If you’re considering an Ozark Trail yourself, you’re in the right place. With a strong emphasis on function, not only will you get multiple room capabilities and a large entry door, but Ozark also ensures this tent has a lot of ventilation options. Using a low to high venting system, low vents can be guyed out to bring clean air into the tent, while the mesh ceiling and windows help to move it out. The rain fly also provides a small awning over all the windows and front door, helping to direct rain from entering those points on the tent. Ozark provides all the hardware (i.e. stakes), an E-port for powering your living space, and interior pockets and lofts for gear storage.
Although it’s designed to accommodate three people—hence the “3” in its name—we found that at 42.5 square feet, the tent is more comfortable for two, plus gear and maybe a medium-size dog. The Ozark Trail 9 Person Cabin shares the same shortcomings as the other discount cabins found in the Ozark Trail lineup, most notably being its weather protection and durability. We also don’t recommend this tent for high winds because although all the poles are steel, Ozark Trail uses a thin-walled alloy that can bend under stress and plastic hubs that we wouldn’t trust in serious storms.
Measuring 10 by 10 feet, the Sundome covers an area larger than that of our family-tent top pick though its lower roof leaves it with less headroom. An avid hiker, camper, and long-haul road-tripper, Claire Wilcox has slept in (and occasionally improvised) tents in 11 states. ozark trail canopy tent She covers outdoor gear for Wirecutter and worked on the most recent update of this guide, testing couples’ tents and family tents. With nearly 60 square feet of floor space plus two large vestibules, the Tungsten 4 is roomier than our top-pick tent for couples.
And finally, the biggest con is probably that the quality isn’t the best with the slightly sticky tent fabric, loose threads, snagging issues and inconsistent mesh. The Ozark Trail 10-Person Tent also comes with a room divider, so you can split the tent into 2 rooms, and each “room” can fit 2 queen-sized camping mattresses. If there’s no rain, you can unzip the windows for more ventilation, and there’s a bug net to prevent larger bugs from getting in. It took me about double the time to set it up on my own (so, 20 minutes). But unfortunately, because I’m not tall (I’m 5’3″), I couldn’t get the rainfly up on my own, and that’s where I got stuck.
Because there’s only 1 door in the entire tent, only 1 “room” will have the door, and the other “room” will only have windows. The single door measures about 54 by 39 inches in dimensions, although it’s about 62 inches from the floor to the top of the door. This is almost a full-sized door, but I do need to duck a little when entering. Finally, attach all the pole clips, place the rainfly over the Ozark Trail tent, secure it, and stake out the entire tent. To set up the Ozark Trail 10-Person Tent, first slide the 3 fiberglass poles through the roof pole sleeves. It provides shelter, gives a spot for storage, and extends the floor area.
If we had to spend a day in the tent during a storm, would it be comfortable? After first removing the models that failed the structural tests, we slept, watched the stars, and ate our meals in all of the tents, as well as planned hikes from them. There are also 4 elbow joints, which helps to connect some of the poles, and this also make up the instant mechanism. The stitching on this tent isn’t the best, there were quite a few areas of patchwork all around the entire tent, so unfortunately, that’s another con against this tent when it comes to quality.
The Coleman tent is an instant setup design but it is also a dark-rest tent. Seasons-wise & climate-wise, I see it best suited for summer camping without much rain and winds. This is a tall and boxy structure so it is best to use it in a quiet area. But I have seen some users reporting of using it in the winds of 50 mph.
This access allows you to charge any devices with ease, so you don’t have to rely on a car battery. It’s the same simple process, only backwards, and it folds simply to fit into the bag. The joints are plastic, but we don’t think this would affect the strong build. The cabin shape ensures a stable and durable design with reinforced corners.
There’s also 1 lantern loop at the very top of the tent for some lighting at night. I can’t reach this either, but you should be fine if you’re a little taller. There are 2 windows along the length of the tent, and 1 window on the width of the tent. Next, attach the 6 steel wall poles to the elbow connectors (the top of each pole) and to the pin at the other end (the base of each pole). The 2 green pole sleeves are for the longer diagonal poles (with 9 fiberglass segments), and the 1 blue pole sleeve is the for the shorter pole (with 5 fiberglass segments).