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. The Ozark Trail Three Room Instant Cabin takes our top spot as the best Ozark Trail tent.
All the windows and doors also have to be closed, because otherwise, the rain would drip right into the tent. Even in light rain, the rain does get on to the window and door mesh, so it’s best to keep them full closed. To accommodate 10 people in this tent, it’s almost shoulder-to-shoulder sleeping, although there’s some space down the middle for just a tiny bit of camping gear.
And finally, the biggest con is probably that the quality isn’t the best with the slightly sticky tent fabric, loose threads, snagging issues and inconsistent mesh. Overall, because a lot of water leaked through the un-taped seams and even the tent fabric after just 15 minutes of mostly light rain, I would say that this Ozark Trail 10-Person Tent is not waterproof at all. This Ozark Trail 10-Person Tent can accommodate 10 single sleeping pads or sleeping bags, and here’s what having 10 pads in this 10-person tent looks like. 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.
On top of that, there’s also no zip down the middle of the divider for easy access into either room. To get into the other room, you’d have to remove the divider and then put it back up. 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. The Ozark Trail 10-Person Tent has just 1 door, which is a D-shaped door, and it’s located somewhere along the length of the tent.
I have decided to show you this Ozark Trail tent side by side with some of its competitors with the same declared capacity.
First off, dome tents are typically less expensive since they have fewer total parts and less sophisticated frames. Second, dome tents tend to fare better in bad ozark trail canopy tent weather because they’re rounded shapes are more aerodynamic. Ozark Trail tents are pretty much all “fair-weather” shelters, but dome tents get the advantage here.
Seasons-wise & climate-wise, I see it best suited for summer camping without much rain and winds. This is a tall and boxy structure so it is best to use it in a quiet area. But I have seen some users reporting of using it in the winds of 50 mph. Trailspace’s community of gear reviewers has field-tested and rated the top warm weather tents.
During my research on this tent I watched several YouTube videos on how to set up tent by yourself or with two people. This tent is a little heavy because of the steel poles pre-attached to the tent, so I recommend having a partner to help pop up and lock in the poles. Ozark Trail is all about big family camping tents on a budget, and few are as big and budget-friendly as the Ozark Trail 10 Person Two-Room Cabin. Rating and Summary The Core Straight Wall Cabin Tent is an incredibly spacious tent.
Unfortunately, the steel pole in the back of the tent did not lock into position, so this tent is defective. I did not continue to set up the screen porch (which has no floor) or put the rainfly on. I did go inside the tent to stand up and not hunched ozark trail instant cabin over and noticed the mesh ceiling with lots of ventilation. I’m sure this tent is good during a wind storm and rain/condensation issues. This isn’t an instant tent, but ease of use is still a high point of this model thanks to the simple setup.
This Ozark Trail 10-Person Tent has a packed size of 29 by 18 by 13 inches. For a size comparison, here’s what it looks like beside a Coleman 2-Person Sundome Tent, as well as a 32-ounce Nalgene bottle, and it weighs about 30 pounds for everything. The carry bag seems to be of okay quality, and it can be made bigger for easier packing up. It wasn’t too difficult to get the tent, poles and all other accessories back into the carry bag. 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.