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. I’ve always wanted an instant tent and heard how easy it is to pop up. After I ordered the product at Walmart.com, I went to the store to pay cash. I received two queen air mattress on time but did not receive the tent till well over time estimated delivery. I almost went to refund the tent, but it did not qualify @ the time. We would be remiss if we didn’t share two features of the Kelty Wireless 6 that speak directly to ease of use.
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. This dome-style tent has nearly vertical walls, high ceilings, and a single vestibule the size of an actual mudroom. It’s also straightforward to set up, and it is made with sturdy, light materials.
The Ozark Trail 10-Person Instant Cabin Tent is the perfect tent to take with you on your next outdoor adventure. This tent sets up in under two minutes with the innovative instant frame design for easy and fun camping. This 10-Person tent requires no assembly because the poles are pre-attached to the tent. The two-room, cabin style tent has panoramic views with windows on all sides and room to stand up with a huge 78-inch center height. It comfortably fits two queen airbeds or up to 10 campers in sleeping bags on the floor.
A senior staff writer at Wirecutter, Kit Dillon has written about everything from backpacks and cooking gear to luggage and road-tripping. A full rain cover, two vestibules, and an extra-sturdy pole ozark trail instant cabin structure make this the best choice for families who want to get outside in any weather. Unfortunately, the steel pole in the back of the tent did not lock into position, so this tent is defective.
It has everything you need for three-season camping, with the bonus of being light enough to double as an occasional backpacking tent. Although it’s designed to accommodate three people—hence the “3” in its name—we found that at 42.5 square feet, the tent is more comfortable for two, plus gear and maybe a medium-size dog. A notable contender for value in the 4-person tents goes to the Marmot Limestone 4, which performed well yet still falls slightly lower on the price spectrum. But hands down, the best bang for your buck is the REI Co-op Skyward 4. This tent is the perfect mix of space, height, quality, and ease of use.
Closer to home, he hikes weekly in the foothills above his home in Utah and has backpacked countless miles in nearly every Western state. The Wireless 6’s drawbacks have mainly to do with material quality. These can be as strong, or even more so, than aluminum ozark trail canopy tent poles (especially cheap ones), but they’re always bulkier, heavier, and not as nice to handle. 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.
With 87 square feet of interior space, plus 28 square feet of vestibule space, the polyester tent fits four adults comfortably, or two adults with two or three children, with plenty of room to store gear and muddy boots. (As its name indicates, it’s meant to house six people, but we wouldn’t recommend that.) The Wireless 6 has two large doors and a full rain fly. A classic polyester dome tent, the Mineral King 3 uses two high-quality pre-bent aluminum poles, which maximize head and shoulder space, making this tent feel less cramped than other dome tents we tested. Two large doors provide easy entry and exit, and a vestibule—that’s camping speak for “mudroom”—outside each door adds significant sheltered storage. The Mineral King 3 has a full rain fly, which you can roll up halfway or completely remove for epic stargazing. It also comes with a groundsheet (aka footprint) to protect the tent floor.
The best-selling Coleman Sundome 6-Person Tent has a footprint larger (100 square feet) than that of our top-pick tent for families, but it felt smaller because it has a lower ceiling, no vestibule, and only one door. Nevertheless, it still comfortably accommodates four people, and it’s a roomy choice for two. This no-nonsense tent is intuitive to set up, has mesh on the top halves of two walls, includes a partial rain fly that’s easy to put on and stake out, and feels cheery inside and out. (We don’t recommend the smaller version of this tent for couples who might actually take it on the road; it was just too flimsy in our tests.) Also note that this tent does not come with its own groundsheet. Coleman says that the tent doesn’t need one, probably because its floor is a crinkly (though tough) tarp-like polyethylene, not a taped-seam polyester as in our other picks. This is arguably the most important category when it comes to car camping.
We also appreciated the shepherd’s hook stakes that come with the tent. Most of the tents we tested came with basic L-shaped ozark trail instant cabin stakes, which tended to spin around in the soil and slip a line. The shepherd’s hook design, in contrast, held lines secure.