Many of our picks use grommet attachments, which are more secure and simple to repair than key attachments if anything should break. Blew the shower down and broke the plastic thing that holds the poles together into 2 pieces. All Hardkorr products are manufactured using the highest quality materials.
A tent that requires staking to stand up—especially a larger, six-person tent—is unwieldy, and it’ll be impossible to set up on a hard surface such as blacktop or on raised wooden tent decks. Whether you’re thinking of hitting the road or staying close to home for your next car-camping adventure, you and your loved ones will need a comfortable place to sleep. Find the best hiking/camping product for your next outdoor adventure using our independent reviews and ratings. The shelter was subjected to some fairly high Wyoming winds this summer, but it stayed upright and in position throughout the trip.
With over 2,800 free campsites listed on Campendium, why pay for camping? If you’re in the mood for a little adventure, a little solitude, or simply a way to stretch your budget, take the leap and check out the free camping near you on your next trip. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is a government agency that manages land primarily in the western United States, and generally in open, desert landscapes.
And this tent is easy to set up and pack down, especially considering its size. (It comes with a carrying bag equipped with duffle-style handles.) You’re unlikely to find a similar-sized tent that matches the Wawona’s quality and features for less money—most comparable tents we tested cost much more. As with most six-person tents, the Wawona 6’s footprint is sold separately. The geodesic structure of the Base Camp tents is built to withstand wind and rain.
The campground has basic and electric sites, as well as one sewer/electric/water site. Rustic cabins are scattered throughout the park, and guests may also choose a modern room at the CCC Lodge or the Emory Melton Inn and Conference Center. In terms of flaws, there aren’t much to speak of with the Wawona 6, apart from the price. The North Face offers a limited lifetime warranty on the tent, and will repair most flaws and damage at its discretion. Unlike our top pick, the Tungsten 4 is coated with flame retardants. Designed to be mounted directly to your 4×4 roof rack, or to the side of your camper trailer, our ensuite virtually sets itself up – just unzip the bag, loosen the velcro and the gas struts will do the rest.
Finding a small, light tent is the logical approach when you’re backpacking. But with car camping—the industry term for what most people consider just camping—you’ll likely be parking next to your campsite and unloading. If you won’t be carrying your tent more than a couple hundred feet, more space means more comfort (as well as more room for your stuff).
Car campers who plan to brave miserable weather will appreciate the extra strength and protection of the REI Co-op Base Camp 4 Tent. The main bodies of our other picks are structured with two main poles with added support from smaller ozark trail canopy tent brow poles. The Base Camp, by contrast, has four full-size aluminum struts woven throughout it, somewhat like a basket, plus an additional brow pole that frames the front entrance and supports the larger of the two vestibules.
These can be as strong, or even more so, than aluminum poles (especially cheap ones), but they’re always bulkier, heavier, and not as nice to handle. However, the Wireless 6’s poles were the best fiberglass ones we tested—they left no splinters, unlike those on the Camp Creek 6 or the Copper Canyon LX 6. A senior staff writer at Wirecutter, Kit Dillon has written about everything from backpacks and cooking gear to luggage and road-tripping. It is staying overnight in a developed area that allows for parking through the night. Examples of places that may allow overnight parking are Walmarts, truck stops, rest areas, and town parking lots.
At the first sign of rain, it took only a few seconds—and a quick hand stuck outside the tent—to unfurl the fly and secure it for a dry night’s sleep. When we awoke, we could roll back one part of the vestibule, make coffee, and watch the sky lighten even though it was still raining. To test the tents, we first opened them, splayed out their parts, and tried to put them ozark trail canopy tent together without consulting the instructions. We assembled and disassembled the tents on all of our testing sites multiple times. We tried the rain fly for each tent as well, one time rushing to get several of them up during an unexpected rainstorm at night. When heavy trade winds buffeted our Oahu-coast testing site, we pitched each tent in full face of the blast.
We then rotated the tents looking for structural weaknesses, and we tested their guy lines and tabs to see which tents had the best and most intuitive design for withstanding wind. For this guide, we focused on tents that suit the most common terrains you’re likely to encounter when car-camping—grassy lawns or clearings, beaches, dirt campsites, and basic platforms—in spring, summer, and fall. We’re not looking at tents designed for such specialized activities as mountaineering, backpacking, or winter camping, though some of our recommendations have cross-over potential. An avid hiker, camper, and long-haul road-tripper, Claire Wilcox has slept in (and occasionally improvised) tents in 11 states. She covers outdoor gear for Wirecutter and worked on the most recent update of this guide, testing couples’ tents and family tents. You can also set up the tent without the fly while retaining some privacy, since the tent body has a high polyester wall on one side.