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. Shape wise most Ozark Trail tents either come in a cabin or dome shape. Cabin tents typically have more room inside to stretch out thanks to their high ceilings and vertical walls, so most Ozark Trail shoppers will likely want to focus on cabin tents. The blackout interior helps those who have trouble sleeping, and a divider curtain gives you some privacy when needed. Using polyester for the canopy and rain fly give it a lightweight and durable material that also blocks UV light well.
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 over and noticed the mesh ceiling with lots of ventilation.
You can achieve full isolation, whereas zippered dividers can sometimes have a slight amount of open space around the edges. It’s made from steel, and the poles are telescoping which means that they extend and click into place. It seems unlikely to achieve such a fast installation with such a large structure, but the pre-attached frame makes it such a breeze. If you do not want to spend much and need a tent for occasional use, this is the item to consider. You realize this if you compare it with yet another lighted tent, the Big Agnes Titan 6 mtnGLO tent. With such a mesh roof you would not want to use the tent in a cold environment.
The zipper quality is not the best, it’s a little bit noisy, and it always, always snags from the outside because of this green rain cover. 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. The length of the Ozark Trail tent is about 13 feet and 9 inches, while the width is about 9 feet and 11 inches, so slightly smaller than the marketed dimensions of 14 by 10 feet.
For portability, I measured the packed size of this 6-Person Ozark Trail instant tent to be about 44 by 11 by 9.5 inches. Moving on to the materials of this tent, the flooring definitely looks like polyethylene, while the rest of the tent fabric is made of polyester, and the poles are made of alloy steel. This tent has 2 plastic skylight panels on the rainfly, so, when you open the top windows, you get to look at the sky, or stargaze at night, without having to take the rainfly off. However, I didn’t like that rainfly shock cord to be attached to the tent was super tight. There’s a lot of strain and tension on the shock cord, and eventually you’re gonna need to replace it. If you’re looking to save money but still want that cabin tent experience, the Ozark Trail 10-Person Two-Room Cabin is tough to beat.
The Wawona doesn’t come with a footprint—few tents this size do—but it’s otherwise all-inclusive, and it is compact considering how much livable space you get. The price also reflects the high quality of the materials, such as the four reinforced aluminum poles, which weigh little yet result in a remarkably strong tent. Adults as tall as 6-foot-3 can move about this tent standing upright.
The partial fly does a great job of keeping rain out of the upper, mesh areas, and cleverly placed vents maintain airflow so it never feels too stuffy. Like most dome-style tents, the Wireless 6 withstands wind like a champ—it fared noticeably better than the Camp Creek 6 in 15-mph ozark trail instant cabin gusts. The continuous curve of the dome shape allows for wind to pass over and around it. You can also get a nice cross breeze going by leaving the vestibules open. On sunny days and clear nights, take off the fly and enjoy the sky through the tent’s clear mesh canopy.
Unfortunately, these joints have the tendency to buckle pretty easily in strong winds, so I’d keep this tent away from that. The 4 corners of this large gear organizer have an S-hook, and each of these are to be attached to the fabric loops on the back wall of the tent. The other 2 panels at the top are just full mesh and can’t be zipped up (and are covered by the rainfly in the picture above). These windows aren’t too big though, each of them is in this triangle shape, with a longest length of 39 inches and longest width of 19 inches.