With that being said, Ozark Trail does a good job of seam-sealing their tents from the factory in most cases, and with a little help, these budget-shelters can keep you dry when unexpected rain hits. Take time to treat the entire tent with a DWR coating like Nikwax (not just the rainfly) and never leave the house without a tent repair kit in case disaster strikes. The interior uses a blackout material to give you a lightless experience, and mesh windows protect you from the nasties getting into the tent while increasing the circulation of oxygen.
Ease of setup (how easy it is to pitch and take down a tent) is pretty much always a high mark for Ozark Trail tents. These tents are built for first-time and/or fairweather campers, so Ozark Trail puts a lot of effort into making them easy to use. As stated above, durability and materials are the main pain point of Ozark Trail tents.
It will comfortably fit two queen air beds or up to 11 campers in sleeping bags on the floor. Keep yourself organized and connected with the included two storage pockets, gear loft and electrical cord access. If the Mineral King 3 is out of stock, or if you’d like a slightly larger tent, we recommend the Marmot Tungsten ozark trail canopy tent 4. The Tungsten 4 shares many of the Mineral King 3’s best features, and provides 10 square feet of additional living space as well as excellent weather protection—as long as you set it up properly. Like our top pick, the Tungsten 4 is a sturdy, two-door dome-style tent that can be deployed in about 5 minutes.
This Ozark Trail 10-Person Tent has a packed size of 29 by 18 by 13 inches. For a size comparison, here’s what it looks like beside a Coleman 2-Person Sundome Tent, as well as a 32-ounce Nalgene bottle, and it weighs about 30 pounds for everything. The 14 steel stakes that came with the tent are just your standard tent stakes, nothing impressive. The 6 wall poles are made of steel, I think, but they’re probably not stainless steel, because I found some rust on one of these steel poles. So after washing your tent and I also do rinse off the poles, do let them dry first before storing it away.
I really liked how almost everything was pre-attached; this includes the pre-attached poles, pre-attached pole clips, and the 4 pre-attached guylines. I bought the Ozark Trail Dark Rest Instant Cabin 6-Person Camping Tent from a friend to make this review, and I managed to test its ease of use, dark rest technology, quality, and loads more. This makes for superior circulation, which is also customizable, as the windows and ceiling panels can be zipped up to regulate how much air passes through the tent. The Ozark trail needs to be tied down with the guy lines to remain durable. If anything goes wrong, you can replace the poles with replacement parts (around $20), and I recommend buying an extra pole just to be safe. The Gazelle is the biggest and heaviest out of the 4; you’ll need a big car to fit it, so make sure you measure the space you have in your car beforehand.
Another two hanging pockets plus loops for a ceiling hammock provide simple yet effective interior storage. It’s natural to focus on the quality of a tent’s rain fly—you need that piece to work when the skies open up. But according to our experts, the durability of the floor of your tent is actually more important. A footprint doesn’t take up much space, is relatively inexpensive, and is much easier to repair or replace than a tent bottom if it tears. The Ozark Trail Yurt gets high marks for its overall interior space with 169 square feet of floor room and ceilings over 7 feet tall at their peak.