I’m Selling My 2023 Taxa Cricket. Here’s Everything I Learned Loving It.

I’ve camped most of my life. I’ve spent six months living out of a backpack on a 2,000 mile trail, and I’ve spent a winter rolling around Baja in a full expedition Unimog. In between, I’ve owned a lot of ways to sleep outside: double-walled fiberglass Oliver travel trailers, rooftop tents back before anyone knew what they were, custom builds inside G-Wagons, and composite habitats designed from scratch for a Unimog. I say all that not to brag but to explain why, when I bought my Taxa Cricket, it wasn’t an impulse. It was the result of knowing exactly what I wanted and going to find it. (See 65 photos of this Taxa Cricket)

Why I Bought It

After the Unimog years, I wanted to come back down to earth. Literally. That truck was incredible, but it was so tall I had to rent special high-clearance storage just to park it. I wanted something I could roll into a standard 8-foot garage and forget about until the next trip. I wanted something light enough to tow without thinking hard about it, so that the question of “should we go this weekend” never came down to logistics. And I wanted something built by people who clearly cared about how things actually work in the field.

The Taxa Cricket checked every box. It fits in the garage. It’s light enough that a Subaru Outback can pull it. And the more I dug into who designed it, the more sense it made. (See 65 photos of this Taxa Cricket)

The Cricket’s Origin Story

Taxa was founded by Garrett Finney, who before he built campers spent years at NASA designing space habitats. That background isn’t marketing fluff, you can feel it in the product. Space habitats have to be light, efficient, and ruthlessly organized, because every cubic inch and every pound matters. The Cricket inherits all of that thinking. Taxa even calls their campers “habitats” rather than trailers, and once you live in one for a few days you understand why.

The lineup runs from the tiny Woolly Bear, to the mid-sized Cricket, to the larger Mantis. The Cricket is the sweet spot: small enough to tow with almost anything, big enough to genuinely live in. In April 2024, Storyteller Overland, the premium Class B van builder, acquired Taxa. When I spoke with Storyteller’s CEO about it, he told me they’d realized that after studying how people actually adventure, there are usually more people than fit in a van, so they wanted a premium camp trailer that could be towed behind one to expand capacity. That’s the company the Cricket belongs to now.

I’ll be honest about one thing, because you’ll find it online anyway: Taxa took a reputational hit in 2021 over a batch of defective axles, and their customer support at the time wasn’t up to handling it. Worth knowing. It also has nothing to do with this trailer, a well-sorted 2023 that’s been trouble-free.

A note on model years and trims. There are older Crickets out there, but in my opinion the series the 2023 falls into has the best interior layout Taxa has done. The way the storage, the sink, and the flow all come together is just right. There’s also an “Overland” version that sits higher with a pivoting hitch. For most people that’s overkill. The standard Cricket has plenty of clearance for any SUV and will go anywhere you’d want to take it.

What I Added and Upgraded

This is where I spent real time. Every one of these came from learning what actually matters on the road.

A door-mounted trash can. Sounds simple, but in a camper the trash is always in the way or always too far. I found the perfect can that mounts right on the door, so it’s always within reach and never underfoot. I pulled that idea straight from our Unimog build.

Upgraded pop-top struts. The top is easy to raise stock, but I swapped in better struts so popping it up is effortless. Pulling it back down is no trouble either.

A Victron battery monitor. The factory voltage meter was underwhelming and didn’t tell me much. I replaced it with a high-quality Victron unit that gives real detail on the batteries and charge state. If you care about your power system, you’ll appreciate this.

A second deep-cycle battery. The Cricket comes with one. I added a second, so there are now two deep-cycle batteries in the bank. It’s plenty to run the heater and lights for a long time off-grid.

A custom sailcloth shoe holder. Shoes pile up and get in the way, and I don’t like leaving them outside where they get wet, peed on, or become a critter motel. So I designed a four-pair shoe holder out of sailcloth and mounted it neatly out of the way.

Air track tie-downs. I added two air tracks to lock the cooler down so it doesn’t shift during travel, and two more air tracks with a quick-tightening cord up front to keep everything under the seats secure during braking. Nothing slides around when you drive.

A roof hammock storage. I designed a mesh hammock that hangs from inside the roof, and it turned out to be wonderful for stashing gear where you can still see it.

And the small stuff that adds up: a mirror, book holders, and little pockets for tucking away your bedtime accoutrements.

What It’s Actually Like to Use

We’ve taken this mostly around Oregon: Bend, the Deschutes River, Mount Hood. We also took it all the way down to Death Valley and spent a week there. So it’s seen real trips but stayed low-use, and it’s been garage-kept its entire life.

It handles weather beautifully. We’ve camped in serious heat and just opened up all the screens, which is lovely with a breeze coming through. We’ve also camped down in the 20s. At night we’d close the roof, which gives you a full composite exterior, shrinks the volume you’re heating, and keeps things warm enough to enjoy the night.

The standard features earn their keep. There’s an outdoor shower with hot and cold water that we used constantly after mountain biking, plus an interior sink, a two-burner gas stove, a propane heater, a water heater, fresh and gray water tanks, and two front propane tanks that last a long time. The gear loft doubles as a kids’ cot suspended from the roof, our grandson’s favorite spot, and it’s fantastic storage when there’s no little kid aboard. There’s no toilet, but we kept a small composting toilet tucked under the seat for late nights and long drives, and that worked great.

The storage system is the part I love most. Under every seat and table you can drop milk crates and bungee them in place, and there’s a tower that holds three crates plus one more under the kitchen for the cooking kit. The beauty is you carry a crate into the house, load it, walk it back to the truck, and you’re done. Same for cooking outside. Simple and useful.

A few more touches I came to appreciate: the little platforms behind the wheels for sitting, holding gear, or stepping up to the roof; a rear hatch you can pop to get out of the rain; an adjustable awning that, despite its funky angle, sheds rain and blocks low sun; LED interior lighting plus red interior and stair lights for night; a roof that accepts Thule racks for bikes. Charging is flexible: tow vehicle, solar through a dedicated port and onboard controller, or shore power.

There’s ample room for two. We’ve slept three people and two dogs in the bed, and when it’s not in bed mode a table pops up that seats two to four for cards and games when the weather turns.

Who This Is Perfect For

If you’ve got a Subaru Outback, a 4Runner, a RAV4, or a Mazda in the driveway and a head full of places you keep meaning to go, this is your camper. It’s ideal for the weekend adventurer and the overlander-adjacent crowd, people who want to get out often, comfortably, without piloting a giant rig or babysitting a complicated one. If you appreciate good design and gear that’s been thought through, you’ll feel at home in it immediately.

Tow Vehicle Compatibility

This is one of the Cricket’s best tricks. Its dry weight is just 1,753 lbs, with a GVWR of 2,700 lbs and a tongue weight around 245 lbs. That’s light. It means a long list of everyday SUVs and crossovers can tow it comfortably:

• Toyota 4Runner: 5,000 lbs rated. Tows it without noticing.
• Subaru Outback: the turbo XT and Wilderness trims are rated 3,500 lbs, comfortable margin. The base Outback is rated 2,700, which works if you pack thoughtfully.
• Toyota RAV4: the Adventure, TRD Off-Road, and Woodland hybrid trims are rated 3,500 lbs. (Base RAV4 trims are only 1,500, so trim matters here.)
• Subaru Ascent: 5,000 lbs rated. Easy.
• Jeep Grand Cherokee: roughly 6,200 lbs rated. Plenty.

The short version: if your vehicle is rated at or above 3,500 lbs, you’ll tow this Cricket easily and barely feel it back there.

The For-Sale Details

It’s a 2023 Taxa Cricket, bought new, garage-kept its whole life, low use, and upgraded with everything above. Originally $34,000 MSRP. Asking $24,000. It’s located in Maupin, Oregon, and delivery may be able to be arranged. Reach me via Medium or post a comment. (See 65 photos of this Taxa Cricket)

The only reason it’s for sale is that we’re moving and won’t have a garage to keep it in. If we were staying, it wouldn’t be going anywhere but more camping!

One Last Thing

I’ve owned a lot of campers. This is the one I’d point a friend toward without hesitation. It’s light, it’s smart, it’s built to a standard you don’t see often, and it’s been cared for by someone who knew what he was looking at. If you’re the kind of person who reads this far because the details matter to you, then you already get it. This is probably your camper. (See 65 photos of this Taxa Cricket)