When pushed, most of those we talked to estimated five to 10 years, though the actual lifespan will vary widely depending on care and frequency of use (for more advice, read REI’s excellent tips). In conducting research for this guide, we heard multiple tales of careful campers who had been using the same tent for 15 years or more. We were surprised at first to see the Mineral King 3 come out on top. It was the only three-person tent—and therefore technically the smallest—in a test group that consisted primarily of four-person tents.
The good news is we’ve got something for everyone in the list below. The tent comes with a removable divider, so it is formally in the group of 2-room tents. Do not expect lots of privacy with such a construction, the divider is just a curtain (see the picture below).
I left it to dry and when I went to check on it about two hours later I found that the fiberglass pole for the rain fly had broken in the center, it was about 84 and not windy at all there was no reason for the pole to have broke. Over a hundred and seventy dollar Ozark Trail tent completely fell apart on me and my daughter. I had to tape the tent together with military issue 100-mile-an-hour tape. Yes, I had to tape the tent poles together at night because the snaps failed miserably when the wind blew gently and caused the tent to completely collapse… in great weather, with little wind, and no rain. Let me just tell you this, it doesn’t make a difference what model your tent is.
In high winds, it took us a maximum of 10 minutes to pitch and fully secure the tent fly with extra lines and stakes. Mountain Hardwear’s plastic clips and aluminum poles handled well and fit together easily. After our longtime top-pick tent for two people ran into some stock issues in 2021, we decided it was a good time for an update to this guide. We researched new models and redesigns, and we assembled a new batch of small tents for testing in March 2022, this time on Oahu.
Two hanging pockets plus loops for a ceiling hammock provide simple yet effective additional interior gear storage. The tent body simply clips onto a set of aluminum poles that dock into grommets at four corners of the tent. ozark trail tents These now-common clip-style setups are generally intuitive and can be accomplished in minutes—certainly this was true of the Mineral King 3, as under good conditions one person pitched the tent in under five minutes.