When it comes to pop up campers, the Taxa Cricket is unlike any other. It’s more of a hard-sided camper than a pop-up. With its NASA-inspired design, you can tell by the look you’re in for something unique. The Cricket has a unique design that makes it rugged yet lightweight.
It can easily be towed by many 4-cylinder cars and small SUVs and has a sleeping room for two adults and two children.
Taxa Cricket Specifications
| Exterior Length | 15′ | Exterior Width | 6’7″ |
| Exterior Height (closed) | 6’11” | Exterior Height (open) | 9′ |
| Interior Height (closed) | 4’2″ | Interior Height (open-max) | 6’10” |
| Interior Width (maximum) | 5’3″ | Bed Dimensions | 75″x59″ |
| GVWR | 2,700 lbs | Cargo Capacity | 900 lbs |
| Sleeping Capacity | 2 adults & 2 kids | Square Footage | 63 sq ft |
| Fresh Water Tank | 15 gal | Grey Water Tank | 16 gal |
To stay cool in the Cricket, you can add the optional 5,000 BTU air conditioner.
When it comes to features both inside and out, the Cricket is no slouch. Let’s look at some exterior features first; then, we’ll look inside.
Taxa Cricket Exterior Features
Let’s begin with the chassis of the Tax Cricket. Strong and durable, the chassis is all steel and powder-coated.
To get you around in the toughest terrain, the Cricket is equipped with 15″ allow wheels and all-terrain tires with a standard five years warranty. The spare tire is a steel wheel with an all-terrain tire.
The suspension is a torsion axle and comes standard with electric brakes. To protect the exterior of the Cricket, they have installed powder-coated steel gravel guards.
The Taxa Cricket is outfitted with quad stabilizer jacks; they’ll keep you nice and level once you’ve set up camp. The 2,000 lb tongue jack is very well-suited for this RV.
The skeleton of the Cricket is laser-cut Kynar-painted aluminum composite panels for strength, durability, and lightweight.
Taxa Cricket Pop Up Roof
One of the more interesting features of the Cricket is the popup roof.
The pop up roof serves two major functions. It allows for more cross ventilation and also gives you more interior headroom. The hinge on the pop up roof is made of steel for long-lasting durability, and the tent is made of recycled ripstop polyester. The tent has five mesh windows built in.
The extendable roof is the only feature that resembles what you find in a pop-up. Other than that, I consider the Cricket a small camping trailer.
In addition to the roof extending to add cross ventilation, you also have a rear hatch that provides additional ventilation and easy access to the rear of the camper. The included 12-volt roof exhaust fan is also a nice feature and will help to keep the inside fresh.
You don’t have much room for fresh and gray water capacity for a camper this size. The included 15-gallon freshwater tank and 16-gallon gray water tank are decent sizes.
LED exterior lighting, exterior hot and cold shower, pre-wired for solar, and city water inlet are additional features on the Taxa Cricket’s exterior.
The Cricket is also solar-prepped, making it easy to power when off-grid.
Taxa Cricket Interior
The Cricket has outstanding exterior and construction features, and the interior is just as nice. You’ll find plenty of interior room for two adults and by adding the optional berths up to two children have sleeping space.
The full bed has under-bed storage that easily converts into a dinette for comfortable eating, playing cards, or board games.
When you are ready to cook meals, you’ll find a large kitchen area with a two-burner stove and a covered sink area that doubles as prepping space.
When it comes to storage, you’re not going to find a ton of it in the Cricket, but what you get is versatile and very useful. The storage tower is composed of 3 milk crates that are secured with a bungee cord when traveling. The crates are easily removed for loading and unloading.
Sleeping in the Taxa Cricket is much more comfortable than sleeping in a tent. You’ll find a nice full-size mattress that will sleep two. There is also 25 cubic feet of storage under the bed. What about sleeping for the kids? No worries, you can purchase the optional berths for them. The berths are cot-like beds that hang from the ceiling of the Taxa.
As you gaze around the inside of the Cricket, you’ll find LED interior lighting and convenient 12V USB outlets. The wood used in the kitchen is Baltic-Birch plywood, and storage is via milk crates and the storage tower.
Countertops are high-pressure laminate, and there you’ll find a capable 2-burner stove with a hinged lid and the sink with a hinged lid as well.
When you are ready to dine or play cards, you can use the 32″ x19″ café tabletop. It rotates and is easily stored when not in use.
The Cricket is equipped with a Truma® Combi Eco Furnace & Water Heater System for hot water and heating.
Powering the Taxa Cricket is done via 2 Group 24 or Group 27 batteries, which fit perfectly in the battery compartment. Please note that RV batteries are not included.
Available Options on the Taxa Cricket
As I mentioned earlier, the hanging kid’s berths are optional, but Taxa has a few more available options you can purchase.
You can buy the THULE ProBar Evo 175 adjustable rood load bars, a portable toilet, and a 5,000 BTU driver-side window air-conditioning unit.
They also have a “Soft Good Package” that includes a 6FT awning, a mesh for the screen door, and a portable shower tent.
Taxa Cricket Overland Edition
The standard Taxa Cricket is a rugged camper but for those that want to venture out into terrain that requires a bit more ruggedness, Taxa has the Overland Edition of the Cricket.
The Overland Edition adds an axle-less trailer suspension consisting of progressive rubber sprints and urethane bushings. This results in a quieter, smoother ride, plus you also get an additional 4 inches of lift, which comes in handy in rough terrain situations.
One of the best features of the Cricket Overland addition, at least for me, is the Lock N’ Roll Hitch. It’s an articulating hitch with 360 degrees of rotation and a 3-axis movement. Whether you are off-road or on the road, this hitch is going to perform very well.
The above two upgrades are useless if you couple them with less than stellar tires. Taxa didn’t want to do that and chose the Cooper Discoverer AT3LT tires for the Overland. The AT3LT On/Off-Road, All-Terrain tires. They do very well in dirt, gravel, and mud. They even perform well in light snow. Furthermore, they get good reviews, averaging about 4.1 stars on the Cooper Tires website.
The Cricket Overland starts at around $40K, which is $10K more than the standard Cricket.
Check out RV Prices and articles with over 40 RV price examples.
Taxa Cricket Review
Overall, the Cricket is a very capable camper. Its unique design is great for those who want to venture off-road in a camper that can stand up well to rough terrain. The host of features for this type of camper is excellent, and the available option adds more comfort.
Where I see an issue for some is the price. A standard Cricket starts at $30,000, and the Overland Edition is $10,000 more. However, finding another camper built off-road in a similar price range that includes the features found in the Cricket is hard.
The Cricket does have issues; however, they are not always manufacturing issues. Some are operator errors or dealer screw-ups.
If you want to explore the Taxa Cricket even further, I recommend you check out the blog of Shane and Jessica called Cricket Camping. They have a lot of experience with the Cricket and recently upgraded to the Taxa Mantis.
In conclusion, if I could afford it and were planning on doing lots of off-the-grid camping, the Cricket would be the one for me.
If off-road campers are more to your taste, look at the Base Camp by Hower Built.
