Taxa Cricket

Mal

Hey BN-

We finally took delivery on the TAXA CRICKET a couple weeks ago. We settled on the Cricket because it is in the tow-range (1700LB dry) and can accommodate a family of four. I had to put a hitch on my wife's crossover, but it towed easy. The camper has a pretty good amount of ground clearance, but waiting on the Bronco before we go any place sporty.View attachment 34021
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Our Shakedown cruise was at Conchiti Lake here in New Mexico. The campsite is about an hour out of Albuquerque and at a man-made lake on the Rio Grande. It was a little cool at night (First Weekend in April), but it was super nice during the day. We were able to get a nice view slot with shore power. The Cricket has hook ups for city water, but it wasn't available where we were.
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This is our worthless dog Miko. We had two adults, two kids and the pup. We had previously been using a 6 person tent, and it was much nicer having everyone in the camper.
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Part of why we liked the camper was the design. The rear hatch opens and allows you to get good ventilation throughout. Ours came with an AC unit (which we didn't order, but got built anyway), but we didn't need it. It also has a furnace onboard (which we did need) and kept everything nice and warm in the morning.View attachment 34025
The top of the Cricket pops up and there was plenty of room to stand up. Im 6'2" and had no issues. The cell tower mast and watertower are from the Corps of Engineers building at the Dam's power house and are not attached to the trailer.
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The trailer was my compromise for getting the Bronco. My spouse was tired of sleeping on the ground. We are looking forward to the bronco arriving so we can get to some more remote sites a little further off the grid.

Anyway, thats it for now. Good first run with this beast.

Ditchrunner

So I was looking at small campers, too. How did this compare with others in price and features?

Mal

We spent a lot of time looking around at the available options and I would say that the taxa is better on most things, worse on few, but it is what fit our needs. We set the limit at 3000lbs and that really draws a hard line. My spouse didn't like the traditional pop-ups so that was pretty limiting. After looking at most things in the size range, we boiled down to either the Taxa or a Casita. We walked around both and the Taxa was the one that we thought would work best for us.

In this size, the big thing to remember is that you are going to spend more time outside of the camper than in it. We were looking to replace all the junk we were setting up- Tent, Awning, Kitchen stuff, storage etc. with a camper and the Taxa does that. At this size though, you aren't going to hang out in it and like watch tv like you can with some of the large campers. We also had to be able to sleep the whole family and space for four is tough to come by in this weight range. The taxa does it with two beds that suspend from the ceiling for the youngsters, which is fine until they are about 140lbs or so (At that point I will kick them out and put them in a tent). If I only had to accommodate two people, I would have looked at a Taxa Tiger moth, or a tear-drop trailer.

The Taxa was more expensive than I wanted it to be, probably near the top of the segment, but its the one my spouse fell in love with so, there is that. I like the internal design of the thing, and it is different than most everything you see out camping. The space is also pretty modular, and relatively easy to configure, so that was attractive to me too. It does not have a black water tank (which is positive in my book), but it does have a hot water hook-up for a shower tent. It also has a lot of ground clearance (for the size) and tows well.

It is pretty minimalist inside (a positive to me, but other folks have different opinions) and the seating area for the table is a bit tight (again, we are looking to spend more time outside than in). At this point, I don't have any complaints about build quality or engineering, but time will tell. My main complaint is the fresh water tank at 15 gal is a bit smaller than I would like. Camping in a trailer this size is like being on a ship at sea- everything needs to be put up where it goes when you are done with it and my kids (6 and 4) don't do that yet- so think about how you want to move around in the thing and where and how you are going to pack it to make that moving around easier.

What helped us the most though was touring everything we thought could work. Everyone is going to like different things and in this weight range there are a load of trade-offs. The Cricket checks the boxes we need to check and seems to meet our needs. I will have a much better answer probably at the end of the season, but so far so good. Hope thats helpful.

Mal

We spent a lot of time looking around at the available options and I would say that the taxa is better on most things, worse on few, but it is what fit our needs. We set the limit at 3000lbs and that really draws a hard line. My spouse didn't like the traditional pop-ups so that was pretty limiting. After looking at most things in the size range, we boiled down to either the Taxa or a Casita. We walked around both and the Taxa was the one that we thought would work best for us.

In this size, the big thing to remember is that you are going to spend more time outside of the camper than in it. We were looking to replace all the junk we were setting up- Tent, Awning, Kitchen stuff, storage etc. with a camper and the Taxa does that. At this size though, you aren't going to hang out in it and like watch tv like you can with some of the large campers. We also had to be able to sleep the whole family and space for four is tough to come by in this weight range. The taxa does it with two beds that suspend from the ceiling for the youngsters, which is fine until they are about 140lbs or so (At that point I will kick them out and put them in a tent). If I only had to accommodate two people, I would have looked at a Taxa Tiger moth, or a tear-drop trailer.

The Taxa was more expensive than I wanted it to be, probably near the top of the segment, but its the one my spouse fell in love with so, there is that. I like the internal design of the thing, and it is different than most everything you see out camping. The space is also pretty modular, and relatively easy to configure, so that was attractive to me too. It does not have a black water tank (which is positive in my book), but it does have a hot water hook-up for a shower tent. It also has a lot of ground clearance (for the size) and tows well.

It is pretty minimalist inside (a positive to me, but other folks have different opinions) and the seating area for the table is a bit tight (again, we are looking to spend more time outside than in). At this point, I don't have any complaints about build quality or engineering, but time will tell. My main complaint is the fresh water tank at 15 gal is a bit smaller than I would like. Camping in a trailer this size is like being on a ship at sea- everything needs to be put up where it goes when you are done with it and my kids (6 and 4) don't do that yet- so think about how you want to move around in the thing and where and how you are going to pack it to make that moving around easier.

What helped us the most though was touring everything we thought could work. Everyone is going to like different things and in this weight range there are a load of trade-offs. The Cricket checks the boxes we need to check and seems to meet our needs. I will have a much better answer probably at the end of the season, but so far so good. Hope thats helpful.

Ditchrunner

We might need to start a new segment for camping with Broncos.

Mal

Hi friends-

Just wanted to update this thread since the Bronco arrived. We took the Cricket out for camping in the Organ Mountains just outside of Las Cruces NM. It was about a 3.5 hour drive from our house. I am pleased to say that the Bronco towed the Cricket like a champ, and (thanks to the Brake Controller I installed) it was much better than with our crossover.

One word of warning with the Brake Controller- The installation instructions put the control knob right by the window switches to in the center console. I had it dialed in about 4 on the knob and that worked great for the camper. However, at some point on the trip, the knob got cranked all the way up to 10 (might as well have been 11). We were exiting the interstate and when I went to slow down, it locked up the trailer brakes and scared the heck out of me. Fortunately, I had the presence of mind to grab the knob and twist it back into place. Everything was fine after that. Make sure you dont hit the knob, and that you can get to it quickly if it gets out of adjustment.

No problems towing with the 2.7. I was getting around 13-15 MPG towing this thing. My trailer jack was pretty close to the spare, and i had to make sure I was lined up strait or the Jack hit the tire when I was cranking the wheel up or down. No rubbing on turns though, so that is something I can live with.

Here it is popped-up for scale.



Afternoon sunset over the mountains...

...And morning sunrise on them.

We were close to White Sands National park (about a 30 minute drive) so we hung out there for the afternoon.





I also field tested the slide out tailgate, and it worked as advertised. And yes those are crocs.
Thats the new puppy Stella in front, and Miko in the back. Both dogs rode okay in the Bronco in the back, Kids in the rear seats and the spouse and I up front.

All in all a great shakedown cruise with the Bronco towing the Cricket. We have a lot of camping planned for the spring and summer and are looking forward to getting the Cricket a little further off road that we were previously able to do. I have no doubt the bronco can get it there.

Jakob1972

When we are in the teardrop we will stay at camp grounds with showers/bathrooms some times when we don’t have facilities or middle of the night potty breaks we use something like this put a trash bag in there and a baby diaper or even a dog piddle pad if you want to use it more than one night drop one of those RV toilet smelly pods in there. when you are done just throw it away.
https://www.campingworld.com/relian...I-tTSl0jaF056vWc7HgaAqiOEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

Mal

Hi friends-

Just wanted to update this thread since the Bronco arrived. We took the Cricket out for camping in the Organ Mountains just outside of Las Cruces NM. It was about a 3.5 hour drive from our house. I am pleased to say that the Bronco towed the Cricket like a champ, and (thanks to the Brake Controller I installed) it was much better than with our crossover.

One word of warning with the Brake Controller- The installation instructions put the control knob right by the window switches to in the center console. I had it dialed in about 4 on the knob and that worked great for the camper. However, at some point on the trip, the knob got cranked all the way up to 10 (might as well have been 11). We were exiting the interstate and when I went to slow down, it locked up the trailer brakes and scared the heck out of me. Fortunately, I had the presence of mind to grab the knob and twist it back into place. Everything was fine after that. Make sure you dont hit the knob, and that you can get to it quickly if it gets out of adjustment.

No problems towing with the 2.7. I was getting around 13-15 MPG towing this thing. My trailer jack was pretty close to the spare, and i had to make sure I was lined up strait or the Jack hit the tire when I was cranking the wheel up or down. No rubbing on turns though, so that is something I can live with.

Here it is popped-up for scale.



Afternoon sunset over the mountains...

...And morning sunrise on them.

We were close to White Sands National park (about a 30 minute drive) so we hung out there for the afternoon.





I also field tested the slide out tailgate, and it worked as advertised. And yes those are crocs.
Thats the new puppy Stella in front, and Miko in the back. Both dogs rode okay in the Bronco in the back, Kids in the rear seats and the spouse and I up front.

All in all a great shakedown cruise with the Bronco towing the Cricket. We have a lot of camping planned for the spring and summer and are looking forward to getting the Cricket a little further off road that we were previously able to do. I have no doubt the bronco can get it there.

Mal

Hi friends-

Just wanted to update this thread since the Bronco arrived. We took the Cricket out for camping in the Organ Mountains just outside of Las Cruces NM. It was about a 3.5 hour drive from our house. I am pleased to say that the Bronco towed the Cricket like a champ, and (thanks to the Brake Controller I installed) it was much better than with our crossover.

One word of warning with the Brake Controller- The installation instructions put the control knob right by the window switches to in the center console. I had it dialed in about 4 on the knob and that worked great for the camper. However, at some point on the trip, the knob got cranked all the way up to 10 (might as well have been 11). We were exiting the interstate and when I went to slow down, it locked up the trailer brakes and scared the heck out of me. Fortunately, I had the presence of mind to grab the knob and twist it back into place. Everything was fine after that. Make sure you dont hit the knob, and that you can get to it quickly if it gets out of adjustment.

No problems towing with the 2.7. I was getting around 13-15 MPG towing this thing. My trailer jack was pretty close to the spare, and i had to make sure I was lined up strait or the Jack hit the tire when I was cranking the wheel up or down. No rubbing on turns though, so that is something I can live with.

Here it is popped-up for scale.



Afternoon sunset over the mountains...

...And morning sunrise on them.

We were close to White Sands National park (about a 30 minute drive) so we hung out there for the afternoon.




Beautiful photos. Thank you for sharing these.
I also field tested the slide out tailgate, and it worked as advertised. And yes those are crocs.
Thats the new puppy Stella in front, and Miko in the back. Both dogs rode okay in the Bronco in the back, Kids in the rear seats and the spouse and I up front.

All in all a great shakedown cruise with the Bronco towing the Cricket. We have a lot of camping planned for the spring and summer and are looking forward to getting the Cricket a little further off road that we were previously able to do. I have no doubt the bronco can get it there.