ozark trail shower tentWe also wanted self-standing tents, which can stay up on their own. Even so, you should, ideally, stake down each corner securely; in some crowded campgrounds, however, finding a flat spot with soil soft enough to do that can be difficult. 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. Whether you’re thinking of hitting the road or staying close to home for your next car-camping adventure, you and your loved ones will need a comfortable place to sleep. It’s wonderfully versatile and can be used for a wide range of purposes. It’s stable and tough, so you’ll always be able to depend on it for all your outdoor adventures.
Some shower tents will be far too heavy to carry long distances. You’ll already be carrying a bunch of gear as it is, so you’ll definitely want to go for a smaller, lightweight option. Like most dome-style tents, the Wireless 6 withstands wind like a champ—it fared noticeably better than the Camp Creek 6 in 15-mph gusts. The continuous curve of the dome shape allows for wind to pass over and around it. You can also get a nice cross breeze going by leaving the vestibules open.
Like the previous model I mentioned, this one doesn’t have a base. An enclosed top means this tent provides far better protection from the rain than the last model. The aluminum frame in the NEMO Heliopolis shower tent is designed to create a solid, rust-free structure, while the webbing guyouts ensure it’s windproof.
However, the Wireless 6’s poles were the best fiberglass ones we tested—they left no splinters, unlike those on the Camp Creek 6 or the Copper Canyon LX 6. Once you do, it’ll become an essential component in making your camping experiences as comfortable and hygienic as possible. You’ll be using it outside where there are plenty of sharp pointy sticks and stones around that it can get caught on. If the fabric your shower tent is made of tears easily, it’s not going to last very long. The poles should be made of materials such as fiberglass or steel. If the poles are made of a high-quality material, the tent will perform better in bad weather and you won’t have to worry about rust or breakage.
We then rotated the tents looking for structural weaknesses, and we tested their guy lines and tabs to see which tents had the best and most intuitive design for withstanding wind. To compare tent fabrics, you also need to know their overall rip strength. For most fabrics, rip strength is expressed as a measurement of the diameter of the fibers in their thread, or a denier—the higher the denier, the stronger the fabric.
With a 4.5-foot wide floor, vertical walls, and ceilings over 7 feet tall, there’s more than enough room inside for even the tallest folks to move around comfortably as they bathe. If you can afford to spend more on a family tent, we recommend The North Face Wawona 6. Everyone who tested this tent loved it, and it’s not hard to understand why.