Issues with my Eezi-Awn

[MaddBaggins]

I have no experience with RTT's until I got my AT w/Eezi-Awn 1800. So I don't know if this is normal stuff or if I have a problem, but my thinking is if the RTT cost $1800 it should not have issues. I have 3 different ground tents that have been used and abused for a dozen years and have no issues (2 Sierra Designs and 1 REI). I've spent 11 night in my Eezi-Awn so far and have a short list of small issues.

In order of me noticing them:

1) The top 1/2 of the tent floor bows out a little. When I open it I have to push up on the center of the floor or it won't seat correctly at the seam.

2) The nuts and bolts of the hinge came loose and fell out. I had to re-assemble the hinges with some new nuts and bolts and some locktight.

3) The tensions strap for the cover is starting to rip the seams out of the pocket it rides in (hope you understand what I'm saying). Need to try to re-sew all the corners of it, but haven't yet. The cover also has a few spots that look like they are wearing thru.

4) One of the buckles that holds the fly down is beginning to fray at the tent seam. I plan to carefully burn the edge to stop the fraying.

So like I said, I have only 11 nights in it so far. No rain or snow storms, just sunlight and mild wind. I keep it stored inside the garage when not in use.

Is this what I get for an $1800 dollar tent? Am I being silly? I purchased it thru AT, but they didn't make the product, so I didn't want to bug them about my issues. I do hope the gentlemen at AT will chime in here though.
I'm looking for the advice of those of you that have more experience with these things. Did I get a lemon or is this normal stuff to work thru?

Thanks in advance.

 

[RAM5500 CAMPERTHING]

Hey Alvin

You are not alone! I kept my mouth shut, cause i felt we were the only 2 folks with issues, but since you piped up, i will chime in.

I know there are tons of folks running these and swearing by them, so i have been hesitant to post up any complaints publicly thinking i was either being too nit picky or we got 2 lemons!

My partner and i both both Eezi-Awns when we started the company as we were going to be dealers for them.

I got the 1800 and my partner got the 2200. Total investment of $4000!

Right off the bat, we noticed some issues:

1800
-Cover covered with horrible glue around the velcro area, gets everywhere
-Cover seems sewn crooked and some seems were missed (leaving gaps)
-Stiching around bungy cords on the inside had some zig zag and missed seems, causing the gap to spread over time,
-One of the holes for the spring rods wasnt even drilled out, i needed to drill it
-Mattress is horrible for someone heavy (i am 275lbs) and my mombasa mattress was much more comfy
-After usage, cover starting to tear at the corners from usage. Carpet re-enforcement is not well placed to protect against this. If you loosen the cover so it isnt pressured it flaps in the wind, its a catch 22
-Tent arrived in the box with what looks like a "mold ring" in the wood. It is about 6" in diameter and hasnt grown any, so i think its a non-issue

2200
-Cover covered with horrible glue around the velcro area, gets everywhere
-(2) of the black clips ripped off when we first opened it!
-One of the little things that holds the divider in place ripped off the first time it was used

These are all MINOR issues, but the fact that these things cost as much as they do and need "some fixing" does not sit well with me. We dropped Eezi-Awn from our lineup.

One thing that MUST be said though is that Paul May from Equipt, who is the US distributor for these, has been absolutely awesome helping us deal with them. Even offered to replace them, free of charge. We have a friend that sews parachutes for a living that fixed our issues, so these drastic measures werent needed, but i thought it was very cool of him to stand behind these thing so well!

Paul sent us 2 new covers for the tents and to our surprise, the new ones are a little different, but not as you would expect:

-The glue around the velcro is gone, which is nice
-The material is even thinner
-There are now NO re-enforcements @ the corners!

We are basically sitting on (2) "modified" Eezi-Awn tents fixed up to take on the world, that need to have covers made for them!

Or we can try to make one "tough" cover out of the 2, kinda bothers me, but there is nothing else we can do!

My girlfriend absolutely LOVES the Eezi-Awn and said i "cant" sell it!

But if it were up to me, i would be selling it for an AutoHome Maggiolina hard shell.

3) The tensions strap for the cover is starting to rip the seams out of the pocket it rides in (hope you understand what I'm saying). Need to try to re-sew all the corners of it, but haven't yet. The cover also has a few spots that look like they are wearing thru.

Exact same issue we are having as well!

When i have my buddy re-sew the corners, i am going to see if he can sew some nice re-enforcement pieces into the NEW cover as well and maybe that will help!

The whole cover issue with the Eezi-Awn really bothers me!

 

[MaddBaggins]

I was really hoping I got a lemon. It seems that the issues are similar. Bummer.
I knew about the glue issue and I had it also. From what I understand, they don't do that anymore. I let that one slide.
I also weigh 275, and I scored a foam pad from Bed Bath and Beyond for $20. It added 1/2 of soft foam to the deal. It is much nicer now.

 

[Martyn]

Alvin

Sorry you are having issues with your tent.

I have some solutions for you.

The 1800 is a wide tent and it was originally fitted with stainless steel hinges of the same gauge as the 1600 and 1400. The hinges allow some bowing of the platform. Since then Eezi Awn has come out with a thicker gauge steel for the hinges of the 1800 and it's solved most of the issues.

I don't know what it is about bolts and nylocks on products made overseas, but the nuts can work them selves off. I've seen it on almost every roof top tent we have dealt with. I replace them with 1/4 20 nylocks and it seems to do the trick.

The ratchet strap on the cover needs to pull evenly and to get a good fit on the cover it takes a little work to make sure all the sides are pulling in at the same time and not just one side. If one side is tensioning more than the others it has the potential to damage the cover. You can put a lot a pressure on the cover with the ratchet strap. I too had a problem at first getting the cover to fit and Eddie from Frog's Island gave me a quick lesson on how it's done.

The cover needs to be snug so it doesn't blow around but too snug can cause damage. If your cover is showing wear take some pictures and send them to Paul. He'll work with you on it.

The fraying at the buckle on the fly sheet I haven't seen before, send me a picture.

And no I don't think you are being silly, these are good long lasting tents, and if looked after well last for 20 years.

Boston Mangler, We asked Eezi Awn not to use the sticky silicon, they had been using it to hold the zips in place before sewing. They no longer use the product.

If you do have the sticky silicon issue with your tent it can be removed with Orange cleaner.

Finally if you are having problems with the cover please let us know, we can either put something together on best practices for fitting the cover, or if you have design changes that you think would help with the cover send them to Paul. Eezi Awn is a great company to work with and they want their customers to be happy. That's both Paul at Equip 1 and Eezi Awn in South Africa.

 

[Connie]

That does not sound good! We have some friends with 2 Eezi-Awns (I think theirs were built around 2003) on their Landy that have spent 400+ nights in them, and the only problem they had was a zipper failure. (And a crack in the roof of the truck, but that's another story) Maybe you got one that was built on a Friday.

Ours is a Techni-top and so far (knock on wood) no problems other than needing a new cover after 250+ nights in it. The only other tent I have had experience with was a Howling Moon, it was a rental so I didn't spend a lot of time in it, but I did spend about 10 nights and the only problem was that the cover zipped on, so in the sand and dust there was quite a bit of swearing associated with covering and uncovering the tent.

I would say that what you have experienced is not normal for an Eezi-Awn. It's not so easy to complain to the factory when it is on the other side of the planet

 

[Martyn]

I would say that what you have experienced is not normal for an Eezi-Awn. It's not so easy to complain to the factory when it is on the other side of the planet

Connie, I think you are correct in saying it's not normal for an Eezi Awn tent.

You don't have to complain half the world away, Paul is in Salt Lake City and is one of the most straight forward guys I know. Between him and AT we'll make sure the issues are taken care of pronto.

 

[RAM5500 CAMPERTHING]

Boston Mangler, We asked Eezi Awn not to use the sticky silicon, they had been using it to hold the zips in place before sewing. They no longer use the product. If you do have the sticky silicon issue with your tent it can be removed with Orange cleaner.

Thanks Martyn. Yeah, Paul turned me on to some orange stuff that worked great and removed all the goo.

Finally if you are having problems with the cover please let us know, we can either put something together on best practices for fitting the cover,

Yeah, i have tried 6 ways to Sunday with it, consider myself somewhat savy about stuff like this, and i think its just a funky design that should be tweaked some.

or if you have design changes that you think would help with the cover send them to Paul.

I have!

IMHO the tents will outlast the covers 10:1

I think they really need to revamp their covers! The new ones paul sent me are of thinner (by a good margin) material and have ZERO re-enforcement at ANY of the corners, couple that with the sharp alumium edges, and regadless "who fits it how" they are going to tear through it quickly!

I havent jumped ship yet, but am still waiting to hear from from a friend of mine that is currently looking at revamping the existing "new" cover that Paul sent over with some re-enforcements and such. He is busy as hell and has had the cover for a few weeks, so hopefully i hear back soon!

Also looking into the possibilty of instead of re-enforcing the COVER, putting some rubber corner guard thingys on the sharp aluminum. Still trying to figure this out, but am still a little miffed that this needs to be done on such a high dollar item!

Eezi Awn is a great company to work with and they want their customers to be happy. That's both Paul at Equip 1 and Eezi Awn in South Africa.

Yes, Paul has been awesome throughout this whole thing!

Big thanks to You as well Martyn for chiming in also!

Thank You!

 

[RAM5500 CAMPERTHING]

I also weigh 275, and I scored a foam pad from Bed Bath and Beyond for $20. It added 1/2 of soft foam to the deal. It is much nicer now.

Yeah, i use my thermarest, but its another one of those "I spent $1800 on this thing and shouldnt need to do, or add anything to it"

Then i think, hmmm, how many folks in South Africa are 275lbs?

 

[MaddBaggins]

It is altogether possible that I am overtightening the cover. I'll be careful with that from now on. I'll take the tent out and open it up this weekend and get you a pic of the buckle Martyn.
Thanks for chiming in.
So not much I can do about the floor bowing, huh.

 

[Connie]

Originally posted by Martyn
You don't have to complain half the world away, Paul is in Salt Lake City and is one of the most straight forward guys I know. Between him and AT we'll make sure the issues are taken care of pronto.

Yeah, I just always hate having to complain to the distributer of a product, because it's not their fault. I know, I know, part of the job blah blah blah :sport_box

Originally posted by MaddBaggins
So not much I can do about the floor bowing, huh.

Sleep heavier??

 

[Martyn]

It is altogether possible that I am overtightening the cover. I'll be careful with that from now on. I'll take the tent out and open it up this weekend and get you a pic of the buckle Martyn.
Thanks for chiming in.
So not much I can do about the floor bowing, huh.

Yes a few things we can do for the bowing.

1) Make sure the tent is attached to the centre roof bar, if not we can send you some brackets. That will pull any bow out of the center of the floor.

2) We can replace the hinges with the new thicker gauge model.

The bowing doesn't happen with all of them, and I'm not sure what causes it. On a couple of tents we have put shims under the outer brackets to lift the floor up and no shims in the center to take the bow out. Having the lower floor straight is usually enough to get the two halves to mate.

Again on the cover we'll come up with best practices and post it as a pdf on the forum for everyone. Any ideas on a cover redesign e mail them to me and we'll put it to Paul and Eezi Awn. Sketches on napkins are considered essential.

 

[articulate]

It is altogether possible that I am overtightening the cover.

Mmmm, yeah. I think the ratcheting strap around the cover is actually overkill - we men will just crank on that sucker, then the seams will split and we'll cry "foul" on the manufacturer. It's my experience (series II 1200, purchased March 2006) that the tent needs a ratchet around the top and bottom to get that sucker to collapse/compress more with bedding inside. The bottom of the cover could probably just use that sweet bungee stuff.

The only failure with that ratchet strap is that we think it needs to be cranked down hard. <- My opinion, of course.

Cheers,
Mark

 

[MaddBaggins]

. It's my experience (series II 1200, purchased March 2006) that the tent needs a ratchet around the top and bottom to get that sucker to collapse/compress more with bedding inside. The bottom of the cover could probably just use that sweet bungee stuff.

I think that would be perfect. Great idea Mark.

 

[Martyn]

Mmmm, yeah. I think the ratcheting strap around the cover is actually overkill - we men will just crank on that sucker, then the seams will split and we'll cry "foul" on the manufacturer. It's my experience (series II 1200, purchased March 2006) that the tent needs a ratchet around the top and bottom to get that sucker to collapse/compress more with bedding inside. The bottom of the cover could probably just use that sweet bungee stuff.

The only failure with that ratchet strap is that we think it needs to be cranked down hard. <- My opinion, of course.

Cheers,
Mark

Mark

There be some words of wisdom here.

 

[RAM5500 CAMPERTHING]

Thoughts from others on the corner re-enforcing inside the cover?