The mesh walls do have a ribbon of polyester at the foot, but even carefully staked they can leave gaps at the ground; if bug protection is your main concern, these tents would likely fall short. We also tested and liked the Coleman Mountain View 12 x 12 Screendome Shelter; it was an also-great pick until Coleman discontinued the model. Be comfortable and safe even when sleeping in the outdoors when you have the Ozark Trail 6-Person Connect Ent for a Straight-leg Canopy (SOLD SEPARATELY). This 100 sq ft. tent comfortably fits 2 queen air beds or up to 6 sleeping bags, so you can have your family or group of friends under one roof.
The Ozark Trail 6-Person Connect Ent easily sets up in about 10 minutes by clipping into your 10 ft. x 10 ft. straight-leg canopy (SOLD SEPARATELY) to convert it to a roomy sleeping area. Center height means even tall members of your crew can stand up in your tent. The Ozark Trail 6-person Connect Ent comes with a sewn-in floor to help keep bugs out. Set your 10 ft. x 10 ft. straight-leg canopy up for a backyard barbecue or while camping, and then convert it into your sleeping area with the Ozark Trail 6-Person Connect Tent to enjoy an evening in the outdoors. One thing we love about tents are the accessories that can be added to the shelters. These include sidewalls, weight bags, and a host of other great add-ons that can really increase the use and versatility of the canopy tent.
We put the lightweight Cool Cabana pop up beach canopy to the test during an East Coast vacation. 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. Digging our toes in the sand under one of the best full-overhead coverage beach tents on the market.
We tested the Coleman 10 × 10 Instant Screened Canopy and Walmart’s Ozark Trail 10′ × 10′ Instant Screen House during our first round of testing in the winter and spring of 2016. These two shelters are ozark trail canopy the same size and shape (7-foot peak height, 17 pounds) with an almost identical design. The cap-like roofs on both models provided far less shade than we wanted, especially in the beating desert sun.
Perhaps our two favorites are camping tent additions that connect to the frame of the shelter and leverage the stability of the 10×10 frame to support a camping tent structure. The canopy tent has mesh walls on all four sides and an edge of polyester fabric (also DWR treated) at the ground that deters mosquitos and other critters from invading from below. Like many tents of this type, the REI Screen House Shelter has a fabric hook in the center of the ceiling that accommodates a small lantern or other light. The first trip was an early-February expedition to Indian Cove Campground in California’s Joshua Tree National Park, where our highly exposed group campsite made daytime temperatures in the high 70s feel like the 90s.
We typically see pyramid frames built with flimsy trusses and thin struts and reinforced (if you want to call it that) with cheaply made plastic joint connectors, and unfortunately this 10×10 Ozark canopy is no different. The biggest issue in all of this is the inability to withstand any rotational pressure during medium and high impact weather conditions as the joints become unstable and collapse at the mid points. In windy conditions high stress is applied to each side and the frame begins to break down at the unreinforced joint connectors. That is why we always recommend tents with a full truss structure as they are able to withstand rotational pressure since the cross section of the main support runs through the tent’s center as opposed to outer perimeter. The shelter has a 10-by-10-foot footprint—the most common size for tents of this type—and a peak height of 7 feet. It will shelter a standard-size picnic table, but with little room to spare.
Like the REI model, the L.L.Bean tent has ample interior pockets, a lantern hook, and a roomy carrying bag, though the bag is of the typical drawstring-sack variety. Several REI reviewers who bought both the tent and the fly for rain protection note that the fly has only two walls, leaving much of the tent exposed. The add-on fly for our runner-up pick, the L.L.Bean Woodlands Screen House, offers four-walled protection, though it’s also more than twice as expensive.