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 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.
To mimic heavier rain and to test the tent’s ability to withstand soggy ground conditions, we also soaked our tents with a garden hose. A few weeks later, we brought the front-runners to a platform in an area that had higher elevation, near the Waianae Mountain Range, and camped out overnight in intermittent but consistent rainfall. The campground received a moderate rain on the second night and the roof collected water in several places, causing the screen house to collapse. This was not a heavy rain by any means as no other shelters or tents collapsed. The weight of the water actually bent several poles on the roof and one leg.
A Pavlovian reaction to super-size doses of advertising? Greed, optimism, stinginess, and materialistic guilt thrashing together in a dance of futility that leads straight to the checkout counter? To make matters worse, sometimes I’m so ashamed of the purchase that I can’t even bring myself to return it. I purchased Model #WT98010R and I’ve had it for 2 years and have put it up probably 6 times.
In other words, decently made and certainly good enough for the occasional camping or outdoor excursion, but not something the avid outdoors person would want to use on a regular basis. It’s starting to wear out and I’m looking to replace but can’t find one anywhere. Can someone point me to the person please.
I had to use every knot I’ve learned from rock climbing. There’s shade, and fewer bugs than outside the screenhouse. I wonder what will happen when the wind comes. Will I come home and just find the screenhouse ozark trail canopy gone, or will I see it blowing around in the street, trailing pipe segments? What about the rain, or the potential for 120-degree heat? For the moment, my dream of an extra room in the back yard has come true.
I called to get a replacement and the customer service person I talked to was awesome! She guided me through until I was able to find the correct serial number for the part and sent it to me right away. This product from the list of stuff that I wish I never had bought it would in the top two.
We have a love-hate relationship with this screen tent. But, the slightest wind or rain and the whole thing comes down because of flimsy roof design. After multiple storms/fall downs, the screen portion has suffered some massive wounds. It is of poor design, in that this could be avoided using 2 more yellow, curved roof poles which would not allow the rain to puddle on the roof. My husband and I were in the screen room, keeping the rain from puddling for more than a half hour.
The screening and roof are all in excellent condition, along with all the poles, etc. With two more roof poles, I’m sure this could be prevented. My experience with Ozark Trail equipment has been to reinforce the old adage “you get what you pay for”. I highly recommend that anyone looking for a good screen house spend the additional money and get a Swiss Gear. Don’t try to save a few dollars and end up with a POS like this one.
The tent also comes with its own footprint, a groundsheet that protects the tent from abrasion, which we recommend that you have. We also wanted self-standing tents, which can stay up on their own. Even so, you should, ideally, stake down each corner securely; in some crowded campgrounds, however, finding a flat spot with soil soft enough to do that can be difficult. A tent that requires staking to stand up—especially a larger, six-person tent—is unwieldy, and it’ll be impossible to set up on a hard surface such as blacktop or on raised wooden tent decks. A senior staff writer at Wirecutter, Kit Dillon has written about everything from backpacks and cooking gear to luggage and road-tripping. It is oddly relevant work for testing aluminum tent poles.
Setting up the screenhouse you need an army of people to hold the frame in place to put the screen over. Then the hooks don’t even reach the holes at the bottom of the poles. Then if you can manage to get that far, you have to run like crazy to get it tied down before if falls over. Bottom of screen doesn’t even tough the ground. Trailspace’s community of gear reviewers has field-tested and rated the top tents and shelters.