Camping is an enduring family tradition widely considered an affordable alternative to travel. As the outdoors explodes in popularity, so too does the price of outdoor equipment. The gulf between cheap, unreliable gear and high-end technical equipment is huge, and there are few dependable options between the two. There are some alternatives, and they might be a little easier to find than you’d expect. On top of that, all of their tents are affordable, come with an electrical cord port, and set up in minutes.
The assembled weight of this tent is 6.9 pounds, and it’s suitable for three seasons, excluding winter. This is a 12-person instant cabin tent, featuring three rooms and measures a total of 52.26 by 14.17 by 12.59 feet. It can fit three queen-sized airbeds and has a center height of 6 feet 10 inches.
It’s always good to think about capacity before you buy a tent. Ozark Trail only makes large tents, and it usually goes without saying that no one will stuff 12 people in a 12 person tent. Cabin tents with vertical walls allow you to get nice and close to the edges of the shelter, making the most of the available floor space. However, something like the Ozark Trail 10 person 3 room tent will force you to get a little more creative, given the sloped curves of the walls. The Ozark Trail Yurt gets high marks for its overall interior space with 169 square feet of floor room and ceilings over 7 feet tall at their peak. That’s plenty of room for two queen mattresses with room left over for some chairs, a cooler, and a camp table.
A variety of websites have it currently priced for less than $50. Many higher quality tents could cost 3 or 4 times that amount. Finding a tent within a tight budget can feel a little hopeless, but there are actually quite a few affordable options out there for people willing to do a little digging. Whether you’re in search of a large shelter to share with friends and family or a lightweight solo tent for smashing trails in the backcountry, here are some of our favorite budget tents.
But, sometimes you want privacy, and this tent offers great room options. The main room has a divider down the middle, and then there’s the pop-out room on the backside. This pop-out room is great to use as a kid’s play area, a gear storage “garage,” or just an adults-only sleeping room.
I did have a few inches along the edge for some clothes, a water bottle, and a headlamp, but that could have been made wider with a narrower sleeping pad. Having a separate rain fly for a 2- or 3- person tent makes sense because multiple people can split up the weight a little easier on longer hikes. With a 1-person tent, that ozark tent doesn’t really make as much sense. After all, I was carrying the whole thing and so it might as well be connected. Essentially, the rain fly for the Ozark Trail was integrated into the tent directly. The first good design feature is the placement of the door on the side, and more specifically on the long side of the tent.
With the included plenty of mesh storage pockets and electrical cord access, you can stay organized and connected. Ultimately, the good design for this product was that it was sized right for what I needed, both in dimensions and weight. Not too small, but not too large (and thus wasteful) – a Goldilocks design. After all, I had to be sensitive to weight as ozark tent we were required to carry our own water for 10 miles as there were no options for filtering during that stretch. It’s certainly not a technical tent, and it’s not intended for a lot of continual use, but it will serve its purpose at an incredible price. Now you can velcro the tent’s walls to each of the poles and move outside to stake out the guy lines.