The shelter has a 10-by-10-foot footprint—the most common size for tents of this type—and a peak height of 7 feet. It will shelter a standard-size picnic table, but with little room to spare. With all that in mind, we found more than a dozen tents that met our criteria. If you love camping but hate eating your morning pancakes in the rain, a canopy tent can protect you from the trifecta of bugs, sun, and sudden showers. 11.5×11.5ft pop-up tent is designed with a hexagonal structure and has a spacious space that can accommodate 6-8 people and camping equipment, providing you with ample activity and gathering space. The sturdy iron frame extends the lifespan of the tent, is waterproof and UV resistant.
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. As far as color options go, you can purchase this in one of two colors, Greystone which is the one featured in this article and a lighter grey. The constant color feature among the two are the orange rimmed wheels which I don’t love but, it is not a deal breaker. The coolers in competition were the Ozark Trail 45QT Rolling Thermocooler, The Pelican 45QW Elite Wheeled Cooler, and the Yeti Tundra Haul.
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. So there you have it, when looking at just the ability to keep ice cold over a period of 6 days the Pelican has just slightly won, but we are talking about decimal points. I have to say that I am very impressed with the performance of the Ozark Trail 45Q cooler. This cooler is not only smaller in its overall size but also a fraction of the price of the competition. Like the Ozark Trail 45 Qt Rolling Thermocooler, the Pelican 45QW Elite Wheeled Cooler includes a lid with inch notches and also includes centimeters for those outside of the United States. Similar to the Ozark Trail cooler, the Pelican features orange wheel rims and also has orange clasp accents.
No, that is not always the case and any outdoorsmen, gear junkie, or general abuser of products will tell you the same thing. Every so often a brand will fly under the radar producing products that are not only a great value but also great quality as well. The Coleman 15 × 13 Instant Screenhouse is essentially a larger version of the Coleman 10 × 10 Instant Screened Canopy, and it has similar shortcomings. The sloping walls make the interior space feel much smaller than the generous footprint might lead you to expect. The mesh doesn’t seem particularly durable, and given the cap-like roof, the shade provided is much more limited than with our top-pick tents.
During the winter and early spring of 2017, we added four more canopy tents to our testing lineup. In addition to the models from REI and L.L.Bean, which became our new top picks, we tested the Coleman 15 × 13 Instant Screenhouse and the Wenzel Sun Valley Screen House. Fellow campers and sun-baked spectators consistently gravitated toward the REI shelter over the L.L.Bean. Though the two tents have the same footprint, the REI’s roof is 6 inches taller; we found that the higher ceiling made the REI shelter feel significantly roomier inside. The REI Co-op Screen House Shelter is an intuitively designed, easy-to-erect picnic tent that offers protection from sun, bugs, and mild rain showers. Though the boxy design is basic, in our tests we found that this camping shelter offered the best combination of functionality, durability, and affordability of all the tents we tried.
When you are out on the water, people often sneak over to grab something from the cooler and may not latch it back up. With a hard plastic latch, you run the risk of brushing by the cooler and hitting your shin, which I have done and is awful. One of my favorite features though is the rubber wheels vs. the hard plastic wheels on the Pelican and ozark trail canopy Yeti. Not only will the rubber allow for a slightly smoother roll when you are pull this cooler along, but it will also be quieter. Rounding out the exterior is a lid that features 4 cup holders and inch notches for measuring your catch of the day. I spend a great deal of time on the water every summer boating and fishing in Northern Michigan.
I will often load a large cooler up at the beginning of the week and leave it on my Pontoon packed with drinks and ice. If you have a boat and bring kids or friends on the water, you know that once you leave the dock the requests for drinks start rolling in fast and furious. Sure, you can load a cooler out each morning packed with fresh ice, but it is just so much easier to cut down all that work with a cooler than can keep ice for days on end. Our journalists combine independent research with (occasionally) over-the-top testing so you can make quick and confident buying decisions.
If it combines metal, fabric and print our team of skilled craftsmen can transform any napkin sketch or wild idea into a fully realized project. Serving the biggest brands on the planet as well as your local High School, if you want the perfect blend of quality and American craftsmanship, we’ve got you covered. Rest assured, too, when we say we’re not using this article to sway you to buy a heavy-duty pop-up canopy tent from TentCraft.
As we mentioned above, the canopy of a 10×10 slant leg tent is 40% smaller than a straight leg canopy tent of the same size. So, right off the bat, you’re saving money because there is less soft goods material. The canopy tent has mesh walls on all four sides and an edge of polyester fabric (also DWR treated) at the ground that deters mosquitos and other critters from invading from below.
I chose these coolers because they were the closest among the brands when it came to internal storage. We set up the REI Screen House Shelter and L.L.Bean’s Woodlands Screen House side by side in the Mojave Desert in 100-degree temps. Fellow campers consistently gravitated toward the REI shelter over the L.L.Bean. Digging our toes in the sand under one of the best full-overhead coverage beach tents on the market. “There’s less scissor material, which means less total metal – and that’s why some of these companies can sell a tent for under $100,” Gemmell said.