The shelter has a 10-by-10-foot footprint—the most common size for tents of this type—and a peak height of 7 feet. It will shelter a standard-size picnic table, but with little room to spare. With all that in mind, we found more than a dozen tents that met our criteria. If you love camping but hate eating your morning pancakes in the rain, a canopy tent can protect you from the trifecta of bugs, sun, and sudden showers. 11.5×11.5ft pop-up tent is designed with a hexagonal structure and has a spacious space that can accommodate 6-8 people and camping equipment, providing you with ample activity and gathering space. The sturdy iron frame extends the lifespan of the tent, is waterproof and UV resistant.
To that end, I thought I would put a couple of the most common rotomolded coolers up against what is arguably the most budget friendly option on the market, the Ozark Trail 45QT Rolling Thermocooler. This 4-Sided Pop-Up Gazebo from Leader Accessories drops from $169.99 to $119.99 when you enter the code BD50 at checkout. The steel-frame gazebo fits up to four people and comes with eight ground stakes, four guylines, and one carry bag. She has personally tested a dozen tents and an equal number of hair dryers. There’s a reason why makers of professional-grade canopies only use straight-leg frames. The Ozark Trail cooler is made from polyethylene, which is the most common kind of plastic in use today.
The legs are locked into place with old school metal push button locks, something you won’t see on many modern pop up tents now-a-days. These push locks get very difficult to use over time, especially if the tent is used on the beach and exposed to sand and saltwater, causing rust build up. Many newer tent brands like EZ-Up ozark trail chair use revolutionary thumb lock sliders or larger easy to release buttons, which are a much better user experience when setting the canopy up or taking it down. With the push buttons you need to worry about pinching fingers or not being able to release the button when it gets rusted, which is never a pleasant experience.
Like the REI and L.L.Bean canopy shelters, this Clam tent has a generous fabric skirt at its base that is designed to keep determined insects—and pooling rainwater—out. If we were camping somewhere infested with mosquitoes or no-see-ums and could fit the Clam in our vehicle, we’d prefer it over any of our other picks. Like the REI model, the L.L.Bean tent has ample interior pockets, a lantern hook, and a roomy carrying bag, though the bag is of the typical drawstring-sack variety. Several REI reviewers who bought both the tent and the fly for rain protection note that the fly has only two walls, leaving much of the tent exposed. The add-on fly for our runner-up pick, the L.L.Bean Woodlands Screen House, offers four-walled protection, though it’s also more than twice as expensive. In between trips, we turned a neighbor’s large, flat yard into an ad hoc camping-gazebo testing ground.
Overall, we think the Ozark Trail canopy serves its intended purpose – a value brand 10×10 instant shelter that caters to price conscious consumers looking for an affordable shade option. And compared to some of the tents in the EZ-Up lineup, it sells for almost a 70% discount. One could, in theory, purchase a new Ozark canopy every year (which they might need to!) and still come out ahead over the years vs. purchasing a more expensive alternative. We’re more than just custom pop up tents — TentCraft is a premium fabricator of all things experiential marketing and outdoor advertising.