12-Person Cabin Tent

I’m a huge fan of the Ozark Trails tents. They are easy to put together, decently priced and reliable. Highly recommend.

Oh and the 12 person cabin tent is $200 right now. It can fit 4 queen mattresses.

A 10 person tent is my fav. Actually, the Walmart brand Ozark Trails has a 12 person tent with enough room for 4 queen size beds, it’s under $200 right now. I’d go that route. That way everyone has space and room for gear. As others have suggested, a tent for big kids is fun too. Depending on your budget I’d still go with the big tent and a 4 person smaller tent.

Ya ozark seems to be just as good as Coleman ime. Great for car camping a few times a year.

I'm not an expert but IMO your sleep systems are gonna be a lot more important than the tent. I'd save money on the tent and start there. Especially with a family outfitting everyone with outfitting them all with sleeping pads, bags, clothes, etc. is gonna add up. If you're actually planning on a stove then IDK, I've never done that. I camp on Vancouver Island with a family of 4 and just use a cheap Ozark Trail cabin tent from Walmart, but invested in some decent self-inflating sleeping pads and sleeping bags. It's gonna be chilly in the tent in the morning no matter what. Just get up before them and start a fire for them :D

A large tarp or awning is something you could consider? We have the classic and affordable Ozark/coleman 10ft pop up canopy and it has been amazing for rainy days. It covers the picnic table and gives us a dry place to hang out, cook and keep kitchen stuff without it getting wet. It’s bulky but great for car camping. Having a way to organize all your items to be grab and go and minimize setup at camp setup will help with getting out more. I personally view backpacking and car camping as two separate things. Yes you can use backpacking gear for car camping, but usually I don’t want to. If I’m going car camping for a few days I want to be comfy, otherwise I may as well just hike to a remote spot and use the backpacking gear lol. Backpacking gear is pretty expensive. Not because it’s the best, but because it needs to pack down small and be lightweight. Those two things mean durability suffers and you pay a premium for the better gear. If you aren’t set on backpacking yet, I would say don’t buy your gear with that in mind. Once you are ready, that is when you should go down the backpacking gear rabbit hole so you can dial in the setup and make sure you have what you need and can actually carry it all. Of all of the things there perhaps you want to upgrade your tent for more space and weatherproofing? For car camping personally I enjoy tents you can stand up in - much comfortable and it feels way more spacious once you’re with other people. A 4-6 person tent would let you bring people with you no problem and still have room for your personal items in the tent. The point is, when upgrading, find out what features you want in gear before upgrading! For example we finally upgraded from our cheap and very large Ozark Trail cabin tent (that served us very very well) to a more premium Snow Peak Alpha Breeze tent. We knew for the tent we wanted to downsize to a smaller tent, wanted to stand up, wanted an integrated awning so we aren’t rained on while putting our shoes on/off, a better rain fly, but also has lots of windows with the ability to close them up for privacy inside if needed. For car camping I don’t like the idea of tents that have all this mesh, but once the rain fly is on it becomes a cave with no windows (or maybe a tiny widow). I love being able to lounge in the tent and enjoy the views outside! We haven’t tried the new tent outside yet, but I’m looking forward to getting out once the weather warms up!

Their fabric is damn thin. Do not use this tent in rain. You will regret it, I promise.

I have this one which has been great so far. It’s really heavy though. I suppose it doesn’t take up a ton of car space - if they got the6 person version (if there is one) that would probably work out fine. There’s always space under a cot to store stuff also.

For a week of Cub Scout camp in the summer, something you can stand up in to change is good. We’ve used an ozark trail one for the past three summers and been fine, but that’s with a family of four. I’ll thread that one below so this comment doesn’t get deleted if the link gets flagged. For just one parent one scout, we’ve used the done style 4 person tents from Alps and they’re pretty comfy, but even short adults can’t fully stand in them. At that age, most of our cub scouts don’t mind sleeping just in a sleeping bag on the ground (I’m also cubmaster for our small pack). Some families like to use the Coleman quick cabins. These are heavy and don’t do great in high winds, but if you’re driving right up to the campsite they’re super quick to set up and have good head room. Links incoming