The main thing to know going into an Ozark Trail purchase is that you need to do your due diligence not to overstress the materials because a heavy hand can absolutely damage them. Take time to inspect your tent when you first get it (damages from shipping are common), and don’t ever “force” anything when setting up or tearing down your shelter. The Ozark Trail Three Room Instant Cabin takes our top spot as the best Ozark Trail tent.
And on top of that, all these windows need to be closed on a rainy day. For a 10-person tent, I would expect the tent to have at least 2 doors, 1 on each opposite wall of the tent, and both my WeatherMaster 10-Person Tent and my Coleman 10-Person Instant Tent have 2 doors each. I also noticed that the fabric of most of my Coleman Tents tend to stay dry in light to moderate rain, and would only start getting wet after 45 minutes to 1 hour of super heavy rainfall. As for my Ozark Trail 10-Person Tent, it was able to stay dry only for about 10 minutes of mostly light rain and some moderate rainfall, not even heavy rain. In the following paragraphs I share just a few design features that, in my opinion, make this a well-designed product.
The last time I personally used the tent, I had a cot, a camp chair, and grand daughter’s air mattress and sleeping bag and a small plastic camp table inside. Still had plenty of room to move around and store my and my granddaughter’s gear (she was about 14 then). In the morning we woke up to a STILL warm tent (grill still running of course) and 20 inches of snow on the ground and about 10 inches still on the tent. That day it all melted and tent stayed dry inside while the fabric dried very quickly.
The easiest models to pitch are pretty much always “instant tent” shelters, which use a system of preattached poles than only need to be unfolded and locked into place. With that being said, we have yet to see an Ozark Trail tent that’s actually “difficult” to set up, so there’s no reason to limit your search to “instant-only” if you don’t mind putting your own poles together. As stated above, durability and materials are the main pain point of Ozark Trail tents.
For this reason Cabin tents are top of the list for families, tall ceilings allow for lights, fans and lanterns to be hung… And especially if you have reason to believe your idea is what’s best. But familiarity and comfort remain, for better or for worse, critical considerations in product design. It’s now December and we’re entering “the most wonderful time of the year.” It’s also time for my annual analysis of a Christmas movie. Today I want to share some interesting facts and thoughts about The Polar Express. I’ll also share lessons I believe we as designers can take from this movie.
The fabrics are often thinner and less technical (regular polyester rather than ripstop, etc.), and the poles are pretty much always made from cost-saving materials like fiberglass and thin steel alloy. Yes, we all want a big spacious tent with room for plush sleeping quarters, but we also recommend looking for the little features that can elevate your camping experience. Interior storage is a great example, as all those little mesh pockets help keep things organized and off the floor.
No ozark trail tent is perfect, but as far as full-size family camping tents go, this is the one to beat. It is easy to set up and take down, and I loved the fact that it has three windows for lots of circulation in the heat and humidity. Over a hundred and seventy dollar ozark trail tent completely fell apart on me and my daughter. I had to tape the tent together with military issue 100-mile-an-hour tape. Yes, I had to tape the tent poles together at night because the snaps failed miserably when the wind blew gently and caused the tent to completely collapse… in great weather, with little wind, and no rain.
This Ozark Trail 10-Person Tent has only 2 pockets in the entire tent, and both measure about 13 inches in length and 6 inches in width, which is very tiny for such a huge tent. The door does have a bug net, but it’s only for half the door, and not the full door. The holes are quite large, so I’m pretty sure that this is not no-see-um mesh. The best canopy tent is the ABCCanopy KingKong Series 10×10.
I had no issues with the guylines, though it would be nice if they were reflective at night. The 14 steel stakes that came with the tent are just your standard tent stakes, nothing impressive. Some parts of the stitching ozark trail tent aren’t that great as well, and there were fairly big holes, especially where the guylines are connected to the main tent body. As for stitching, I found loose threads all over the tent, something like this.
Your tents are not even good for more than two or three camping trips before the 10 has to be replaced because of your substandard zippers you put on the front door. This isn’t an instant tent, but ease of use is still a high point of this model thanks to the simple ozark trail tent setup. Just slide the roof poles into place, then plug the side and corner poles into their designated hubs and raise it all up. Two people can get this cabin set up in about five minutes, but setting the 2 Room Cabin up solo isn’t out of the question either.