Best Ozark Trail Tents For Budget-Friendly Camping

We’re looking at the packed size & weight of the tent to see if it’s easy to carry around with you. So there you have it, your list of the best 8 person tent instant setup style you can buy today. You have plenty of mesh around and if you have to keep all the windows and doors closed, you still have a large vent on its narrow side, see the picture below. This together with the mesh on the ceiling will create enough vertical air circulation. All of them are double-layer structures with mesh and zippered panels for protection and privacy. Rating and Summary The Core Straight Wall Cabin Tent is an incredibly spacious tent.

ozark trail instant cabin

But unlike the Mineral King 3 and the Tungsten 4, the mesh on each Base Camp tent starts high on the walls—more than 4 feet from the ground. This design is a big plus for people who regularly camp in crowded campgrounds and don’t like to get naked in front of strangers. And you can unzip the front door, remove it, and neatly stash it into one of the tent’s internal pockets—a useful feature if you’re feeling sociable. Underneath the fly, the Mineral King 3 has a full mesh dome with a waterproof, tape-seamed bathtub-style polyester floor. The tent doors are nearly wall-sized, and after you unzip them, you simply stuff them into pockets, rather than having to roll and toggle-tie the fabric.

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. As for the instant cabin mechanism, there’s only a single hub at the very top of the tent.

You could even fit a queen-sized bed in each room with a little space to spare. Regarding the capacity, this is officially a 6-person tent, but the area is 90 ft² (8.36 m²) and this implies 15 ft² (1.4 m²) per person. So this can work for a group of friends on a cross-country tour or for an open-air concert and festival. Tent is made of polyester and steel with large windows and mesh screen. I didn’t think I had a large enough space in my backyard to pitch this tent (14×13.5) I barely squeezed it in my yard. I laid down a tarp before I took out the tent from its box and it took me about 15 minutes to put up (&and I don’t like reading instruction but it is on the inside of the duffle bag).

So, if you have 2 actual queen beds of 80 by 60 inches, it won’t be able to fit into the tent, because the length is a little too short for 2 actual queens. Overall, I can’t say this 6-Person Dark Rest tent was particularly innovative, I’ve seen better dark rest features in other tents. Generally speaking, if you go into buying an Ozark Trail tent with reasonable expectations, you won’t be disappointed. None of these tents are designed to hold up in a serious thunderstorm. They’re not built for heavy winds, and they certainly aren’t made to stand up to heavy snow.

Finally, the material of this shelter is noticeably higher quality than many Ozark Trail tents, but the 68D polyester is still not as thick as we’d like. No Ozark Trail tent is perfect, but as far as full-size family camping tents go, this is the one to beat. The Wawona 6 is more complex to set up than a classic dome-style ozark trail canopy tent tent like the Wireless 6, but not by much. We recommend doing it with two people, but one person can manage in about 15 minutes. As with any free-standing tent, with this one you stake out the four corners, and then you feed the two main tent poles through the Wawona’s fabric sleeves, which go halfway down the tent’s body.

The Wireless 6 goes up easily, using the same kind of intuitive pole and clip method as our couples’ pick. The fly is equally simple to attach and orient with color-coded clips. This type of pole tends to be less flexible and bulkier than pricier aluminum, and it can be ozark trail canopy tent a pain to handle. A full rain cover, two vestibules, and an extra-sturdy pole structure make this the best choice for couples who want to get outside in any weather. It’s pricey, though, and unless the other couples’ tents we recommend, it doesn’t include a footprint.