Ozark Trail Sun Shade: Not Worth The Hassle

The sun shield was a success considering the $50 price point. For a 10-person tent, I would expect the tent to have at least 2 doors, 1 on each opposite wall of the tent, and both my WeatherMaster 10-Person Tent and my Coleman 10-Person Instant Tent have 2 doors each. So, without tons of additional waterproofing, Ozark Trail tents are definitely not meant for rainy weather of any kind, even in light rain.

It has generous mesh D-windows, and a full rain-fly. The gear storage sacks are situated on opposite corners of the room. I broke out the Ozark Trail Sun Shade on my first outing this season. It took me a few minutes to figure out that the flaps on the bottom ozark trail sun shelter are designed to be sandbags for use at the beach. I appreciated the directions being attached to the storage bag so they did not get lost or misplaced. It was helpful that I happened to have a hammer to pound the eight stakes into the hard ground.

Again, Ozark Trail tents are mainly fair weather camping tents (so you won’t be hiking into the backcountry with them) which means weight and packed size aren’t a big priority. 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. As far as fairweather shelters go, however, this one may be the best value in terms of livability for your money.

To set up the 8-foot-by-6-foot sun shelter, spread the canopy out on the ground with the pole sleeves facing up. Each section of pole is permanently connected to the other by elastic cord, eliminating the time needed to figure out which piece goes where. An Ozark Trail Sun Shelter weighs as little as 4.8 pounds, making it easy to carry with you on your next outdoor adventure.

For the inside of the tent, when I was setting up my Ozark Trail room divider, I realized that the divider doesn’t even have a zip down the middle, for access into the other room. In contrast, my Ozark Trail 10-Person Tent has only ozark trail screen house 1 door at the front of the tent. And Ozark Trail doesn’t have the super cool hinged door feature that Coleman has. In fact, one of these doors is even a hinged D-door, which makes going in and out of the tent that much easier.

Oddly enough, Ozark Trail’s most basic, base bones shelter takes the title of most durable. We chose the Ozark Trail Clip & Camp because unlike larger cabins with plastic hubs and countless poles, ozark trail screen house this traditional two-pole dome has the fewest number of parts that can potentially fail. When you’re looking at what you want in a tent, consider how many people are going to be using it.