front to back; this screwed me up while trying to align it on my rack, but otherwise isn't a huge deal). One of the latches isn't lined up with the buckle and so it is very hard to latch and unlatch one of the three.
- The mattress has a big curve in it that makes it bubble up; I think I can fix this by removing the mattress from the cover, but it might also be a fitment issue
- Can't get it perfectly aligned left-to-right on my rack. If I get it dead center then the hinges are too far in and the ABS shell pinches my bed bars (CBI Overland Bars). I have it barely off-center now and it still touches a little but I think it's OK.
- Tent smelled very very strongly of chemicals and even after airing out for 4 days it still has a slight smell. I expect this will go away after my first trip.
- The floor doesn't want to lay flat; you can force it flat but the struts pull it back up. This might be common on RTTs; they do mention that you can put it up at a slight incline in one of their YT videos, but it made it seem like it was terrain-dependent. I don't think it is. You'd have to have something weighing it down to make it flat. This is pretty minor IMO.

Neutral:
- Hardware is confusing; I was sent two sets of bolts - one is longer with one lock nut, the other is slightly shorter and had a lock washer, regular nut, and lock nut. I used the shorter with the washer and both nuts (seems extremely secure this way), but no directions on which hardware to use.
- Not a fan of the "MIA Tents" metal placards; they're just not subtle or attractive.
- Mattress is comfortable, but a bit thin compared to others I've seen. I think there's probably room to put more padding in, but with the latches not being aligned it is already hard to shut it fully
- The ladder looks great in black, but I wish it had slanted rungs so they're less angled when you have to pull the ladder out. In my garage (which is more or less ideal conditions to set up an RTT) the ladder has to come out pretty far to stabilize at that specific height (see pic).
- RTTs are more difficult to use than I expected; this is not the fault of the RTT, but my own expectations.

I'm excited to take it out this weekend and give it a proper shakedown.

 

looks to be worth 2k, not sure at 2400. would you buy again?

 

I would say that it _seems_ comparable to the Alpha 2 which also goes for $2400. Both of the tents have been on sale for $2000 in the past. I would have waited if I didn't have upcoming trips. But to be honest, even if the Alpha 2 was $2k, I think the $400 premium for the Costco advantages would be worth it. In general I don't think any of these tents are worth this much money, but the market says they are so who am I to judge?

 

got any more pics? both of it open and closed? curious what you mean by it not being centered and the plastic hitting your rack

 

I will snap some more soon

 

do you think your 'dislikes' are QC issues? like the latch not lining up and the floor coming up? aka if they sent you a different tent is there a possibility it would be better?

 

I wondered that myself, but I have no reason to believe other units wouldn't have QC issues. Maybe I got unlucky (misaligned brackets, mattress hump, missing hardware), but at the same time it still works so it's hard for me to want to test out another unit with potentially worse issues.

EDIT: one thing I do want to add is that I don't think any of the dislikes/QC issues are enough for me to not like the tent. They are annoyances to be sure, but as long as the tent is usable I think they are forgivable. The true test will be how it holds up in use.

 

This is how much material gets left hanging out when you close it. Have to go to each side at least twice to get it all stuffed in. Especially hard behind the cab.


This is as close to the cab as I felt comfortable getting.


Hard to see, but you can get an idea of how cramped the hinge/cover is against the bar.


Cover is actually touching bar.


Kind of hard to see, but you can see the ever-so-slight bow of the ABS shell as it rests against the bar.




Hinge doesn't seem to close all the way. The internal mechanism seems somewhat bent so I will try and straighten it out and see if that helps. Seems secure, it just looks kind of funny.


If you trace down from the buckle to the latch you can see they don't line up.


Proportions are great!


Can you tell it's off center? It's about 1/4" more to the right. I'd love to push it another 1/4"-1/2", but I like the look.