Ozark Trail 7 - Review 2023

Living Space

The first thing to cover when talking about Ozark Trail’s Teepee is the internal space, which is a big draw to any tent in this style. Ozark has maximized the usable floor by tweaking what we would consider the more typical teepee design. Essentially, the tent is supported by two internal framing poles. Without a central pole, the room’s usability is much increased and probably has something to do with the claim that this tent can sleep 7.

On that note, I can imagine very few circumstances in which 7 people could comfortably share this tent. Don’t get me wrong, Ozark Trail’s teepee is huge, but unless you plan on stacking people, there simply isn’t enough room. You could fit 7 sleeping bags, but not 7 bodies and their accessories. For families, I think approximately two adults and three kids is about as much as you would want at one time, and even that might be pushing it.

A good rule of thumb for family tents is to remember that when the manufacture says there’s space for 7, it’s more accurately a 6-man tent. That counts for all recreational tents, even a great teepee.

Despite this, you won’t find anything at this price point with as roomy of an interior, both in terms of the floor and overhead. The tent stands at a factory measured 92 inches tall, so no one should have to duck while standing inside, with rare exception. The floor is a measured 105 ft², and with that much internal room, the shelter is perfect for alternative uses such as a changing area or a place to get some shade during a festival or something.

Weather Resistance

To clear the air immediately, the 7 Person Teepee is not waterproof. The seams aren’t sealed, and the untreated fabric that makes up the body is prone to soaking through after prolonged exposure. The phrasing that Ozark Trail uses is “water-resistant.” In my experience with the tent, that means in any serious rain, expect to see some moisture leaking through at least the seams. Around the windows is particularly problematic. The bottom seam gives water a place to pool up and eventually leak into the tent.

The same can be said for wind. In calmer and more predictable conditions, the teepee is resilient and supported. Between the six staked corners and the additional guy out points, the tent is reasonably solid even in moderate winds, provided you have good soil to stake it out and have everything tightened up evenly and properly.

Pyramid-style tents, which have considerable overlap with the teepee, are widely considered some of the most stable in high-wind conditions. The same can’t be said for the Ozark Trail 7 Person Teepee. Foregoing the central pole in favor of the braced design, along with the considerable surface area of the sides, makes it much more prone to failure during severe weather.

Again, this isn’t to say that the tent is no good. In fact, with a little bit of seam sealer and an at-home DWR treatment, the tent performed much better in the rain than otherwise. You don’t need to worry about saturating the fabric in terms of ventilation, the fabric wasn’t exactly breathable to start with, and with a large rear awning that you can leave open in the rain, there’s plenty of airflow. All told, with some aftermarket work and careful staking, the tent will hold up in mildly unpleasant wet weather conditions. I still would not recommend it in extended rainfall or during storms.

Ventilation

A key factor in any tent, particularly in big group tents such as this, is good ventilation. Condensation is unavoidable, but there are certainly degrees of it and tends to be exacerbated with the more people inside. In perfect conditions, dry with a predictable and steady breeze, you can have the door, the windows, and the rear awning of the tent open completely. Working together with the three vents at the peak of the tent, you’ll have absolutely no issues with moisture buildup. At that point, it’s less of a tent and more of a screened-in porch for warm, comfortable nights.

In less than favorable conditions, the Ozark Trail 7 Person Teepee struggles to keep up, particularly when there’s a crowd. The recent addition of a rear awning has done a lot to mitigate the stuffiness, but still, it can feel pretty hot and humid when you have to batten down the hatches and have the entire gang with you. My best advice to deal with this is to try and set the tent up with the awning facing the wind. This will allow for a little more intentional airflow and help keep you dry from both the rain and accumulated internal moisture.

Features and Amenities

I’ve alluded to the widows and rear awning of the tent several times, but there are a couple of pretty neat built-in features of the 7 Person Teepee Tent that make it well-suited for frontside family camping.

Four total windows are adjustable from the inside of the tent. They’re double-zippered, and it’s just a matter of rolling them up and stowing them away to enjoy a breeze or take in a view in the morning. Also, a rear window accessed from the outside can be staked out into a small awning that protects the tent’s interior if you need a little extra air when it’s raining. The front door runs nearly the tent’s entire height, and an additional bug net door mirrors it exactly. If need be, one or both of these doors can be rolled back completely, converting the tent into an open-air structure that still keeps the bugs out.

The inside of the tent features integrated storage compartments sewn into the sidewalls. They’re big enough for a phone and a couple of toiletries, but nothing major. The only issue with the pockets is they’re located along the sidewalls of the tent. If you should need to access anything during the night and aren’t next to your pocket, you’ll be reaching across quite a few bodies.

Also included is a “media pocket.” This is essentially a clear plastic holder for a tablet that you can hang up in a few different locations inside the tent, perfect for keeping kids busy when the great outdoors turns out to be less than great. Finally, there’s a protected power port that you can run an extension cord through. If you’re anywhere near a generator and rely on power throughout the night, you won’t have to worry about leaving your electronics exposed to the elements while they charge.

Clearly, this is an acknowledgment that glamping for some us requires electricity.

Setup

Setting up the Ozark Trail Teepee isn’t incredibly difficult, but I must say that if I were going to invest in a tent this size, I’d want the option for it to be freestanding to make it easier to set up. You need to put about a dozen stakes in the ground to set it up, and that can be an issue in rocky areas or where the soil is too loose. However, in good conditions, two people can expect to have the tent completely set up in approximately ten minutes.

The first step is to find a nice flat piece of ground and get all six of the corners staked out. When it’s done, the tent should have a nice even hexagonal shape. Next, you’ll want to assemble the poles. The poles themselves pretty standard affair when it comes to tents. One of them has an additional y-shaped piece with a rubber stopper on the top.

Take each of the poles into the tent with you and start with the one with the Y-shaped piece on top. Insert the rubber stoppered piece into the tent’s apex and the “bottom” of the pole into the reinforced corner on the tent’s floor. At this point, you should take the other pole and insert it into the slot on the “Y” shaped piece, then place the bottom of the pole in the opposite corner.

Now you can velcro the tent’s walls to each of the poles and move outside to stake out the guy lines. Once you have all six of the lines out and the stakes secure, you’ll want to move back inside the tent and then extend the poles’ bottom portion to their full length. At this point, you can circle back around and tighten all of your stakes and lines and enjoy.

It goes without saying that there’s a little more going on here than with your average tent. But it’s not any more complicated mechanically than most other options on the market. It’s just bigger. With a little bit of help, the tent should be standing in roughly ten minutes, though it might take a little longer.

Durability

The Teepee’s main body is made up of a polyester taffeta weave. From a textile perspective, the choice of material is pretty common for big, family-style tents such as this. Polyester is inexpensive, tear-resistant, and reasonably lightweight, and when treated, does a fairly good job of keeping water out. It is also more resistant to stretching and keeps its shape when wet much more than PE or nylon alternatives, but this is a slight area of concern. Polyester’s usable life is shorter than many alternate materials, particularly when exposed to sunlight. Due to the setup’s nature, I’m concerned about possible tears or seam-rips after heavy use.

The floor of the tent is made up of a durable PE, again, pretty standard for camping tarps or other heavy-duty fabrics. Even though it is so robust, I always recommend using a ground tarp or some sort of barrier to protect your tent long-term. The poles are steel and connected by braided wire, so there’s not much concern with those going off. Guy lines and the sliding plastic adjusters are an area of concern, but so long as you don’t crush them or expose the tent to undue extreme weather, they should hold up.

As with any piece of gear, the number one durability factor is the amount of care that you’re willing to put into use, and more importantly, stowing your tent. Although polyester is fairly resistant to mold, my biggest area of concern with the tent is figuring out a good way to dry it properly before forgetting about it in your garage. If the tent is saturated, you should try your best to leave it standing with the doors and windows open until it completely dries. If you’re in a hurry to get back home, I’d strongly recommend setting it back up again in your yard, hanging it from a balcony, or otherwise using what space you can find to make sure it’s adequately dry before storage.

Who is it for?

Weighing in at a hearty 15 lbs, chances are you won’t be hiking anywhere with the Ozark Trail 7 Person Teepee. The carry dimensions and the space required to set it up definitely make it a “car camping” tent that will function much better on fields or campgrounds with leveled tent stands (you may want to look into RTTs if you want to set up camp off the ground). Anywhere with pull-up vehicle access and nearby amenities would be perfect for this style of shelter.

With its affordable price and spacious design, families at campgrounds and boondocks setting up their basecamps on public lands will probably be the most interested. It’s for people who like to travel heavy, who don’t mind bringing multiple coolers and maybe even a generator with them. It’s the kind of sturdy tent that I remember from my earliest memories of camping as a kid, plenty of room for air mattresses, folding cots, and all of your friends inside.

It’s not a top-of-the-line high-tech shelter. But that’s not at all what it should be. For the price, the Ozark Trail 7 Person Teepee is a perfect casual shelter for anyone looking to put a roof over several people’s heads. It’s a great way of making camping culture a little more affordable and accessible for anyone interested in trying it out.

About Ozark Trail

Ozark Trail is Walmart’s proprietary brand of outdoor gear. The Walmart home office is located in the Ozark Mountains of Arkansas. The brand derives its name from the growing “Ozark Trail,” a 350-mile network of hiking and equestrian trails envisioned someday to run a full 500 miles through the forests and mountains of forests and mountains. They make everything from tumblers to tents, and all at an affordable price. Their gear is practical, certainly not in the same league as more technical equipment, but it works. Anyone interested in an accessible way to start exploring their local landscape would be well-served by looking at their wide selection of goods.