Ozark Trail - 20-Person Cabin Tent

I’ll be the dissenting opinion here! I have a 16 person Ozark Trail that’s going on 6 uses and we love it. We actually used it this past weekend and it was one of if not our best camping trip ever. I bought it because we were at a campsite that had a tent limit but not a person limit. I also wanted to be able to run a window AC unit because it was on the edge of the season where it could be cool and could be hot . I bought 3 different really freaking huge tents back in like 2018 and set them up to test. One was a Ozark 20 person red tent but I really preferred this tent because it’s effectively 2 or 3 rooms with a living room in the middle. What usually happens is my wife and I take a “wing”, my sister and BIL take the other wing and then all the kids pile into the middle. It’s heavy AF, I wouldn’t trust it in major rainfall and it’s probably not gonna last 100 uses but I honestly love it and we have a lot of fun with it. I paid $150. This is ours https://www.walmart.com/ip/Ozark-Trail-16-Person-3-Room-Family-Cabin-Tent-with-3-Entrances/518694841

I think I have the same Taj Mahal Walmart tent. It has like “three rooms”. I can fit like four queen mattresses in it all together and touching though. We absolutely love it. We bring two inflatable mattresses and leave one room as a “storage room” for supplies. You don’t need a stool to put it together. The put up and tear down is easy. I’ve done it alone but it’s obviously easier to do with another person. I second what someone has said above. We went camping with our huge tent and the tent sites were extremely small and we couldn’t fit. We had to upgrade to an RV site at the same campground. Which honestly was great, because it had a long paved “driveway” we kind of positioned it at the end and my kids could drive their bikes on a long flat surface that wasn’t an actual roadway. The only issue you might run into booking an RV site instead of a tent camp site is that you can’t “stake” into a paved area so it has to be a site that has enough green space around it to set up. Highly depends on where you are.

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

It should be just fine for your use case if weight isn’t a factor. I own expensive tents but I also have a cheap $30 Ozark trail tent I bought in 2019, only use it for local 1 nighters and it’s still fine. Only thing I’d recommend is hit all the seams with water proofing spray, especially around the bottom where the fabric is stitched to the tarp floor. I just buy the 3M stuff that is recommended for outdoors, think it has a tent picture on the spray can.

I have the same one. Perfect for one.

Ozark trail makes some solid stuff for the price. I say go for it.

This will not be a popular answer lol. I usually do 3 to 4 night backpacking trips. I bought a $30 Big Cat tent off of Amazon and used it regularly for two years until I broke one of the poles. I had a trip planned so I stopped at Walmart and picked up a $19 Ozark Trail tent. I used it all week and it was exactly what I needed. It was super easy to set up. I would recommend a footprint, though. The flooring of the tent is not the best quality but hey, it was $19.

Ozark Trail and Coleman make decent and easy to use car camping tents that will hold up better than you'd think. I always steer people who don't know if they're going to be super into camping yet towards those brands. They'll keep you dry and covered for the night without breaking the bank. My last Coleman Skydome lasted at least 60+ nights before one of the corners started to wear through.

Ozarks Trail has increased a million fold in quality since it came out (late 90s/early 2000s?). I would definitely give it a try and keep the receipt just in case.

We loved our Ozark Trail tent! Set out on a cross country camping trip with a brand new Kelty that we spent a pretty penny on. A week in, a pole broke in the wind and we got SOAKED through the thin floor. Went to a Walmart, picked up an Ozark Trail, and left the Kelty in a dumpster. Never looked back on that decision.