Cricket has arrived

Work? Hmmm… I spy a Mountain Gear catalog on that desk! :)

Congrats on the Cricket, share some pics when you are able.

"Too bad I have to sit here and stare at the package until after work…"

While the rest of us sit and stare at it until ours arrives.

You've got a mean streak, don't you……. ;-)

Brad – don't you take lunch? I see grass out that window. Get to it.

It came during lunch. However it is sunny and 80 degrees today, so it will go up later today.

Brad

What version did you go with? I would love to hear how much room you have inside.

Yellow silnylon.

Brad

Ron should include a free doctor's note with every order.

Would love to see a picture of the beak pitched low!

>Ron should include a free doctor's note with every order.

LOL

Likewise. The beak height is a determining factor me, and I can't get a sense of it from the MLD website.

Just my humble opinion, so keep that in mind. I'm also no expert, so keep that in mind.

My first impression is I really don't like the shelter. MLD Cricket Yellow Silnylon Comments:

1. One of the corner linelocs is a smaller size, so the guyline will not fit through it. Had to use triptease on that corner. However that really doesn't weigh into my opinion, just frustrating.
2. Ask for the pole jacks, but weren't in the package. Again no big deal had some other poles to test with.
3. The setup is just awful. Spent at least a hour playing with adjustments, restaking, making sure corners were 90 degrees, etc. Just never got real tight or looked stable. Would have had serious wind deflection.
4. The entry and exit was good. The porch would have been nice in bad weather for cooking, etc.
5. The inner pole seemed to be a little in the way.
6. The inner net was an improvement over earlier versions
7. The yellow color seemed to attract a ton of bugs. Maybe just time of day

I'm sure after working with it awhile I could improve my setup time, but I'm doubting whether it will ever be real stable. The geometry just doesn't look very good IMHO. Again no expert. Could be all user error.

However when I compare to how easy the Gossamer Gear One and the MLD Solomid are to setup, I just can't imagine dealing with this after a long day of hiking. I'm going to sleep on it and see what others have to say. Maybe give it another try. Probably going back.

Now I'm really bummed.

Brad

That's very disheartening! I was really wanting to be able to use this as a different version of the SoloMid and/or as a lighter version of the Trailstar. It just seemed like that it would be as easy as a SoloMid to setup. Thanks for the initial review

In great customer service fashion, Ron has already emailed and offered some suggestions. Going to try a couple things tomorrow and see if we can make this easier. I really want this shelter to work. Has a lot of positives.

Brad

Keep us up to date with what you find out! Trying to decide between trying this out and a Hexamid (or maybe The ONE?)

Increased the height of the main pole this time around and improved the pitch. Getting better. Really impressed with the room this shelter has and I could easily cook inside during bad weather. Also everything should stay dry on entry and exit. Haven't pitch in storm mode yet.

Still having this problem on the side along the back panel. Just doesn't seem to get tight enough and actually looks like it is sagging a little.

I don't know Brad, looks pretty darn good to me!

One question, is it possible to pitch with the 'inside' pole to the back instead of to the front? That's one of the things I wanted to try when I got mine.

Front view. Yeah the neighbors are talking about the crazy guy outside with a Budweiser, setting up a tent and taking pictures.

Looking better! Can't wait to see a pic with the beak lowered. If it lowers enough to fully protect from the elements, this will be my next tent!

Really a cool looking shelter. I can't get my head around how to protect the front from wind driven rain unless the canopy can be pitched lower….

Increasing the pole height to around 140cm really cleaned things up a lot. Ron gave me a few more ideas on the stakes/distance to clean up the back. Will try those tomorrow.

Storm mode will be another set of adjustments. Seems to be a little more work to dial in, but this should become second nature after using awhile.

Brad

I'll work on storm mode tomorrow and post some pictures.

Brad

Nice looking tent

It seems like it would hold up less well in heavy wind, when it blows into the open side?

My neighbors make comments to me about setting up tents in my front yard too.

Brad,

Is the pitch less sensitive to pole height if you were not using the inner net tent? I am thinking of getting a solo trailstar to use with a bivy and I have Tigoat poles that only extend to 130 cm.

Stuart,
I don't think the innernet really effects the pitch that much. Your 130 would work fine with either a rock or pole jack. In my test I used a 135 with a couple wood slats and it worked fine.

Ron is probably a better source for commenting on this.

Brad