Product Review

Ozark Trail 10 Person Dome Tent

April 8, 2014

The Ozark Trail 10 Person Dome Tent

On a trip to Yosemite a in 2012, I was using a tent that I had for a couple years. When I reached Yosemite at Upper Pines Campground and started to set up camp, the main door zipper on the tent decided to come undone on the wrong side of the zipper and after trying to repair the zipper for what seemed like an hour, I had to give up because of a nice rain storm that hit Yosemite Valley. So, I grabbed my tarps and started to fashion a door that covered the opening at the front of the tent. It was quite a gaping hole since the door was no longer working. Well, this was one hell of a storm and we just arrived for a one week trip so this wasn't going to be our tent for the week if the weather kept up like this. My sister and her family were heading up the next day, so I drove over to Curry Village the next morning and called my sister to ask her to stop at the Walmart in Fresno and pick up the biggest tent they had.

Well, they arrived later that afternoon with a behemoth of a tent to my excitement. They managed to grab an Ozark Trail 10 person dome tent for $149.99. We found room in the limited space we had for our campsite (you would understand if you have ever camped at Upper Pines in Yosemite, as all of the campsites are right on top of each other it seems) at began setting up the new tent. Now after all of the camping I've done over the years, I've has some pretty good sized tents. I like big tents because when I get back from a day of scouting out campgrounds and need to do some work, can set up a table and some chairs inside the tent and get some work done in case it starts to rain.

So here is the skinny on this tent.

The tent is packaged nicely in a zippered carrying case and the instructions are included on the case so finding the way to start setting this tent up is no problem and the instructions most likely won't get lost just in case someone else sets it up on a different trip. It takes a bit or cramming to get the tent back into the case, but it isn't as difficult as others that I have had. Included with the tent are some cheap tent stakes which I would think about replacing first thing. If you get anything stronger than a nice breeze, you could see your tent blowing off into the woods. I grabbed a handful (8) of the stakes that look like really big nails with a rope holder on the end and are about 9 inches in length. they will bust through Arizona soil and hold tight until you take the tent down. Setting up the tent this size usually takes 2 people, but this one can be done by one person with not much of a fight. I would set this tent up at least once before heading out on your camping trip just to have an idea of how the setup process goes before you get to camp. The tent is easily raised by one person by following the directions on the bag. First, find a suitable site and stake in the two front corners (the front has the zippered door. the back only has a mesh window) then put the poles together and look for the color coded tent loops and insert the poles into the loops then put the associated pins in the ends of the poles. Once you get all four poles in, go to the back of the tent and look for the yellowish handle and walk the tent backward and the tent will pop up on it's own. Stake in the back two corners and if there is no wind, you are pretty much finished except for the fly.

Attaching the fly is the one thing that would be nice having a second person helping. figuring out which is the front is the hard part of the fly. Even now after setting it up a dozen or two times, I still get it backwards now and then. Just remember that the zipper is for the back of the tent. Once you get the fly attached, you are ready to use it.

The tent seams are pre-taped so you don't need to seal them. Ventilation is not an issue as the entire fly can either be removed and used as a screen room or pulled back to allow ample air flow for our hot Arizona summers.

There are two windows at the front of the tent that can be zipped up from the interior, but the back window is zipped closed from the outside, so if you leave it open during the night and need to close it, you will have to go outside the tent to do that.

As far as what equipment this can hold, I set up mine with 2 full size cots at the back end of the tent and have at least 2 feet between them. That leaves approximately 11 feet at the front end which I can easliy put a 4 to 6 person table, all of my gear or a queen size inflatable mattress for the nieces and nephews that come with us on occasion with more than ample room to store gear and realistically, I could have probably put in 2 queen beds in the front area and put the gear under the cots.

Headroom is no issues for most campers also as the interior height is 6 feet 6 inches.

The only other issue I would like to discuss is the electrical cord entry which in the picture above is the yellow triangle at the middle bottom of the tent. I found that when you put a cord through the hole, is sags a bit. When the fly is covering the hole, there really isn't an issue if you put a bag or something where the hole is to prop up the cord.

The tent comes with a room divider, a hanging bag for your keys, wallet, headlamp or whatever you want to put into it.

Overall I give this tent a 4.5 out of 5 and there are onyl a couple things I could imagine they could improve on is maybe some thicker poles for those who live in areas with heavy wind. I tied mine down with the supplied guywires and had no problem on a moderately windy night at Dead Horse State Park, but those poles looked like they wanted to give and without tying them up, I'm sure the tent would have fallen in on us. The other thing is the guywires themselves. They are made of black paracord and are hard to see at night. It would be nice to see bright orange guywires so you don't accidentally trip over them at night and spill your beer.

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