The Eureka Tagalong scored slightly lower but still boasted an impressive score. It sits lower than cathedral-style canopies, which more effectively blocks the sun’s rays as their angles change during the day. Its weather-taped seams and waterproof canopy also create an excellent barrier against rain.
Let’s say you’re shopping for a 10×10 pop up canopy, you can be confident that you have 100 square feet of protection under that canopy. The Tagalong is a perfect canopy tent for most outdoor adventures, but it does have a few snags that affect its overall performance. It tends to bend and sway during stout breezes and is not as large as a standard 10×10 shelter.
This feature also tightly stretches the entire canopy fabric into place, giving it greater resistance to wind and rain. At first glance, the setup for the Quick-Set Escap appears quite daunting. However, ozark trail backpack it became our favorite canopy to set up after conquering a slight learning curve. Despite its size, it amazingly ships completely assembled and pops into place with just a few pulls and pushes.
Our lower scorers in this metric generally received lower scores because of their weight and size. However, it’s important to note that some canopies are not as portable because they’re constructed of higher-quality, heavier, and thicker materials. Canopies in this category are the Eurmax, Quick-Set Escape, E-Z UP Pyramid, Caddis Rapid Shelter, and Caravan Canopy V-Series. The Eurmax and E-Z Up both received lower portability scores because they are heavy and more difficult to lift from the car to the ground. Likewise, they are larger and more difficult to fit into a smaller vehicle. However, once on the ground, their roller bags make it extremely easy to pull them over concrete, dirt, and grass.
So, for those of you who are enticed by the cheap prices of slant leg canopies, we’re here to warn you to not waste your money – even if it only costs you $75 or $100. All things considered, the REI Screen House Shelter is our favorite portable model. This massive, 10×10 fully enclosed canopy packs down small and only weighs 13 pounds. It’s the ultimate mosquito net that is also lightweight and compact enough to hitch a ride on any adventure trip. We looked for features like double-stitched seams, weather taping, steel, robust fabrics, and fewer moving parts. Travel to the top of the Inspiration Tower to experience the beauty of the Ozark mountains from the sky.
As for the Caravan V-Series, we feel it provides excellent coverage from the sun. However, its thinner frame rocks a bit during wind gusts, and it doesn’t have weather-taped seams, so it tends to leak a little during heavier rain storms. Heavier cathedral-style canopy tents can often be challenging because of their weight; however, most are fairly simple to deploy. The Eurmax and E-Z Up are counted among these heavier tents, but setting them up was surprisingly straightforward. On hot, sunny days, we don’t think we could remain inside the Easy Up for long periods.
Its drawstring stuff sack offers a long strap that can be placed over one shoulder or across the chest, giving you hands-free mobility. This shelter employs high-grade, collapsible aluminum poles for its frame and comes complete with built-in guy lines and sandbags to help keep it sturdy. The polyester canopy effectively dampens the sun’s rays and is double-stitched and weather-taped to keep out the rain.
That’s why when you dive into online reviews, you see slant leg tents that have broken at different connection points, and customers complaining that it failed after only a few uses. It can be popped into place by just one person, and it boasts pinch-free lockers and height adjusters, which allow everything to glide into position easily. Our favorite setup feature for this model is its crank-style center mast. Once setup is complete, simply twist the crank a few times to lift the center pole to its maximum height.