Ozark Trail - 12' x 10' Family Dome Tent (Discontinued)

The biggest problem that I have found with Ozark Trail tents is that some of them are acceptable, and others are completely wrong. If you know what you are doing, and you choose a good tent, and test it before you go out, you can find one that will work out OK for light duty camping trips - ie., a trip to a normal campsite with no extreme weather planned. The biggest gripe that I have had with one was I got a multiple-dome style tent. It went up pretty well, but the fly was too small. The fly was the same size as the mesh cutout, but the problem is that the mesh cutout was 2-3" below the fly, since the fly was above the pole structure of the tent, and the body of the tent was suspended from the poles. Because the fly was at an angle, this means that there was a gap between the fly material and the tent where water falling straight down could have fell into the tent. There should be enough of an overlap between the fly material and the mesh material that the water would have to be at a greater than perpendicular angle to rain in. Could I make it work? I could have easily flown a sky tarp and made it work. In fact, for a lot of Ozark Trail tents, flying a sky tarp over it is not exactly a bad idea. But I really like my tents to be waterproof on their own, and this wasn't. And that's the other danger of camping gear: the more you know about camping, the more you're able to make bad gear work. I would suggest getting a better tent if you can. If not, get it well ahead of your first trip, take it home, set it up, and evaluate it carefully. Put the tarp on it and make sure that it doesn't look like water can get in. If something doesn't look right, take it back and swap it out for a different model. I have used Ozark Trail Wal mart tents, I have had many fun nights in one. You just have to be more careful, and know that they won't always have the good, thought-out details that other tents will have.

I have one of the big Ozark Trails tents and have used it for five years without problems. OTOH my last Coleman had a zipper problem that led to it's being thrown away. Luck of the draw.