The tent weighs just 16 pounds, less than any other family tent we tested for this guide. Marmot uses color coding smartly to help you position the tent as well as set it up. Both of the doors zip open to the side that’s color-coded blue, as opposed to zipping open ozark trail shower tent to opposite sides. In other words, one partner—or one partner’s gear—is always going to get a dose of weather when they head out. To test the tents, we first opened them, splayed out their parts, and tried to put them together without consulting the instructions.
But with car camping—the industry term for what most people consider just camping—you’ll likely be parking next to your campsite and unloading. If you won’t be carrying your tent more than a couple hundred feet, more space means more comfort (as well as more room for your stuff). This dome-style tent has nearly vertical walls, high ceilings, and a single vestibule the size of an actual mudroom.
If you don’t want rain coming through, tape it up with waterproof strong tape. The small screened triangle found on the awning fabric has a couple of uses. It allows some wind to travel through, so the awning doesn’t move around, and it also helps to drain any build-up of rainfall. You know you’re protected from any bugs, and you can get a lot of airflow at the same time. You also even have the area under the awning, so this tent is truly fit for many purposes. You can take a nap without worrying about others disturbing you, plus there are 2 doors so people can get in and out from different spots.
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. Its fly extends into a huge front vestibule that can store large items like bikes, or even accommodate a table and chairs. Adults over 6 feet tall will be able to walk upright inside this tent—which has almost-vertical walls that can easily accommodate beds, cribs, and cots—as well as in the vestibule. I highly recommend investing in a slightly better tent for the long term, I can recommend way better dark rest tents or instant camping tents. I’ll link to them here when they’re ready, so that you can find something better for yourself.
He is a dedicated backcountry explorer and a trained Wilderness First Responder. Tyler has hiked every mountain range in the US and summited Highpoints in several US states as well as Germany. His favorite outdoor destinations are the Canadian Rockies, the Black Hills of South Dakota, Mt. Tongariro in New Zealand, and the San Juan Region of Colorado. Otherwise, water would pool on top of the canopy and it could weigh down and cause sagging.
This can get frustrating if people in the other rooms are using lights. Each room is large enough for a queen mattress, so you can make things super comfy. We love these better than simple divider curtains because they are completely closed off.
Second, Ozark Trail tents are affordable because they use very basic materials. All Ozark Trail poles are either steel alloy or fiberglass, and the fabrics used throughout the tent are typically on the thinner side. Again, not a deal-breaker, but don’t expect these tents to stand up to the same use and abuse as their premium alternatives from brands. Strategically placed cut-outs in the rain fly correspond with the mesh ceiling panels of the tent to let you watch the night sky at any time. The ceiling panels can be zipped up at any time, allowing you to control light, airflow, privacy, and how dry you stay when it rains.
On top of that, the zippers for the windows are small and feel flimsy, even though they’re SBS zippers. Does the Ozark Trail Dark Rest Cabin tent truly have “innovative dark rest technology”? The three-room cabin is definitely one of Ozark Trail’s more expensive models though, so if you’re shopping on a budget, there are plenty of other models worth considering. The Clip & Camp dome is particularly affordable, and also happens to be one of the most dependable models the brand currently makes. The main thing to know going into an Ozark Trail purchase is that you need to do your due diligence not to overstress the materials because a heavy hand can absolutely damage them.
But the area is 140 ft² (13 m²) so this is far too small for such a number of users although indeed it should be possible to put 10 sleeping pads on the floor. Note again that the tent is fully floored, so this can work for a group of friends at a summer festival and for other similar activities. But for a family camping, it is best to downgrade this number by half. I think it works totally fine in fair weather, so you can take the rainfly off and open all the windows for a decent amount of ventilation. It definitely won’t be great in strong winds, heavy rain, or even light rain though.
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. We found 40 denier up to 150 denier to be typical for car-camping tents; you can read more about these measurements in gear manufacturer MSR’s blog post and in this Outside article. Finding a small, light tent is the logical approach when you’re backpacking.