The Best Large Instant Tents (Bought & Tested!)

Here are the best large instant tents that I’ve bought and tested:

1. Gazelle T8 Hub Tent

2. Caddis Rapid 6

3. Core Equipment Instant Cabin 9

4. Bushnell Shield Instant Cabin 12

Best Large Instant Tent – Quick Summary

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Here’s a quick summary of everything you need to know about these large instant tents:

And now, let’s get into the more detailed recommendations.

RELATED: Best Instant Cabin Tents

1. Gazelle T8 Hub Tent (Best Overall Large Instant Tent)

Key Info:

• Set up timing (1P): 9-10 minutes

• Pack away timing (1P): 9-10 minutes

• Peak height: 78 inches

• Base area: 110 square feet

• Weight: 56 pounds

• Packed length: 68 inches

Pros and Cons

Summary

When it comes to the best large instant tents, my first thought was immediately the Gazelle T8 Hub Tent. I have the T4 camping tent version (not the overlanding), and I love it for so many reasons.

First, my Gazelle is made of superb quality materials, ranging from 210D to 300D polyester. Check out how it compares to all the other large instant tents in this review:

Instant Tent	Flooring	Tent Body
Gazelle T8 Hub Tent	300D Polyester	210D Polyester
Caddis Rapid 6	210D Polyester	190D Polyester
Bushnell Instant 12	240D Polyester	150D Polyester
Core Instant 9	Polyethylene	68D Polyester

It’s easily the highest quality instant tent here, even 3 times as thick as some of the other instant tents.

Second, not only are the materials high quality, but the instant tent design and mechanism is extremely high quality too.

All the other instant tents in this review (so, Caddis, Core, and Bushnell) use a combination of hubs and elbow joints to prop the tent up. I’ll show you pictures here:

The hubs are located only at the very top of the camping tent, and the joints are used to connect the roof poles and the leg poles of each tent.

To allow for the instant setup motion, these elbow joints are able to rotate and bend, but this also makes it extremely vulnerable to buckling in the strong wind.

However, the Gazelle features no elbow joints at all. Instead, it has many hubs all around the entire tent (1 on each wall, and 2 at the top of the tent). These do not buckle as easily in the strong wind.

So, even when I was trying to shake the tent as much as possible, I noticed that it held firm and was the most stable of all my instant tents. This is the third reason why I love my Gazelle so much.

Fourth, each of the walls having 1 hub pulled the walls outward, and this gave my Gazelle completely vertical side walls.

Check out this picture here, notice that there’s no slant of the wall at all? This gives me way more livable space on the inside than a tent with slanted walls.

In contrast, all the other instant tents in this review have a little bit of a slant in their walls. I actually measured the angle of all the instant tents that I have, and here’s a table summarizing my findings:

Instant Tent	Wall Angle
Gazelle T8 Hub Tent	0 degrees
Core Instant Cabin 9	15 degrees
Caddis Rapid 6	17 degrees

The larger the angle, the more the slant in the walls, and the less livable space in the tent.

Fifth, I love that the Gazelle comes in a screen room version and it’s easily the best screen room tent I’ve ever seen so far. (And yes, I’ve tested other screen room tents from Coleman, and they’re nowhere as good as the Gazelle.)

The screen room version is called the Gazelle T4 Plus Hub Tent, which is basically just the Gazelle T4, plus an extra screen room. It sets up just as quickly as the Gazelle T8, in about 9 to 10 minutes.

And sixth, I love the removable tent floor of the Gazelle. The flooring is connected to the tent body via Velcro, I could strip out the entire floor in just 1 minute, and the Gazelle is the only instant cabin tent in this review that has this feature.

I personally like this feature because it made cleaning the tent floor more manageable, it made packing the tent up easier too, and I could run a power cord through the floor.

However, one con to the Gazelle is its massive packed length. My Gazelle T4 has a packed length of about 68 inches, which I think is about the same packed length of the T8. Look at how insanely long it is compared to me:

This is a car camping tent, but because of the massive packed size, it won’t fit into smaller cars. I highly recommend checking the dimensions of your car before buying this for your car camping trip.

Overall, if you’re able to fit this tent into your car though, I would highly recommend the Gazelle T8 Hub Tent. It’s easily one of the best instant tents I’ve ever used, and I love it. I hope you do too.

2. Caddis Rapid 6 (Runner-Up Large Instant Tent)

Key Info:

• Set up timing (1P): 9.5 minutes

• Pack away timing (1P): 7.5 minutes

• Peak height: 77 inches

• Base area: 95.1 square feet

• Weight: 25.0 pounds

• Packed size: 50 x 15 x 9.5 inches

Pros and Cons

Summary

Admittedly, the Gazelle T8 Hub Tent above (my #1 recommendation) is a little on the pricier side. So, if you’re looking for an instant camping tent that’s a bit more affordable, my runner-up pick is the Caddis Rapid 6.

It’s less expensive than the Gazelle T8, and here’s how much I paid for mine:

• Caddis Rapid 6: I paid about $300.

• Gazelle T4 Hub Tent: I paid about $300.

As you can see, I paid the same price for both my 6-person Caddis Rapid and 4-person Gazelle instant cabin tent. So, on a per capacity basis, the Caddis is roughly about 50% cheaper than the Gazelle.

Of course, I bought both these tents a couple years ago, so I highly recommend checking out the current market price before making your decision:

• Check out the Caddis Rapid 6 at REI Co-Op.

• Check out the Gazelle T8 Hub Tent on Amazon.

At the same time, even though the Caddis is less expensive, its materials are also extremely high quality. It comes with 210D polyester flooring, and 190D polyester tent body.

And it beats the Gazelle in 2 ways when it comes to the materials:

1. The Caddis has steel pre-attached poles, while Gazelle has only fiberglass poles.

2. The Caddis has micro mesh, while Gazelle’s is just regular mosquito netting.

I also really liked that I could fold the Caddis Rapid in half neatly, and lay it on the ground flat. This made wiping off the dirt on the flooring as easy as the Gazelle too.

The Caddis also has a much longer rain fly length than the Gazelle, on 3 sides of the tent (the 2 sides, and the back wall).

This longer rain fly was able to completely protect my windows from the heavy rain outside. I could leave almost all my windows in the Caddis open in the heavy rain, and this made for fantastic rainy day ventilation.

What about the Gazelle though? Well, the rainfly didn’t cover any of the windows at all, so all the windows were drenched.

Two things to note about the Caddis’ long rainfly though. First, the front of the Caddis has a short rainfly length (why they didn’t make it a bit longer, I have no idea), so I’d recommend getting an extra tarp to shield this, if you’re camping in the heavy rain.

And second, because the rainfly is quite long at the other sides, this took me a minute or two of extra setup time, fumbling with the long rainfly.

Sadly, the Caddis doesn’t come in a larger than 6-person size, which is a pity, because I’d love to try out an 8-person or even 10-person instant cabin tent from them.

A 6-person instant tent doesn’t fit more than 6 sleeping pads, or 2 queen beds, so it’s not exactly a huge instant tent.

Overall though, I really liked the Caddis Rapid 6 as a great instant camping tent, and I think it’s a wonderful alternative if the Gazelle T8 is not within your budget.

3. Core Equipment Instant Cabin 9 (Best Budget Large Instant Tent)

Key Info:

• Set up timing: 12 minutes

• Pack away timing: 9 minutes

• Peak height: 75.5 inches

• Base area: 118.1 square feet

• Packed size: 46 x 13 x 12 inches

• Weight: 30.0 pounds

Pros and Cons

Summary

If both the Gazelle T8 Hub Tent and Caddis Rapid 6 are out of your budget, fret not! I still have a wonderful recommendation instant camping tent for you, and that’s the Core Equipment Instant Cabin 9.

I paid less for the Core Instant Cabin 9 (just slightly over $200 a couple years ago) than I did for both the Gazelle T8 and Caddis Rapid 6. (But of course, the price I paid may differ from the retail price now, so click on this link to Amazon to find out the current price.)

And the Core Instant 9 is not just cheaper, but it’s much larger too, and fits a whopping 9 single pads inside the tent. In contrast, the Gazelle and Caddis fit just 8 and 6 pads respectively.

Alternatively, I could fit just 2 queen beds (so a family of 4), with plenty of leftover floor space for a ton of camping gear, or maybe a couple extra twin beds (for a family of 6).

I couldn’t fit 3 queen beds in though, if that’s what you were wondering.

And even though I paid so much less for the Core, I still found the instant mechanism to still be decently high quality for a budget camping tent.

The tent poles are made of thick steel, and there are 3 hubs at the top of the tent to hold the tent body up. The center height is decent, and the side walls aren’t too slanted.

In contrast, many of my other budget-friendly instant tents from Coleman and Ozark Trail tend to have less hubs, leading to lower center heights, and more slanted and floppy walls.

However, while the instant tent structure and the poles of the Core are high quality, the biggest con with the Core is that the rest of its materials are more budget-quality (when compared to the other instant tents in this review). Here’s a table of info with the Core’s materials:

Core Instant 9	Tent Materials
Tent Floor	Polyethylene
Tent Body	68D Polyester
Tent Poles	Alloy Steel
Mesh	Mosquito (not Micro)
Zippers	No Brand

Essentially, only the poles are relatively high quality steel, the rest of them are not. For example, the floor is polyethylene, which is an inexpensive tarp-like material found only in budget tents.

The budget-quality materials aside, I found that Core did focus on putting quality into the most important parts of an instant tent – the design, the mechanism, and the poles.

So, despite the other more budget-friendly materials, I still think the Core Instant Cabin Tent 9 is a great value for money pick as one of the best instant tents.

It’s much better than any other budget instant tents or pop up tents that I’ve tested. (Trust me, I’ve tested over 10 of these tents!)

4. Bushnell Instant Cabin 12 (Best Extra-Large Instant Tent)

Key Info:

• Set up timing: ~16 minutes (estimated)

• Pack away timing: ~14 minutes (estimated)

• Peak height: 80 inches

• Base area: ‎198 square feet

• Packed size: ‎49.5 x 13.3 x 11.3 inches

• Weight: 58 pounds

Pros and Cons

Summary

If none of the other best instant tents above have fit your needs because you’re looking for an extra-large instant tent, then you can consider the Bushnell 12-Person Instant Cabin Tent.

I love that this tent comes in many different capacities options:

• Bushnell 6-person instant cabin tent

• Bushnell 9-person instant cabin tent

• Bushnell 12-person instant cabin tent (the one we’re talking about here)

Not a lot of instant tents come in 12-person capacities, Bushnell and Core are some of the rare few. (Gazelle and Caddis do not have 12-person capacities.)

Between Core and Bushnell, Bushnell is definitely higher quality. Check out the materials used:

Instant Tent	Tent Floor	Tent Body
Bushnell Instant 12	240D Polyester	150D Polyester
Core Instant 9	Polyethylene	68D Polyester

On top of that, Bushnell looks to have higher quality room dividers, and 2 dividers at that. This allows you to split the tent into not 2, but 3 separate rooms.

In contrast, the Core has only 1 room divider, which is super transparent, and doesn’t even feel like it’s splitting my tent into two rooms.

The Bushnell Instant Cabin 12 also comes with an air-conditioning port, and is the only tent in this review to have one.

However, just bear in mind that such large 12-person tents can be a little unwieldy, especially when setting up and packing away. I would highly recommend taking your time and not rushing things, as this can cause instant tents to break and spoil.

Overall, if you need a large 12-person instant tent, the Bushnell Shield Instant Cabin 12 is easily the best pick on the market.

Now, here are my recommendations so far on the best instant tents in a large size, for your upcoming camping trips:

1. Best Overall Large Instant Tent: Gazelle T8 Hub Tent

2. Best Screen Room Instant Tent: Gazelle T4 Plus Hub Tent

3. Runner-Up Large Instant Tent: Caddis Rapid 6

4. Best Budget Large Instant Tent: Core Instant Cabin 9

5. Best Extra-Large Instant Tent: Bushnell Instant Cabin 12

Large Tent Capacity

Going with the “large instant tent” theme, I wanted to pick tents that are at least of an 8-person capacity, or more.

• An 8-person tent will be able to fit 8 single sleeping pads, or 3 queen beds.

• A 10-person tent will be able to fit 10 single sleeping pads, or 4 queen beds.

• A 12-person tent will be able to fit 12 single sleeping pads, or 4 queen beds. (I don’t think it will be able to fit 5, unless it’s designed really well.)

I know that the Caddis Rapid is only of a 6-person capacity, but it’s too good an instant tent to not mention it here. Nevertheless, that fits 6 single sleeping pads, or 2 queen-sized mattresses, so I suppose you still can consider it to be a decently large instant tent.

Pro-Tip: If you’re wondering whether pop up tents (a specific type of instant tent that pops out of the carry bag in seconds) come in these large sizes, well, they don’t. The largest one is a 4-person pop up tent, and there’s nothing bigger than that.

Instant Tent Mechanism

When picking all the best large instant tents for this review, I made sure to determine which had the highest quality instant tent mechanism. Only those that did made it into this review.

Here are the factors that I kept in mind:

• How to set up the instant tent (was it smooth-sailing or did the poles jam, etc.)

• How long it takes to set up (including all tent stakes and guy lines)

• Number of hubs

• Number of elbow joints

• Quality of the pre-attached poles and pre-attached frame

Even my most budget-quality instant tent here (the Core Instant Cabin 9) had a really decent quality instant tent mechanism, which was easy to set up and also easy to pack away back into the carry bag.

Large Instant Tents to Avoid!

Now, there were a few large instant tents that I had that did not make it into this review, because their instant tent mechanism wasn’t up to par. These are the tents that you may want to avoid when buying a large instant tent.

Coleman Instant Cabin 10

I didn’t like my Coleman Instant Cabin 10 because it has only 1 hub at the top of the tent. (In contrast, the Core above that I recommended is the same size, but with 3 hubs.)

So, the walls of my tent felt really floppy and droopy, and really ate into my livable space.

Also, whenever I tried to set up this tent, sometimes the poles would jam. I would then have to fiddle around with the poles, bending it in every which direction to un-jam it, before putting it back up again.

The rest of the tent was great though, I just wasn’t a fan of the instant tent design.

Ozark Trail Instant Cabin 6

Another instant tent I didn’t like was from Ozark Trail. The instant tent mechanism here was just as floppy as Coleman’s.

On top of that, I didn’t have enough standing room at all, the walls were really slanted and ate into my livable space, and it wasn’t a spacious cabin tent at all.

Why You Can Trust Me

To create all of my product reviews, I usually buy and test all of my gear on camping trips. I ran out of budget for this review, and wasn’t able to buy the Bushnell Shield 12, but I did manage to buy all the other tents, and more.

All the tents I mentioned in this review cost me more than $1,000 (including the ones I don’t recommend), and I took about 5 weeks testing all of them here.

Conclusion

With that said, what are the best large instant tents that I’d recommend for your upcoming camping trip? Here they are:

1. Best Overall Large Instant Tent: Gazelle T8 Hub Tent

2. Best Screen Room Instant Tent: Gazelle T4 Plus Hub Tent

3. Runner-Up Large Instant Tent: Caddis Rapid 6

4. Best Budget Large Instant Tent: Core Instant Cabin 9

5. Best Extra-Large Instant Tent: Bushnell Instant Cabin 12

6. I didn’t like these: Coleman Instant Cabin 10 and Ozark Trail Instant Cabin 6

I hope this helps, and feel free to reach out to me on my YouTube channel if you have any questions.

Alternatively, if you’ve decided to go with a smaller instant tent instead, you can check out my complete review on the best instant tents (with smaller sizes, along with these large ones).