The tent is open at the top with a weather rain fly that fits over the dome. The fly is so small it allows rain to blow up under and then runs into the tent. My family and I have used it a total of 3 times and the seams have ripped. There is no way we can camp with this tent, if it would rain it would ruin everything. Not sure what season our tents were but, we had to get 4 of them. I called North Pole (the makers of Ozark Trail tents) not to get much help!
The first was an early February trip to Indian Cove Campground, in Joshua Tree National Park, where daytime temperatures in the high 70s plunged to the mid-30s at night. (A later check of the weather at nearby Point Mugu Naval Air Station confirmed that the recorded winds had topped 40 miles per hour.) A third trip brought us to Wheeler Gorge Campground, outside Ojai, California, in April 2016. A year later, in early April 2017, we took another group trip to Point Mugu, in an effort to evaluate three additional family tents.
The Ozark Trail 9 Person Cabin shares the same shortcomings as the other discount cabins found in the Ozark Trail lineup, most notably being its weather protection and durability. We also don’t recommend this tent for high winds because although all the poles are steel, Ozark Trail uses a thin-walled alloy that can bend under stress and plastic hubs that we wouldn’t trust in serious storms. As far as fairweather shelters go, however, this one may be the best value in terms of livability for your money. We hope you have enjoyed this guide to the best canvas wall tents and can see why we recommended the tents that we did.
Good thing we are all troopers and we didn’t let your HORRIBLE product ruin our trip. Only complaint was the zipper hangs on the front door flap, destroyed flap and zipper. I could make a better shelter out of cardboard boxes and scotchgard. The door is slightly different from others in that it has an oversized storm flap so that it can be used with the attached clips as well as the central zip. It is nice to have this as a failsafe backup in case the zip ever breaks; however, this flap is best for keeping the rain out as you come in and out. They can get in the way a little when it isn’t raining, so it is best to tie them back when needed.
Do NOT phone in the guyline portion of set-up (regardless of the weather) or you’ll risk damaging the tent. Finally, the material of this shelter is noticeably higher quality than many Ozark Trail tents, but the 68D polyester is still not as thick as we’d like. You’ll want to properly inspect the tent when you receive it to ensure it wasn’t damaged in transit (this is a common complaint), and take care not to overstress the material when pitching it and taking it back down.
Fire Treated Canvas – Fire treatment disallows the spread of an open flame. Required on all tents shipped to New York, New Jersey, Minnesota, Michigan, Massachusetts, California, Louisiana and Canada. This feature is highly recommended if you are using a stove within your tent. Stove ozark trail wall tent Jack – Located in the front left corner of the tent (30″ front from door, 30″ up roof slope), the stove jack comes in a 5″ diameter but also has a stitched in pattern to allow for cutting to a 6″ opening. Wirecutter is the product recommendation service from The New York Times.