Ozark Trail 3 Dome Connection Tent

I purchased this two tent set about five years ago, and overall, have been happy with it. It consists of two cabin tents, each about 8x8, with a "tunnel" that connects the two of them. The tunnel is very small, so it is easier to exit one tent then enter the other. With young kids, though, it's not too hard for them to go between them.

Most of the time I just set up one tent, and place my queen sized air mattress inside it, which is large enough for myself and my two kids to sleep on. This is about the right amount of room for us to sleep in, but doesn't allow much extra room for gear or indoor activity when the weather's not too good. This is when the second tent comes in handy, though I've only set up both of them at the same time once or twice.

Tent set up is quick and easy, even for one person. Once the tent is staked down, I get all the poles positioned into the top connectors and stand it up, then I insert the bottoms of the poles onto the connector pins at the bottom of the sides of the tent. These are rigid metal poles, not the flexible fiberglass ones used in most dome tents. The tent does not have any sort of rain fly, though it has kept us dry in the light rain we've experienced with this tent.

One of the two tents has a center curtain, making it a two-room tent, while the other (and the one I usually use) has just one larger room. Overall, this tent has worked well for the family in a variety of camping situations. On one recent trip to Wyoming, the wind flattened another larger tent we were using, so we set this up as our backup, and it held up very well. The wind was very strong, so the tent was quite noisy when the wind was blowing, but the tent stayed up as well or better than expected.

I have not seen this set available since about the time I bought mine, but for someone looking for something versatile and relatively inexpensive, it would be a good deal if it could be found somewhere used but in good condition. The two tents can be set up completely apart from one another, so the price was definitely right for a pair of medium sized cabin tents. I would buy this set again if I needed it and could find it again.

When my wife and I started camping five years ago, we had three boys to go with us. This tent fit our needs in concept. We wanted a family gathering space with separate sleeping quarters for Mom and Dad, the oldest boy and the two younger boys. The Ozark Trail (a Walmart brand) 3 Dome Connection Tent is 3 separate tents connected by zip together tunnels. The middle tent is the largest and connects with 2 smaller tents- one on each side. The tents can be used separately as stand alone tents or joined together to form a 3 room palace. This tent met all of our conceptual needs.

The tents are easy to put up and can be set up by one person. Because you are putting up three tents, your set up time is tripled. The poles are fiberglass and are connected by shock cords. The poles connect to the tent through sleeves.

The living area in the center tent is a good size and can sleep three comfortably or two with a lot of gear. The two smaller side tents are each adequate for two adults.

At approximately 30 pounds, this is not a tent that you want to carry for a long distance, but it works well for family car camping.

The Down Sides-

The fly is small- probably too small. The fly only adequately covers the mesh portion on top of the tent. On our second time out, there was a heavy morning dew. We were woken by the dew drizzling on our faces. I would only use this tent during the summer and during dry weather. If a heavy dew provided us with an in-tent shower, I would not want to be there in a full fledged storm.

The tunnels do not form a complete closure which allows the bugs to get in. If one of the tents is used independently, the tunnel is covered with tent material and zips closed.

The fiberglass pole cracked while we were setting up the tents to dry after the dewey camp out. The temporary fix was duct tape. At that point, I decided we needed a different tent.

We graduated from Ozark Trails to a Kelty Mantra 7. It is an excellent two-room tent that also fits our needs. I also note that the Kelty is 4x more expensive. As always, you get what you pay for.

Ok everyone...listen to this! I bought this tent for my son and me to go camping this past weekend. After spending five hours traveling, we arrived at our campsite in Yosemite. I thought this would be a great tent, especially having the dogs with us, lots of room for everything...

Well, we opened it up to find that we didn't have a tent...WE HAD A MOSQUITO NETTING COVER THAT IS ERECTED OVER A PICNIC TABLE!!!! We couldn't believe it! So, needless to say, we had to sleep IN OUR CAR for the weekend! What a nightmare camping weekend! Gee...THANKS A LOT OZARK!!! 1 STAR IS REALLY BEING TOOOO NICE!!!

I am following up with my previous review of the tent I purchase. I just got off the phone with Ozark Trails customer service rep...their service is almost worse than their tent! The customer service rep was unsympathetic and said that their was "basically nothing she could do about it!"

Hmmmm.........GOOD ONE! THAT'S THE WAY TO TAKE CARE OF YOUR CUSTOMERS! Whatever, you know what, I hope and pray that many people read my review before purchasing ANYTHING from Ozark Trails. It will save them a lot of grief!

I bought the 3-dome connection tent last year to go camping with my girlfriend and her kids. I originally bought it because of the ability to use the tents connected or separated. It was also good for kid campovers. I find the design easy to use and set up and they are fairly durable. There have been as many as 15 kids (ages between 6-13) in the tents at one time. I have had no rips or tears in it and only one puncture, and that was because a pen got packed into it when it was put away.

Friends ask to borrow my tents all the time. I live in northwest Washington and these tent have stayed dry inside in all weather with little condensation issues I have had with other tents. It is the start of the second camping season with those tents and I am planning to get a lot of use out of them this year again.

If I had the chance to do it again I would not buy this tent. It is a good size and easy to put up but that is about all that is good. I waterproofed the seams and we still woke up wet every morning I think it came through the top. The tunnel connecting the tents does not go all the way around it is open on the bottom exposing the ground. I bought this tent for that feature. I have a younger child who would need to go back and forth. If you use the tunnels all the bugs come in. We choose not to use them. Which is just the same as having separate tents. The pole broke the first night. I guess you get what you pay for. Next time I will spring for the higher priced one.

We have had our tent for 3 years now, last year was the first year it leaked on us and poles finally started to break on us. I was just going to replace the poles because I loved the tent so much, but I think i will just buy a whole new one. I love that you can just use one of the smaller tents if its just a trip to the back yard or if the whole family is not going.

The only thing I didn't like was the gap in between the tents with exposed ground when all three tents were connected. But it's camping! We just took a can of Raid and sprayed the ground before pitching. Never had bugs.

$20 at a secondhand store. The children love it and we have not left the yard yet LOLOL.

I can see issues with the open floor at connection. I figure I could use my technology to disconnect if or when needed, it's not like time is an issue camping. I actually regard the quarters as a misquote block.

Rain issues unknown yet. Rain spoils camping regardless of a leaking tent, camp fire, hiking and so on if you let it. I would consider spending way more to guard against rain if that is your known concern (perhaps spray with proofing as well).

This tent has a lot of room but that's all. We just went on a camping trip with our 5 children. It rained 2 out of the 7 days. This tent is suppose to be waterproof but We felt like we could swim in our tent. 8 out of the 9 poles broke with in the first few days. We have another trip planed in 4 days and not sure this tent if we can get replacement poles will hold up. Conecting domes did not close all the way.

We have spent about 50+/- nights in our 3 dome tent. Has been a great tent until recently we leaking has been a major issue. I have recently learned the cause of our issue, Bug spray. If you spray bug spray on a nylon tent it strips all the waterproofing off and eats tiny holes in the tent which then leaks and leaks and then leaks some more. Never spray your tent with bug spray.

Tried the tent this last weekend. Went together ok but when it started to rain, the rain leaked though the top cover in all three tents. Floor was wet and it appeared that the walls were also leaking. It made camping petty miserable. When you advertise about "gobedry" system it's just so much bs.

Hope you stop making claims about a dry system for the tents.

cecil courtright

I have had this tent for 5 years. I love it and have used it every season. My only problem was that when it got windy, the tent was very flimsy and moved a lot. Otherwise it was excellent tent.

I was very disappointed to find out that our brand new tent leaked. I'm not talking about a small drip--it was more like a downpour in all three sections. It wasn't just on the seams either.