Can you provide an update on how the Skyrise test has been working out? Looking to possibly pick one up.
Adding my $0.02 to this older thread.
I rented a Skyrise 3 earlier this summer and took it on a section of the WABDR. This is our campsite at about 6700'. Later that night, a rainstorm moved in and as you can see, we were plenty exposed. The experience in the tent was great. Setup was easy, the tent was roomy and comfortable, and I loved the fact that it could be mounted to deploy either to the side or to the back (this rental was configured to side-deploy). Even in the diagonal rain, we stayed dry with the rainfly. Online reviews have complained about wetness in the corners, and you can see in the photo that this is a design problem. The corners of the rainfly drip directly on the corners of the tent. For some reason, ours didn't get wet. perhaps this was a 2nd gen revision with more waterproofing? Only complaint was that in the bright morning sun, the tent was blazing red inside. Couldn't Yakima have picked a more neutral color?
Fast forward several months, and I was able to pick one up at REI for about $900 (40% off) by stacking some coupons:
Yakima makes a green version exclusive to REI, and it's not nearly as garish in the light. Plus, i think it looks great against a red 62. I mounted this one to rear-deploy. The tent is only 1" narrower than the width of my tailgate, which means that I can use the Annex accessory to enclose the open tailgate area and create a "1st floor" sleeping area in the truck. This tent, although the same model, has not been as flawless an experience. 1) the floor won't open flat all the way. The tent seems super-stretched on the frame, as if it's too small. You have to have weight on the folding half for it to go flat, and then it's hard to zip up the windows. 2) the cover was missing components. Not damaged, just totally missing. That's a production/QA issue. Yakima seems to have addressed one common complaint about the ladder: they replaced the velcro strap that holds it collapsed with a webbing/Fastex buckle assembly. My one night in the green tent was not as perfect, either, but I blame that on the late-season cold. On a 40* night by a river, the amount of condensation in the tent was surprising, even with the sunroof open. The walls were soaked, and water collected under the mattress. However, I'm told this is an issue with all tents.
So, far, Yakima has been pretty responsive with customer service. They have offered to send me a new cover and an entire new tent shell. It's a bit of a PITA to swap them out, but it's about all they can do short of swapping the whole thing. I've got REI's fantastic return policy for that.
Verdict: Great deal for light camping use when on sale. At full MSRP, a bit of a tougher sell.
