In this camping tent guide by Academy Sports + Outdoors, you’ll learn how to choose your next tent. We are committed to finding, researching, ozark trail sleeping bag and recommending the best products. We earn commissions from purchases you make using the retail links in our product reviews.
In early March, we took our second trip to the oceanside Sycamore Canyon Campground (PDF) near Oxnard, California. A later check of the weather at nearby Point Mugu Naval Air Station confirmed top recorded wind gusts of 40 miles per hour. We later used the shelters on group trips at Wheeler Gorge Campground near Ojai, California, and at the La Jolla group campsite at Point Mugu, as well as on a trip to the El Mirage Dry Lake in the Mojave Desert. It’s worth highlighting that despite the advertised dimensions of the 10×10 Ozark Trail, because this is a slant leg shelter the top only measures 8×8. The benefit of the slanted legs is that these tents are more stable laterally which can increase the stability of the frame and make it less prone to toppling, an important benefit if on a windy beach.
We erected our shelters just in advance of a 24-hour rain and checked for leaking and rainy-day ambience midstorm. We also timed setup and breakdown times for each shelter, and we repeatedly zipped and unzipped doors and windows, looking for annoying snags. A canopy tent is a purchase most regular car campers consider after stocking up on the basics. After all, you can find plenty of smaller and less-expensive items to help you fight bugs, guard against the sun, and shrug off rain. Compared with our top day-tent pick, the L.L.Bean Woodlands Screen House uses arguably superior materials; it also comes with an unsurpassed warranty. It always cost more than our top pick, but the price has gone up another $150 since we first tested it.
Before staking out a tent, make sure all of its doors are zipped closed to avoid staking it too tightly and straining the zippers. Like regular camping tents, these camping gazebos are not intended to be left up for extended periods, as the fabrics are susceptible to UV damage. L.L.Bean’s Woodlands Screen House is remarkably similar to our top pick, REI’s Screen House Shelter; the two canopies have an identical footprint and pole structure.
We just completed a review of the Ozark Trail Tumbler line, which is not only budget friendly but also well performing. We eliminated canopies that were not big enough to comfortably shelter a picnic table, concluding that a table is probably the number-one spot where campers would place such a structure. We also eliminated bulky, heavy shelters that are intended to be used as semipermanent backyard fixtures. We explore the lightweight beach canopy that’s powered by the wind to see if its worth its hefty price tag. This cooler, when compared to the Pelican 45Q Elite and Yeti Tundra, has the smallest profile while still providing 45Q internal storage. It features rubber latches which I am a huge fan of for boating applications.
The legs extend to give the top peak a height of about 8’10” which will be plenty of headroom for anyone underneath. Slant leg canopies use less material and have less structural integrity than straight leg canopies. That’s why when you dive into online reviews, you see slant leg tents that have broken at different connection points, and customers complaining that it failed after only a few uses. In our tests one camper took less than 10 minutes to put it up on the first try.
That team is also pretty helpful to have when our marketing team needs to explain why a straight leg canopy has more structural integrity than a slant leg canopy. It’s advertised as a 10×10 tent, but your canopy is actually 7.8’ x 7.8’, for about 61 square feet of space under the canopy. If canopy coverage is important to you, this is a very good reason to go with a straight-leg option.
The Ozark Trail 45 Qt Rolling Thermocooler also comes with an internal tray, which the other two do not. The Clam Quick-Set Escape weighs 34 pounds and comes in a 6-foot-long, ski-bag-shaped carry case that is too big to fit into most sedan trunks. As we pulled this monster out of its box, we were skeptical that we would erect it in anything close to the promised 45 seconds. A handful of REI customers complain that the tent is not stable in strong winds.
That’s not the case with a slant leg canopy tent which, as you may have guessed, features legs that are slanted and form an angle of less than 90 degrees with the floor. Additionally, the size of a straight leg canopy defines how much shade and protection you have under the canopy. Let’s say you’re shopping for a 10×10 pop up canopy, you can be confident that you have 100 square feet of protection under that canopy.
Overall, we think the Ozark Trail canopy serves its intended purpose – a value brand 10×10 instant shelter that caters to price conscious consumers looking for an affordable shade option. And compared to some of the tents in the EZ-Up lineup, it sells for almost a 70% discount. One could, in theory, purchase a new Ozark canopy every year (which they might need to!) and still come out ahead over the years vs. purchasing a more expensive alternative. We’re more than just custom pop up tents — TentCraft is a premium fabricator of all things experiential marketing and outdoor advertising.