Taxa Mantis Owners?

[Dmillerdesign]

Does anyone here own a TAXA Mantis? We are about to pull the trigger on purchase of this sweet camper, but wanted to run some questions by any owners...

[Dirtymike]

For the love of god do not buy anything Taxa. I have a cricket and it is total junk. Having to rebuild it from ground up. The company Garret Finney will not take care of the issues i had from day one.

Join the facebook group Taxa DIY repair.

[Dmillerdesign]

I appreciate the input. You are the first person that has had this response. What year model did you have? It seems like the last 2 years have gotten significant improvements in the design.
I have been doing my research, on facebook groups and forums. I have even been in contact with the manufacturer and they have responded within 2 hours to all of my questions on the warranty and even input on the dealership.
What were your specific issues and was the dealership not willing to work with you?

For the love of god do not buy anything Taxa. I have a cricket and it is total junk. Having to rebuild it from ground up. The company Garret Finney will not take care of the issues i had from day one.

Join the facebook group Taxa DIY repair.

[Dirtymike]

2015 cricket.

Garret and Taxa are quick to try and help as long as it is an easy fix. However when it comes to the real problems you are out of luck.

My cricket started with leaks. Was at the dealer 3 times first month for leaks. I finally had to pull it apart and fix it myself.

Then the tent side started to dry rot and crumple from the sun. Less than 3 months. Took some time but he did send me a new tent side. It too is trash.

Torsion axle alignment. Wears tires out very quickly.

Roof hinges were aluminum. It was known they fail and separate the roof from the camper. They continued to manufacture them with the known defect. My roof came off on a mounting in New mexico. Lucky the safety latch kept it on. Yea so that was fun. Freezing temps, on side of a mounting trying to rig up a way to keep my roof on. Taxa did send me steel hinges to replace and a how to guide. ( i hope you are handy and like fixing things)

So Garret teh NASA engineer designed the gravity fill water with out thinking how gravity actually works. So you pour water in, it goes down the hose, then some how it is supposed to go back up past the level where you pour it in to go over the axle and into the tank. Yea figure that one out. I had to buy a self priming water pump from tractor supply and use it to fill my tank.

So far that does not sound so bad. Now we can get into the good stuff.

The wall panels are essentially two beer cans glued to a Styrofoam cup in the middle. With heat and vibrations from road they are starting to separate. I am having to drill out rivites and replace with stainless steel bolts to keep the aluminum and foam sandwiched together.

How about cracks in the frame.

Oh guess what holds the camper to the frame. Wood screws. One guy Michael Perez had his Tigermoth totaled from a month or few month camping expedition. Frame, the camper separating from the frame.

Doors opening and locks failing while on the road for no reason except it is not ridged enough to hole them tight. Oh so that means everything is always covered with road dust so plan to be cleaning a lot.

Rivets popping off. Which is fine. One less i have to drill out and replace with stainless bolts.

Taxa products for are subaru driving hippies that will take it to the rv park once or twice a year to get all the " that camper is so cool" compliments.

Taxa has a good idea. They just fail major on making sure the quality is there. If you join the Taxa DIY group you can see pictures and read about issues. There is another FB group that will kick you out if you say anything bad about taxa. So if you are in that group you will only hear good things. Donna will delete any thing negative.

If you want something just cause it looks cool, and wont use it much. Store it in a garage away from the sun and like fixing things. Then Taxa might be something to throw your money away on.

Funny i see this today. I was drilling out rivets and replacing velcro last night.

Oh also switches. The switches always fail because the camper leaks and water runs down the wall right to the light switches.

You will also have to replace the window unit about once a year because window units are not designed to go bouncing down the road.

I have had some great times in my cricket. I am just very angry with Garret and his excuses. And the fact that he still produces them with the same known issues.

I expected a bit more for 20K tiny camper. I am sure i am leaving out some other problems we have had. The worst being the roof hinges failing and having to drive back across new mexico and west Texas knowing it could potentially rip off any moment and kill a minivan full kids behind me.

[Dirtymike]

I appreciate the input. You are the first person that has had this response. What year model did you have? It seems like the last 2 years have gotten significant improvements in the design.
I have been doing my research, on facebook groups and forums. I have even been in contact with the manufacturer and they have responded within 2 hours to all of my questions on the warranty and even input on the dealership.
What were your specific issues and was the dealership not willing to work with you?

Oh, at one camper festival a lady had a tarp tied to the tarp awning tie offs. Wind blew and peeled her roof skin up. Garret was there. He put a bolt thru it. Imagine that. If he would of used bolts to begin with instead of a rivet going only into one side of the panel.

[Dirtymike]

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[Dirtymike]

These are recent and mantis specifically





Just trying to look out for a TBH’er. Taxa has been an expensive piece of crap for me and many others.


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[Dmillerdesign]

Thanks, we still haven't purchased and looking at our options. I'm setting up a tour of the factory, because I want to see their process and speak to them firsthand.

[Landrover]

Just googled it. Never heard of them honestly...……….I will keep the one I have!

[Dmillerdesign]

I just wanted to follow up my original post, that way if anyone else is looking for answers or input on Taxa, there would be a complete picture.

Despite everyone's recommendation against it, we went ahead and purchased a 2019 Mantis. I've never been one to listen to reviews, but it was a large investment so I at least needed to hear what others thought and leave myself open to 'We told you so'.

For those with a short attention span: We have had it for a year and love it.

We have spent about 20+ nights in it and put 3k miles on it. We have boondocked with it on the beach, South Texas, and East Texas. Our unit, and intention of use, was not going to be a dedicated highway camper and paved site use. The design and durability is top notch and suits our needs as a family a 4 (2 kids under 4). The added benefit of this family camper is it makes one heck of a mobile camp for hunting. My wife and I will be taking it on its longest trip this year to BLM for our New Mexico Mule Deer hunt.

There are a few touchy things that you have to pay attention to or you will end up in the bad review list. I did a deep dive into the reviews and contacted many people, including the manufacturer to get a holistic view of what we were getting into. Sans the structural issues we heard about, many of the negative reviews were things that seemed like problems created by the user. Structurally we have had zero issues, and the 2019 is a better design than the original models. We have had a few leaks, but it was user error, and nothing that couldn't be dried out. *even the smallest pine needle will allow for water to weep through the seal on the roof. That's the biggest issue we have found which just takes an extra minute before closing the top.

If anyone has any questions shoot me a PM and I'd be happy to discuss. We are also a 'Taxa Ambassador', which means you can come by and check out our unit if you want to.