Ozark Trail 3-Dome Connection Tent Review

I bought my Ozark Trail 3-Dome Connection Tent from Walmart 6 years ago and got a really good bargain.  The tent was supposed to be approximately $100 but someone tagged it wrong and it rang up for $34.95.  The cashier in the sporting goods department couldn't believe the price so he manually entered the UPC barcode and it came up $34.95 again.  He told me that when the shipment arrived those tents were supposed to be priced right at $100 but he would have to sell it to me for the price it was ringing up.  He then told me that since his family was outdoors people he was going to buy himself one.

Why would a single girl buy a tent that could supposedly sleep 8-10 people?  Simple: I was hosting a campout on my property for my nephews and some of my friends children.  We wanted to sleep in the great outdoors so I needed a tent.  I thought the 3-dome tent was ideal because my friend, the only other girl who would be at the campout, would share the large center dome with me and then we could put my two nephews in the smaller domes off to the right and left of us.  To this day I still don't know how you can get 8-10 people comfortably in the tents unless of course they are all in sleeping bags and sleeping shoulder-to-shoulder. 

Our campout was at the beginning of October so the cooler weather had already set in.  The next morning my Dad called to see how the campout went and he wanted to know if we (meaning me) slept outside all night and I said, "Yes sir, why?"  and he said that it reached 43 degrees so he didn't think I would be able to tolerate it.  Well, that just proved to me how good the tent was because once I got under my comforter, yes, I took a comforter outside; then I didn't realize how cold it was outside the tent. My nephew borrowed the tents once for a Sunday School camping trip and the teacher said that they were real good quality tents.  Then they were packed away until a few weeks ago when I went camping at Briar Bottom Group Campground.

I was really camping in the great outdoors.  At home I knew that the comforts of my home, bed, and bathroom were just yards away but when camping in the mountains that tent was going to be my "home" for four days and three nights.

The Ozark website gives the following information on the Ozark Trail 3-Dome Connection Tent:

Featuring GoBeDry, the most comprehensive "stay dry" technology on the market, Ozark Trail's 3-dome connection tent keeps up to 10 people drier and more comfortable in wet weather. Its constructed of three separate tents which can be used individually or joined with a connection tunnel. Comes with No-Seeum screening to repel even the smallest of insects. Comfortably sleeps 8-10 people.

This tent ensemble lived up to that description and more!  We camped in a temperate rainforest and the first night we were forced into our tents around 8:30 and the rains came down like one powerful storm.  I could hear it hitting the tent but it never leaked.  I never saw any bugs or spiders in my tent so I'm assuming the No-Seeum screen also worked.

The guys set up the large dome for me to put my queen-size air mattress in.  I didn't want to be stepping on the mattress while dressing or getting to my clothes so they also set up one small dome so that I could put my suitcase, books/games, MP3 player, etc. in it and it also served as a dressing room.

These tents aren't tall enough to stand up in. I am only 5'2 1/2" and I had to bend down.  Sometimes the zippers were hard to pull because they put the little toggle on the outside of the tent so I couldn't grasp onto the zipper easily when inside the tent.  I put those zippers through a lot too; especially when the bear came into the campsite that first night and I kept unzipping my main "door" to see what was going on.

There was a little plastic mat attached to the front of the large dome to serve as a mat to prevent you from tracking in too much grass, moisture, etc.

Assembling the tent? The first time out at my place it was very difficult because my friends and I weren't comprehending just how easy it should have been.  We got the tents partially assembled and then had to take them apart and let the guys redo it.  For this camping trip the guys put both tents up in about 10 minutes.  The poles are those collapsible ones that slide thru the canvas tops.  The most challenging part is connecting all three tents because you have to line up the zippers and tunnels just right!

My only complaint about this product isn't about the tents themselves but the storage container.  The tents come in a nice heavy canvas tote bag.  The fabric reminds me of the material that is used in the Army totes.  The poles are all put in individual bags for each tent and so are the stakes for each tent.  So you have three large sleeve-like bags for the poles and three smaller bags for the stakes.  Once the tents have been removed from the bag it is very difficult to fold them and stuff them back into the bag.  When the guys finally got them packed away the zipper popped and one end of the canvas bag ripped.  So, now I plan on storing the tents in a Space Bag. 

I would recommend this to anyone that needs to be able to accommodate several people or if you need to separate gender.  If I have to replace a tent down the road I am just going to go after a larger gazebo style tent that will only require one tent but give me plenty of room for sleeping, dressing, and standing up.