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

Whelp...I pulled the trigger and ordered from MIA...will post some pics up and give my short review after this weekend! Delivery and communication with Adrian from MIA has been great! Install wasn't terrible, but this is my first RTT so I'm still trying to figure out what is 'good' and what is not.....

OP did you get a Water port with yours? I see in the FAQs each tent is suppose to come with one..mine did not.

 

I did not get one. I was one of the early adopters so this is a new bonus for you guys. I suppose yours may come in a different shipment? Adrian is cool so you can reach out to him and bring up the Water port and he'll likely send you one.

Also if you notice the name placard MIA easily comes off ( well at least on mine) which is a bonus for easy removal. Ive camped with it 3 time now and so far so good and had no issues with condensation. My only issue is the ladder which I was never good at using a telescoping type ladder.

 

Yeah I'm kinda happy the plaques came off super easy....not really going for that 'style' either. I can't get the ladder figured out, but I only set it up once and didn't spend any time fiddling with it, we'll see how it goes this weekend!

 

Just want to give props to MIA Tents and Adrian. I called 2 weeks ago and talked to Adrian to see if he had an Overlander Jumbo in stock. He said yes and that it would ship the next day when I paid. Price was really good and shipping was free. I ordered and immediately got a tracking #. The next day the tent was on it's way. Arrived a week later (got held up in California because of the fires) and the tent is absolutely perfect. Can't say enough good things about MIA tents and the excellent customer service and communication. I rarely post anything, but felt he earned the good review.

 

Cant's say enough good things about the M.I.A. Tents. Basically similar to others being touted on here and I'm sure made in the same chinese factory, however this tent was shipped the day after I ordered it, was less expensive than others, and included everything as advertised. I simply had to mount it, clean a few aluminum shavings, and start camping. Now that I have a few night in it, I can say that this tent rocks! This is my 5th RTT and is definitely my favorite. M.I.A. has been very quick to answer my questions and threw in a free waterport! I ordered another tent by a company that has a heavy presence on this site and not only did it come way later than they kept telling me, it came missing mounting brackets, keys, light, had the wrong mounting bolts, wouldn't open all the way because the struts were mounted wrong, bolts were cross-threaded, some hardware was stainless and some not, has damage from the factory (not shipping) and has been a complete disaster. I am hoping to return it or get a partial refund and am still working with the company, so won't name names yet...but it is taking way too long to get resolved and I still have a tent that I can't even use. I would have been back on the ground or in the back of my truck for several trips this fall if not for the quick service from MIA. Just gotta give more props, not affiliated in any way!

 

Stumbled accross this thread after looking for a good fold out hard shell rtt. This has got to be one of my favorite ones yet. I like the lower profile compared to other brands with similar tents.

 

Any updated impressions on this? Costco is selling it for $2k right now online.

 

Howdy... thanks for posting this as I can't find anything other than 1 video from MIA about this tent and I've gone ahead and ordered it on the spec alone... seemed well thought out and is priced right.

I do have a question for you tho... how comfy is the mattress? Seems a bit thinner than others out there... wondering if additional pads should be used?

Thanks! Have fun with it!

 

Mattress is comfy for me with no additional padding, just my sleeping bag. A mattress is one of those things though that everyone has there own personal preference. I prefer a firm mattress that doesn't swallow me up. Good luck with your tent, I am really impressed with mine. That's a great price for one of these!

 

I will add that I have had great luck calling the company with questions, owner actually answers the phone and is very helpful. Emails have been hit or miss. I really want the annex for occasional use, but seems expensive and does not appear to have a floor. I got a free Waterport with mine, but I think that deal expired a while ago.

 

Just bought one last night from costco. super excited. Glad to hear people think highly of it.

 

In store? They're out of stock online. They also have no plans to offer the 4man thru costco

 

Online, they came into stock last night, I've been checking twice a day since the last time they were in stock in December. Also, spoke to the dude from MIA and he said they would drop back in and to act quick because their restock supply wouldn't be large.

 

Got my tent from the Costco deal. This is my first rooftop tent so I'm working with only limited experience... but as a general observation, the quality at a number of points didn't give a great first impression.

The inside of the tent was covered in aluminum shavings... so much so that I've vacuumed multiple times after finding new stashes. The MIA badges were both crooked as well as didn't really fit the contour of the upper shell so they offered snag'able edges mostly around the top of the badges. When opened, the power cord from the light that is included fell out through the hinged floor and if I hadn't seen it, it would have been cut off when the floor was opened all the way. The ladder locks do not consistently lock on their own when the step is extended and take multiple extensions to get latched. The mounting screws and nylock nuts are either not made of the same material or the nuts are simply poor quality metal as 3 of them seized about 1" up the 4" bolts and will need to be replaced before the tent can be trusted as secure on the road (for the remaining 5 bolts that did thread all the way up). The holes for the rods that support the window/door valances were drilled post-paint/powdercoat and therefore the finish was chipped and flaking around the holes...not really a big deal, but as a person who spent a large part of my life in manufacturing, seems to say the design wasn't done in a process shop as these holes should have been done as part of the material prep, when they were bent and before painting/coating.

Prior to doing anything, I had watched the setup video that is on Youtube and think that MIA should make a video for this specific tent as the setup is slightly different than the 4 person tent that is shown in the video.

My wife reminded me that you get what you pay for... so I'm guessing that more expensive tents may not have this list of issues right out of the box... I'm not trying to be a downer as I'm happy that I seem to have saved somewhere around $800-1000 on the MIA tent. BUT... I'm so very interested in everyone else's experience with this tent for sure!

 

I just received mine but have not opened it. Will report back when I do.

I think this is why buying from Costco is a no brainer. If you aren't happy you can return it. I know its a pain in the ass but its doable.

 

no experience with the mia, but my tepui was similar out of the box.

metal shavings in there, i took the mattress out and vacuumed/swept it out.

badges sounds like a downfall, but really just pop them off to be cool.

the power cord part sounds real unfortunate. good catch on seeing it though.

no comment on the bolts, all mine with my tepui seemed to tighten fine and have been on there for almost a year.

hope your first experience through a night is better, if not ill trade you

 

I agree, Costco has great customer service... but I’m going to keep it. I think the biggest at hand issue are the bolts to me... so I’m going to shop for some SS sets to replace what came with it.

the other gripes don’t really rise to the full on dissatisfaction level... just visibility miss for MIA. I’ll take it out soon for an o’erniter and see how it sleeps! Heck... our weather has been so warm here in Oregon we can hit the mountains!

 

Update on seized bolts. After having to sawzall the factory bolts supplied off I found the actual problem may not be the bolts but rather the bolts capture slide that goes into the channel not holding the bolt head securely and allowing it to spin throwing the bolt askew when using a drill driver to get the nut up the 4” bolt... causing the threads to cross and seize.

Once I got it all apart and filed the channel slides square again, I bought stainless bolts that were much shorter and easy to hand tighten before torquing... allowing the bolts to stay seated in the channel intended to keep the secure during tightening.

Summary suggestion: before using a drill driver either get the nut all the way up the bolt so the top stay seated, or buy replacements that better suit your length need and hand tighten before torquing down. In my case I replaced the 4” with 1.5” stainless.

 

I made a review on this tent as well as the waterport. I’ll post the link for the people that want to see it.

M.I.A Mini - https://youtu.be/0Rve4kAk4sc

WaterPORT- https://youtu.be/FWxbEm8Rb8g

 

Dope videos!!!