You will however need to replace the stakes that come included, as they are not the best quality. But if you only plan to use the tent one or twice a year, that’s probably not something you’ll have to worry about. The Ozark Trail is the smallest tent, making it easier to fit in a small car. The Coleman Instant 8 is spacious and the big mesh windows are perfect to let the air in. The CORE tent is comfortable, originally made to sleep 9 people, there is plenty of space for 8. If you want to know more about the selection process for these tents, or to have more info to help you decide on which one to pick, keep reading below.
The zipper quality is not the best, it’s a little bit noisy, and it always, always snags from the outside because of this green rain cover. The Ozark Trail 10-Person Tent has just 1 door, which is a D-shaped door, and it’s located somewhere along the length of the tent. The length of the Ozark Trail tent is about 13 feet and 9 inches, while the width is about 9 feet and 11 inches, so slightly smaller than the marketed dimensions of 14 by 10 feet.
This cabin style tent includes two doors and a removable room divider to create two separate rooms. The floor plan comfortably fits two queen airbeds or up to eight campers in sleeping bags on the floor and the three-hub design allows for added head room. The geodesic structure of the Base Camp tents is built to withstand ozark trail instant cabin wind and rain. It has two main that thread through sleeves, stretching between the four corners of the tent. Generally, we like clip-on designs better, since those are easier to put together, but in the case of the Base Camp models, the sleeves add extra tension and stability throughout the tent fabric.
For portability, I measured the packed size of this 6-Person Ozark Trail instant tent to be about 44 by 11 by 9.5 inches. Moving on to the materials of this tent, the flooring definitely looks like polyethylene, while the rest of the tent fabric is made of polyester, and the poles are made of alloy steel. This tent has 2 plastic skylight panels on the rainfly, so, when you open the top windows, you get to look at the sky, or stargaze at night, without having to take the rainfly off. However, I didn’t like that rainfly shock cord to be attached to the tent was super tight. There’s a lot of strain and tension on the shock cord, and eventually you’re gonna need to replace it. If you’re looking to save money but still want that cabin tent experience, the Ozark Trail 10-Person Two-Room Cabin is tough to beat.
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.
To accommodate 10 people in this tent, it’s almost shoulder-to-shoulder sleeping, although there’s some space down the middle for just a tiny bit of camping gear. It allows many people to walk around very easily without hitting their heads. The doors are around 6 feet in height, which also allows easy exit and entry. If you need more options to consider, please check around in various categories in the site, this is all about family camping tents and you will surely find something for you.
We’ve also put together a handy buyer’s guide down at the bottom as a resource for shoppers who are new to the Ozark Trail brand, so make sure to check it out. There you’ll find all the info you could ever want on the materials, build quality, and weather-worthiness of these affordable tents. It includes everything you need for your outdoor adventures and is priced competitively with a decent warranty.
So you have this extra bonus here, the ambient LED-lighted poles which provide light throughout the tent. You have low, medium, and high settings and the system works on 4 D batteries. The picture below shows the light center on the ceiling and the other shows how it looks with the light on. The front ozark trail instant cabin room is with a huge inverted-T shaped door with zippers on the bottom and in the middle. It is fully floored and its side walls are all double-layer with mesh and zippered panels. So it offers full protection just like the back room, but it can be converted to a pleasant screen room as well.