While we recommend a minimum of two people to set up most shelters, the ease of this process can vary drastically depending on the design and quality of materials. While being timed, we set up and took down each product a minimum of 10 times. We also noted special features, like quick-release levers, that make setup easier. To uncover the best canopy tent, we use comprehensive test metrics and cover all manner of use cases and essential details. We also looked closely at the quality of each canopy tent for our craftsmanship metric and measured each tent when packed up to provide details on portability. We weighted each metric according to its importance before grading and ranking each shelter, side by side, on a scale of 1-10.
Our experts teamed up to develop a rigorous test plan, which we applied to every canopy tent in this review. We learn a lot about each model by testing in varying environments, including mountains, forests, lakes, beaches, and dunes. Each canopy was set up and broken down repeatedly to assess its ease of use and craftsmanship, separating the well-designed from the failure-prone or confusing models.
However, fitting it into a compact car may still be a challenge. The price tag may also be too high for some shoppers, but we feel the quality increase is worth it if you can swing it. During the winter and early spring of 2017, we added four more canopy tents to our testing lineup.
Jason is a native of Utah and seeks time in the outdoors every week. He spends his free time playing at local lakes, dunes, and campgrounds, where he routinely uses canopies for shade. He also is no stranger to the sideline, where he enjoys sitting under a canopy to watch family members play youth sports. Jason is also an avid car camper, hiker, and backpacker and has extensive knowledge of general outdoor gear.
You walk along this flattish section carved out in between the ridge just above and, a partial ridge just below with the valley farther down. It is pure magic as the late-in-the-day sunshine turns everything it touches ozark trail canopy to gold. We find a really cool waterfall coming out over some flat rocks! I am having a hard time finding words to describe these falls. We are climbing up a hill, and the falls are on the left but down the hill.
The canopy folds down to 52.5″ in length and easily fits into the roller bag with all of the accessories. Slant leg canopy tents are cheaper than straight leg tents because they use less material. Aluminum tent legs not only have a larger leg diameter (1” for steel vs. 2” for aluminum) but the thickness (or gauge) of aluminum is twice that of steel.
It turns out he is the trail maintainer for this section of trail until the pipeline in 4 miles! He tells us that this next section has the most elevation gain in a single stretch but he also says it is not that bad of a climb. You may want to compare the Easy Up against the Qipi Beach Cabana, the Eureka Tagalong Shelter, and the Neso 1. A handful of REI customers complain that the tent is not stable in strong winds. Though the previous version came with four guylines—the stabilizing lines that allow you to stake out the tent for added security in windy conditions—the current version does not, which is inconvenient. Ryan Gemmell, a TentCraft design engineer, explained why using two decks of cards.
Methodically, we used each tent in its intended environment — plus some unintended ones — to see just how much use we could get out of them. From whipping wind to sweltering sun to relentless rain, we set up these canopy tents across multiple weather scenarios to test them in the worst and best elements. We even carried or rolled each tent 100 feet to see how much suffering it took to move them from point A to point B.
The canopy fabric is made of a lightweight denier polyester, offering water resistant features and 50+ UPF, which we love. Being protected from the suns harmful UVB rays is probably why you wanted a canopy tent in the first place, and this Ozark Trail tent meets all criteria in this department. The one complaint we have is that there is no vents in the fabric at the peak to release the build up of hot air under the canopy.