Throw away $10 Ozark tent

[Troy Ammons]

Passing on info if anybody wants a small or kids tent….

Ozark 5×6 jr Dome tent.

I want to build an UL dome tent with carbon fiber poles so I thought I would use one of these as a pattern.

I watched the video on youtube and thought it was convincing, so I checked out the local Walmart and for $15 its decent. Construction seems decent, a bit heavy. 2# 1oz for just the body.

Woven polypropylene tarp material floor which is heavy, but its a kids tent so its tough. I have seen these as low as $10 on sale.

Has 2 10'-6" fiberglass poles, but those could be replaced with something lighter.

It does have a tub floor, but only has rain repellent treated taffetta nylon walls. Has a vent top with a tiny flip up fly , vented door, 1 pocket and a gear loft up top.

I have a campmore extended pocho tarp I use at times when traveling light and thought I would throw it on top and see how it fits for rain protection.

Amazing, it hooks onto the ends of each corner and fits very tight.

The sides are flappy (door and side wall) but could be tied out or held up with an additional top cross pole about 3' long.

If you seam sealed it and sealed the bottoms of the long side at the door and opposite wall from the door, and used it with the poncho/tarp, you would have a super cheap setup.

Shorter people or kids can sleep regular up to two, one taller person can sleep diagonally with room for gear.

A neoair regular fits in it diagonally.

[Joe Clement]

There are a few people on Whiteblaze who swear by that tent. Go figure. I'd only carry it if it had SpongeBob on it.

[David Ure]

Here you go, Joe:

[W I S N E R !]

I used to use one…My first "UL" tent.
Who else made freestanding sub-3 pound solo tents 10 years ago?
I really don't understand why more manufacturers don't make simple, single wall tents like this. I guess the BD Firstlight is similar, but at big $$$$$….

[Boozer]

Dave,

I bet you think that's funny, but I'll tell that if it's staked right and you take care to guy out properly that tent will stand up to 70mph+ winds. It's an amazing tent. I swear one night with the wind howling I heard SpongeBob singing "It's the best day ever". Plus you can purchase a vestibule that looks just like the KrustyKrab.

Joe – you really only need one if you are camping above treeline.

[David Ure]

Thanks Johnathan – actually, I was just showing off my PJ's in the pick. Yes, I am a little young but I am part of a great Family, Guy.

You are correct about the wind, however. The sponge holes in Bob allow the wind to pass through, effectively sucking the shelter to the ground. Amazing.

[Troy Ammons]

Quality is actually not that bad.
I have had a couple of Eureka tents that were about the same or worse.

Kids are going to trash a tent anyway, and its light enough that 2 can split the load and be very light packwise. When its trashed toss it and buy another one.

Its tall enough even I can sit up in it and put on my cloths.

I would not want to go through a serious storm in one, but for a $10-15 sub 3# tent its not bad.

[Cesar Garcia]

Last year in Oct, I was hiking with 3 friends in the Gila. One of my friends had those 20$ kid dome tents. Well it rained and sprinkled all night and soaked right through his tent getting everything of his wet. In the morning it was still raining and when we were packing everything up I saw him throw his sleeping bag out of the tent in the rain. I was like WTF "your bags getting wet." He just replied its already soaked. Luckly it was a synthetic and it only droppped to the mid Fifties that night. Anyhow we cut our trip short since we didn't know if he would have a chance to dry his bag before nightfall.

Also the poles are super thin I wouldnt trust them to high winds and it has no guyout points, you would need to sew some on.

you are talking about this tent right?

[Troy Ammons]

I figure to be somewhat reliable it needs to be heavily seam sealed, replace the poles with fiberglass, add a real rain fly.

[Joe Clement]

Sponge Bob tunnel tent. It just doesn't get any better than that.

[Troy Ammons]

I prefer the Pineapple House when it comes to Spongebob Tents.

[Matthew Huber]

I had a friend use that recently in King's Canyon and Yosemite. He was too tall to lie across it, so he was cramped all night, everything got wet inside (even though it didn't rain), and his zipper broke the second night out. About the only thing it did was keep the bugs out (mostly). I wasn't impressed.

[Troy Ammons]

Well it is what it is. A 10-20 tent.
Not expected to perform like a $300 tent.

I still say if you reinforced some of the stitching, added a real fly or a campmor extended poncho/tarp for a fly, and replaced the poles with some from Quest it would last a good long time and would stay relatively dry. With a fly you could open the door vent and that would help.

As far as the size, I could never fit in it without problems, but for a cheap kids tent for camping, it could work, then again $50 for poles and $50 for a fly and you could have bought a better tent.

Actually I wish some company built an UL Velox 1. That was a really nice tent, although a bit heavy in its original form.

The Velox 3 is really nice and big and 5#, which is light for a 3 man tent.

[Jack H.]

At this point I've carried three Ozark tents out of the backcountry. My theory is that people abandon them in anger/resentment after their $20 tent fails them by getting them wet or with broken poles in high winds. Please don't buy these things!! I don't like carrying them out for others.

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