I don't know if its set up or what but I've seen a lot of QAD's not dropping quick enough and having clearance issues. All of them have went the way of the trash can.
I just bought a Cimarron a couple weeks ago and was in the same position as you. My wife is never along and a nest is too much weight so I opted out of that. A ground cover is going to be about the same weight as a bivy so I decided to go with a bivy. The problem is all the light weight bivy...