This 10’x10′ canopy pops up easily, and will keep sun burn and overheating at bay. The North Face Wawona 4, which we used to list in our Other Good Tents section, has been redesigned; it’s now made of polyester, not nylon. Our Also great picks, the REI Co-op Base Camp 4 and Base Camp 6 tents, are now back in stock. The Ozark Trail cooler is made from polyethylene, which is the most common kind of plastic in use today. The coolers remained in the same location for the duration of the 6 day test, only being opened to snap daily progress pictures. The Pelican also features a different pull handle than the Yeti and Ozark coolers as well.
You can tell there is a serious seal established when you latch this shut. The Ozark Trail 45 Qt Rolling Thermocooler also comes with an internal tray, which the ozark trail chair other two do not. The coolers in competition were the Ozark Trail 45QT Rolling Thermocooler, The Pelican 45QW Elite Wheeled Cooler, and the Yeti Tundra Haul.
One could, in theory, purchase a new Ozark canopy every year (which they might need to!) and still come out ahead over the years vs. purchasing a more expensive alternative. Wirecutter is the product recommendation service from The New York Times. Our ozark trail canopy journalists combine independent research with (occasionally) over-the-top testing so you can make quick and confident buying decisions. Whether it’s finding great products or discovering helpful advice, we’ll help you get it right (the first time).
It is oddly relevant work for testing aluminum tent poles. As far as coolers go, there is not a ton of innovation that can be done to enhance the rotomolding process itself, so most companies will focus on their end product’s design to set them apart from the competition. The Yeti has the most streamlined ozark trail chair design of the three coolers, staying true to the original Yeti look and feel. The overall product weight of this cooler is 37lbs empty which is inline with the Pelican, but 7lbs heavier than the Ozark Trail cooler. The Tundra Haul features rubber clasps, which I really like, and hard plastic wheels.
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.
We found that company representatives are reluctant to estimate the lifespan of their tents. When pushed, most of the reps we talked to estimated five to 10 years, though the actual lifespan will vary widely depending on care and frequency of use (for more advice, read REI’s excellent tips). 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. We also appreciated the shepherd’s hook stakes that come with the tent.
We tried the rain fly for each tent as well, one time rushing to get several of them up during an unexpected rainstorm at night. When heavy trade winds buffeted our Oahu-coast testing site, we pitched each tent in full face of the blast. We then rotated the tents looking for structural weaknesses, and we tested their guy lines and tabs to see which tents had the best and most intuitive design for withstanding wind.