New Ticla Teahouse 4 Tent- keeper, or return to REI?

[colinhtucker]

Great concept. But bought it in 2016 though TICLA closed up in 2015. This was an REI demo. No parts list. No instructions. No help through REI.

So... set it up anyways. Mostly seems OK. A few questions, if anyone has experience with these:

how many guylines should it have? This shipped with 4. I count what looks like 8 different anchor points.

the frame- does it really just rest on the ground? A TICLA video for the Teahouse 2/3 shows the main posts fitting into corner grommets. It looks like the posts have smaller-diameter tips that help them fit into the grommets. The posts on this tent have no "ends" or "caps" - they're just open tubes. No way they'll ever fit or anchor into the narrower diameter grommets. Are there parts missing here?

Thoughts appreciated. I'm relearning camping after 30 years off and it's just as interesting as I remembered. Better with practice, I'm sure. Thanks- Colin

[NYCgrrl]

Re: New Ticla Teahouse 4 Tent- keeper, or return to REI?

Great concept. But bought it in 2016 though TICLA closed up in 2015. This was an REI demo. No parts list. No instructions. No help through REI.

So... set it up anyways. Mostly seems OK. A few questions, if anyone has experience with these:

how many guylines should it have? This shipped with 4. I count what looks like 8 different anchor points.

the frame- does it really just rest on the ground? A TICLA video for the Teahouse 2/3 shows the main posts fitting into corner grommets. It looks like the posts have smaller-diameter tips that help them fit into the grommets. The posts on this tent have no "ends" or "caps" - they're just open tubes. No way they'll ever fit or anchor into the narrower diameter grommets. Are there parts missing here?

Thoughts appreciated. I'm relearning camping after 30 years off and it's just as interesting as I remembered. Better with practice, I'm sure. Thanks- Colin

Hi, Colin and welcome.

Never seen this tent before but did watch a vid of it being put up on youtube which is prolly the same one you saw:

https://youtu.be/f_dnfCoe47w

This is what I've figured out : there are a total of 8 guyline points all located on the fly. Not seeing any on the tent's body. You can of course add guylines directly to the tent's pole bottom and tops should you feel the need.

Based on the vid the woman stated she did the tent staking off camera. I also don't see any tips on the end of the poles going into the grommets unless they are a light colour and just not noticeable. However if the hollow poles fit into the grommets with ease I guess that would be fine for fair weather or small amts of rain. Want to take no chances and close up the tube endings? Glue a proper sized marble at the end of each tube. Wont add extra tension to poling system as adding tips might. Second thinking self you could just as well glue broken to size (1-2") tips from a tent stake into each tube, add a grommeted tab to the metal tube and then add an extra guyline to each corner.

The specs as read on rei.com read respectably.
Sounds like the company ran out of funds after their first offering (it was a net based startup with an interesting concept).

No idea what you paid for the tent and assuming it was on final sale.

[Irate Mormon]

Re: New Ticla Teahouse 4 Tent- keeper, or return to REI?

Adapt and improvise!

[a65hoosier]

Re: New Ticla Teahouse 4 Tent- keeper, or return to REI?

Hi Colin and Welcome to the Forum.

I don't own this tent. Decent enough specs/fabrics, but I would return it back to REI if you can (you'll want to check that...sometimes REI stuff is sold "as is-final"). It just seems like too much is missing for a brand new tent, albeit, store demo. It's really up to you to decide whether the price paid is worth the missing pieces, no warranty, no support.