Tahoe Gear Tent (Ozark): Definitive Review (2024)
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This is the Ultimate TopNotch Review of the Ozark Tahoe Gear Tent 2024…
Sometimes, if you don’t have much space at home, camping is about creating a liberating environment.
Other times, we want to cram everyone into a super large tent and play games late into the night.
If you can’t rent an actual cabin for your next wilderness trip, then a large family cabin tent is the next best option.
Fitting multiple families under a single tent roof might sound challenging, but that’s exactly what this one is made for.
In this comprehensive review, we’ll cover:
-
- How many people you’ll need to set it up.
- Where it ranks against the competition when it comes to overall comfort
- What kind of weather you should use it in.
- Lots more…
So if you need a new large family cabin tent, you’ll love this guide.
Let’s dive into the details.
- Manufacturer: Tahoe Gear
- Capacities: 16P
- Dimensions: 180 x 192 x 84
- Seasons: 3-season
- Weight: 94.7 pounds
Bottom Line : A friendly feature-packed family camping tent
Pros
- Excellent ventilation
- Power port
- Multiple Rooms
Cons
- No storage pockets or hooks
- Complex setup
Our Verdict: Tahoe Gear Tent
We’ve given this selection our TopNotch Award for the Best Extra Large Tent because it’s hard to argue against a design that actually allows campers up to seven feet tall to stand upright in the center!
Yes, there’s a clear 7 feet of space floor to ceiling.
No more getting dressed sitting on the edge of your mattress.
Very handy…
With an open mesh design and floor vents that further promote airflow, this is an ideal option for camping on warm summer nights.
The Tahoe Gear Tent a freestanding structure so you don’t have to worry about getting the stakes in place before you load your sleeping gear in.
And it comes with enough dividers to create three separate rooms inside. So if you’re camping with multiple families, everyone can still have a degree of privacy.
All in all…
The Tahoe Gear Tent is super spacious and loaded with the right features for a memorable large-family camping trip.”
Related: 11 Best Large Tents
Our Analysis, Comparisons, and Test Results
Value For Money
The sheer amount of space that the Tahoe Gear Tent provides represents really good value.
For reference…
There are plenty of much smaller tents that cost more than this one.
Value For Money Rating
The Tahoe Gear Tent ranks solidly in the middle of the pack when compared to the other very best large tents because of its size and the quality of its materials, which we’ll cover in-depth a bit later on.
If you don’t need room for 16 people, there’s space for camp kit, setting up an inside eating area, or just leaving your mountain bikes in for extra security.
Ease of Setup
One drawback of the Tahoe Gear Tent, however, is that it requires a bit of a complex setup process.
It has 10 steel leg poles and five more fiberglass roof poles that provide the overall structure.
The poles secure to attach to the tent using clips, sleeves, and pin-and-ring elements.
Ease of Setup Rating
They are color-coded but the instructions aren’t the best…
As with every new tent, it’s always best to do a dry setup run in the backyard before you hit the campground.
We didn’t—we’re veteran campers after all—but even we found this a bit of a challenge.
All of this boils down to a setup that takes even experienced tent users 15 to 20 minutes, although that time can be reduced if you have multiple people chipping in (and everyone’s actually on the same page, of course!).
If you’re searching for a tent with a large capacity and an easier setup process, we recommend looking into the Core 9 Person Instant Cabin Tent.
Overall Comfort
The dimensions of the floor provide a total of 204 square feet of space inside this tent.
To give you some context…
That amounts to just under 13 square feet per person if you fill this tent to its recommended capacity.
As a large family cabin tent, it really doesn’t get much bigger than this.
Overall Comfort Rating
The tent’s sewn-in dividers help to keep individual family units more comfortable by providing a bit more privacy than if you were just in a completely open tent for example.
Plus…
…if the temperature dips at night, you can close yourself into a smaller area to keep the warmth in.
The fact that it also has open mesh windows and floor vents help to keep this tent cooler and more comfortable on warm summer evenings, a must when you have large groups of people camping together…
Weather Resistance
The rain fly that comes along with it is made of durable polyester. That material has a 1200-millimeter hydrostatic head rating, which will resist showers for sure.
The tent body itself is actually made of the same material to provide better weather resistance along the walls of the tent.
Weather Resistance Rating
The fact that the rain fly only covers the top of the tent is what knocked it a bit down our list.
So if you need a tent that’s better in wet weather, check out the Coleman WeatherMaster 10.
Workmanship
It’s clear that the designers of this tent focused heavily on ventilation.
In addition to the large mesh ceiling, there’s also a total of nine mesh windows in this tent. And the rain fly even has two ventilation panels to increase air flow.
The materials are also of reasonable quality—polyethylene for the floor and polyester for the tent body and rain fly.
Workmanship Rating
But…
We couldn’t see any seam taping or reinforcement.
And the fact that these seams are exposed without a rain fly covering them means higher likelihood for leaks among them in heavy showers…
Packed Size
Despite the size of the Tahoe Gear Tent, this large family cabin tent isn’t overly bulky when it’s packed up.
It is heavy, though, with a total weight of almost 95 pounds.
The packed dimensions are 30.1” by 13.6” by 11.8”.
Packed Size Rating
But…
We couldn’t see any seam taping or reinforcement.
And the fact that these seams are exposed without a rain fly covering them means higher likelihood for leaks among them in heavy showers…
Our Final Verdict: Tahoe Gear Tent
If you really want to fit 16 people under one tent roof, you can certainly do it happily with this one.
That being said…
We found having 8 or 9 people was a lot more comfortable.
This simply gives everyone a more sensible amount of space and also allows for a sort of “common area” where we were able to play games and chill if the weather got bad.
But then, we were all adults. If you have kids along, it’s a different matter, of course.
Conclusion: Tahoe Gear Tent
At the end of the day…
The feasibility and logic behind actually putting 16 people in one tent may be questionable—it’s an awful lot of people under one small roof.
But the price of this tent makes it totally reasonable for parties of 8, 9, or even 10 people.
And this will give you plenty of space inside without having to worry about tripping over everyone else.
Furthermore…
It can even be a great group camping tent for friends because it can be separated into three rooms to give everyone a degree of privacy.
So if you want to glamp it with your buddies in an extra-large tent, the Ozark is definitely a cool option!
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