When I got the thing home and deboxed it, the reality began to set in. Dozens of two-foot sections of pipe spilled onto the floor with stickers labeling them ‘1B’, ‘4’, or ‘2B’. Childhood memories of failures with Tinker Toys came flooding back. But, with determined hope, I began to wade through the instructions. That’s what we get with foreign made products. You either need six people or twelve arms to hold the thing together when assembling.
The Mineral King 3’s fly attaches intuitively with plastic buckles and has well-placed guy tabs. You can secure the fly to the poles with Velcro ties underneath the fly, so that the extra lines anchored the whole tent, not just the thin protective fabric, but we only needed to do so in very windy conditions. When the fly is fully deployed, the tent has two vestibules, which provide additional gear storage and also help ventilate the tent in inclement weather. And in a stroke of design brilliance, a small loop sewn into the top of the fly makes it possible to roll up one half of the fly, exposing the full mesh canopy while still providing shade and privacy. Our only quibble with the Mineral King 3 is that it comes with only six stakes.
Overall, these poles—all of them aluminum—contribute to a particularly sturdy structure, with or without the rain fly. During our testing, our Base Camp shrugged off both a rainstorm and a desert windstorm as if they ozark trail chairs were nothing. Despite losing some headroom in comparison with the Kelty Wireless 6 and The North Face Wawona 6, both of which measure six-foot-four in height, the Base Camp 6 offers a substantial six-foot-two.
With plenty of interior space, near-vertical walls, and a gigantic vestibule that could accommodate a golf cart, the Wawona feels more like a tiny home than a tent. Like the Mineral King 3, the Tungsten 4 has a mesh canopy, though the opaque polyester part of its walls go higher, and provide more privacy, than the Mineral King’s. Its tape-seamed bathtub floor and fly had no problem handling rain. The Tungsten’s fly is not adaptable in the same way the Mineral King 3’s ozark trail chairs is, but it is treated for extra UV protection, which should help lengthen the tent’s lifespan. Though the Wireless’s fly kept water out of the tent’s interior, it took longer to fully dry once the rain stopped than some others we tested. It uses a 1200mm waterproof coating on 68 denier fabric, which didn’t seem to bead as well as higher-rated fabrics, such as those on the The North Face Wawona 6 or the REI Co-op Base Camp 6 (each of those have 1500mm coatings).
Ships in the manufacturer’s original packaging, which may reveal the contents.
Items may be display models or not exactly as shown and may not be available in all stores. The item may be missing the original packaging or ozark trail chairs protective wrapping, or might be in the original packaging but not sealed. This tent is only $47 at Walmart, however that is not the point.
Insert the four side roof poles into the 3-way hubs. Insert the leg poles into the hubs to raise the screen house frame. Make sure that the pole end with the holes in the sides ( ) is pointing down. The Ozark Trail Screen House is 13 feet long and nine feet wide, with a standing space that tops out at seven feet high.
The fly goes up and over the tent body, covering only the upper half of the mesh dome, and then forms the glorious vestibule with the aid of a third pole. Use the extra stakes and guy-lines provided to stabilize the vestibule as much as you need. At $500, this modified dome-style tent isn’t cheap, but it represents substantial value. Many tents with similar profiles—such as the Big Agnes Dog House 6—either cost more or require you buy the tent body and attachable vestibule separately.
It take 2 people at least to set this screen house up. We bought this screen house at an auction for $5. Great for our buffet line for family camping. Sadly it blew over over in a storm last night breaking two corner pieces and the middle X broke. We are looking for these pieces if anyone wants to sell.