In conducting research for this guide, we heard multiple tales of careful campers who had been using the same tent for 15 years or more. Measuring 10 by 10 feet, the Sundome covers an area larger than that of our family-tent top pick though its lower roof leaves it with less headroom. The Wireless 6’s drawbacks have mainly to do with material quality. These can be as strong, or even more so, than aluminum poles (especially cheap ones), but they’re always bulkier, heavier, and not as nice to handle.
It has a tremendous amount of features and can easily be set up by one person in just a few minutes. For example, many of their tents come with factory sealed seams. This allows you to have great water resistance right out the door without having to seal the seams yourself. This tent is heavy (near 50 lbs), but for all of its size, it’s not that bad. The ozark trail instant cabin final tent I’ll review today is Ozark Trail’s largest – their 14 person, 4-room tent.
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. Such a quick setup time is due to its poles that are a) telescopic, and b) pre-attached to the tent. So as you realize from the pictures above, you unfold the structure and then extend its telescopic leg poles.
Because it’s ridiculously inexpensive, the quality, design and weather protection isn’t the best, though I think it’ll work decently in summer (without rain, of course). The screen walls which you have here are double-layer structures, so you have panels plus mesh and you have a full protection from elements and from insects. The picture shows you that the screen room’s door is the double size and an inverted T-shape. The other two doors on the other rooms are normal size but also very tall. Ozark Trail 12-Person 3-Room Instant Cabin Tent with Screen Room is a nicely designed freestanding summer camping tent with a 2-minute setup and a steel frame.
During this period, winds rose up to 35 to 40 knots, and we experienced passing showers as well as direct sunlight and 80-degree temperatures. To mimic heavier rain and to test the tent’s ability to withstand soggy ground conditions, we also soaked our tents with a garden hose. A few weeks later, we brought the front-runners to a platform in an area that had higher elevation, near the Waianae Mountain Range, and camped out overnight in intermittent but consistent rainfall. No one wants to be in an outdoor shelter that is structurally compromised when exposed to the elements. Like most instant tents, they use a combination of steel and polyester for the majority of its construction. Steel legs give it a strong frame which excel in protecting you against high winds during inclement weather.
Here you have a huge L-shaped structure which needs 16 x 16 feet ground area to set it up. This is a cabin-style tent with steep and straight walls and with a partial coverage fly. Using polyester for the canopy and rain fly give it a lightweight and durable material that also blocks UV light well. The rain fly also uses transparent PVC for the skylight windows, which helps provide further waterproofing while allowing you to watch the rain. The rain fly also provides a small awning over all the windows and front door, helping to direct rain from entering those points on the tent. Like the 12 person tent, it also comes with a T-style door, so you can move camping gear and furniture without having to fangle it through a small, D-style door.
The 14 steel stakes that came with the tent are just your standard tent stakes, nothing impressive. The 6 wall poles are made of steel, I think, but they’re probably not stainless steel, because I found some rust on one of these steel poles. So after washing your tent and I also do rinse off the poles, do let them dry first before storing it away. The pole structure is very simple, there are only 8 guylines in total, and the stakes aren’t your super high-quality stakes. Also, I noticed that some water was already seeping through the blue fabric at the bottom of the tent, and the fabric is pretty much soaked.
Overall, I can’t say that I was very impressed with the quality of this Ozark Trail 10-Person Family Cabin Tent. I even noticed some black stuff on my hands once I took it out of the box, which was weird. As for stitching, I found loose threads all over the tent, something like this. There’s no dark room technology though, and it’s quite bright throughout the day. There’s some space at the bottom that’s not covered, and also some space at the top that’s not covered by the divider. What I don’t quite like about this divider is that it’s sheer, so not completely opaque, and also, it’s not exactly full length.