The Mountain Hardwear Mineral King 3 Tent is the best car-camping tent choice for couples. It has everything you need for three-season camping, with the bonus of being light enough to double as an occasional ozark trail shower tent backpacking tent. Although it’s designed to accommodate three people—hence the “3” in its name—we found that at 42.5 square feet, the tent is more comfortable for two, plus gear and maybe a medium-size dog.
If the Mineral King 3 is out of stock, or if you’d like a slightly larger tent, we recommend the Marmot Tungsten 4. The Tungsten 4 shares many of the Mineral King 3’s best features, and provides 10 square feet of additional living space as well as excellent weather protection—as long as you set it up properly. Like our top pick, the Tungsten 4 is a sturdy, two-door dome-style tent that can be deployed in about 5 minutes. It uses high-quality materials such as aluminum poles, breathable mesh, and water-resistant polyester fabric, and it comes with a full fly and a footprint. The Tungsten 4’s larger size accounts for the higher price tag (about $40 more), but campers who would like that extra room may find the expense worthwhile.
Keep this tent in your arsenal for when you know there will be clear skies on your camping weekend. It was very difficult to roll the tent back into its original shape to return to store. I’ve read many people have had the same problems and went to army surplus to buy a bigger durable storage bag.These are the two QUEEN Mattress I received with my bundle order. I did not open these boxes because they too needed to be returned with the tent. The Ozark 9 person cabin can fit two Queen Mattresses comfortably.
I’m sure this tent is good during a wind storm and rain/condensation issues. Unfortunately — and inexplicably — one of the steel support poles bent while I was assembling the tent. This was a surprising result (I’m not that strong) and suggests that the materials used to create this tent are not especially good quality, ozark trail shower tent despite the higher price point of this tent. Once the tent was up, however, it was easy to see that it had all been worth it. Most taller individuals will be able to walk around the interior without needing to crouch. I also liked the shape of this tent, which was more square than others that I looked at.
But if you have a big family then a 10-person tent can absolutely be a cozy way to enjoy the long weekend. Overall, I was pretty disappointed with the quality of the 10-person tents that I looked at. All were made from less robust materials, including fiberglass poles. This helps to keep the cost of the product down but makes for a less reliable product in the long run. Which is a real problem when you’re talking about your shelter. If you can, I’d recommend opting for one of the best 6-person tents or one of the best 8-person tents.
But all our testers, including our tallest panelists, gravitated toward this tent.
We have more than a century-long history of evaluating products, and we’re now bringing that expertise to online reviews. Our editors are experienced outdoorsmen and women, and most importantly, we’re trained journalists. We prioritize field testing and objective data when reviewing products. We conduct interviews with gear manufacturers and engineers as well as outdoor experts so that our readers have an understanding of how and why a product works—or doesn’t. I typically haphazardly roll it and then end up doing a lot of stuffing.