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See the 12 tests

1. In the Box
2. Set Up & Take Down
3. Peak Height
4. Base Area
5. Doors
6. Windows
7. Room Divider
8. Storage
9. Ventilation
10. Rain Protection
11. Quality
12. Portability
13. Pros, Cons, Recommendation
14. Bonus: Must Read!

In the Box

I bought my Core Straight Wall Cabin 10 at full price from Amazon. Inside: the tent body, the rainfly, poles in their own carry bag, a room divider, a gear loft, 20 steel stakes, and 4 repair patches (2 for the floor, 2 clear).

Set Up & Take Down

• Set-up time (2 people) 11 min
• Set-up time (1 person) 22 minif nothing goes wrong
• Take-down (2 people) 7 min
• Take-down (1 person) 13 min
• Poles 3 fiberglass + 6 steelfiberglass for the roof, steel for the walls

• Stakes / guylines 20 / 8guylines come pre-attached

Three fiberglass poles thread through the roof sleeves (two long black ones diagonally, one shorter gray one down the middle), then clip into six pole joints. The six steel wall poles drop into a pin and ring system, the rainfly goes over, then you stake it all out.

With two of us it took 11 minutes. Solo it’s about 22 minutes if nothing goes wrong, but I found it genuinely hard to prop the roof alone, and at 5’3″ I couldn’t get the rainfly up by myself. I wouldn’t recommend pitching this one on your own. Take-down is much easier: 7 minutes with two, 13 minutes alone.

Peak Height

• Capacity 10-person10 sleeping pads or 4 queen mattresses
• Peak height 90inthe highest of all my 10-person tents

This is what the tent is for. At 90in I can’t reach the ceiling even stretching, and it’s the highest peak of any 10-person tent I own. Even the corners are 65in, taller than I am, so I can stand upright anywhere inside.

Base Area

• Lowest height 65inat the four corners
• Length × width 13ft 7in × 10ftslightly under the marketed dimensions
• Base area 135.8 sq ft

• Vestibule None

The floor measured 13ft 7in × 10ft, a little under the marketed size, for 135.8 sq ft. That takes 10 single sleeping pads near shoulder to shoulder with a strip down the middle for gear, or 4 near-queen mattresses which fill it completely. There’s no vestibule, so shoes left outside get wet in rain.

Doors

• Doors 2both D-shaped, one on each length
• Door size 53 × 38in60in from the floor to the top

Windows

• Windows 4one on every wall
• Window size 45 × 25.5inall four are identical

Four identical windows, one per wall, each 45 × 25.5in. The zippers are a little noisy but basically snag-free, and there’s a bug net behind each. The holes are too big for no-see-um mesh. Both doors are D-shaped at 53 × 38in, and at 60in to the top I duck slightly. Their mesh panel only covers half the door, and the zipper snags on the rain cover from outside.

Room Divider

• Room divider Yes (1)almost full length, small gap at the bottom

The divider splits the tent into two rooms, each with its own door and two windows, and each fitting 2 queen beds. It runs almost the full length. My problem with it: you can see straight through, so there’s hardly any privacy.

Storage

• Gear lofts 1
• Pockets 210 × 19in and 14.5 × 7in

• Lantern loops 1
• E-port 1Velcro closure
• Black-out No

Storage is 2 pockets — 10 × 19in and 14.5 × 7in — plus a gear loft that hangs off the same loop as the divider. At 5’3″ I need to stand on something to fit it, or to hang a lantern from the single loop at the top. There’s also one e-port with a Velcro closure. No dark room tech, so it’s bright all day, but I love the colors.

Ventilation

• Ceiling mesh Yesrainfly removes from the outside

• Window + door mesh 6 panels
• Roof vents None
• Ground vents 232 × 9in each

There’s a lot of mesh on the roof, and the rainfly comes off from outside, so on a clear night I can lie back and stargaze. The 4 windows and 2 doors aren’t big though, so they don’t add much.

There are no roof vents, but two ground vents at 32 × 9in each. In rain that’s what saves it: air comes in low and pushes out through the ceiling mesh. Everything else has to stay shut, because water drips straight onto the window mesh. In heavy rain it soaks through completely.

Rain Protection

• Rain hold 55 minbefore the untaped floor seam leaked

• Rain test length 1 hrmoderate to heavy, hose on the left width

• Light rain 1 hr, no leaks
• Seam taping None on the floor seam
• Bathtub floor None
• Guylines 8

It didn’t rain while I had this tent out, so I ran an hour of hose on the left width (moderate, maybe heavy rainfall). It held for 55 minutes before a little water came through the untaped seam joining the orange body fabric to the floor. At the same point the orange fabric near the ground vent felt damp. Only one of my 10-person tents has passed that full hour with zero leaks: my Columbia Mammoth Creek 10.

Through a full hour of light rain it didn’t leak at all, which is a good result. On wind, I’m less confident: this is a cabin tent with near-vertical walls, a simple pole structure, only 8 guylines and ordinary stakes.

Quality

• Floor Polyethyleneno bathtub feature
• Tent body 68D polyester

• Rainfly 68D polyester
• Carry bag 210D polyester
• Poles 3 fiberglass + 6 steel

• Stakes 20 steelstandard, nothing special
• Mesh Regularnot no-see-um

Body and rainfly are both 68D polyester, the carry bag a sturdier 210D. The floor is polyethylene with no bathtub. There were loose threads and a bit of excess material when I first got in, and the guyline stitching left some fairly large holes, though those had at least been taped.

Window zippers were fine; one door zipper leaked through both the zip and the zipper in moderate rain. One steel wall pole also arrived with a chip, and I had to file it down before it would go together.

Portability

• Packed size 29 × 16 × 12in
• Weight 30.5 lbseverything, including poles and stakes
• Repacking Easyeverything went back in without a fight

Packed it’s 29 × 16 × 12in and 30.5 lbs all in. Here it is next to a Coleman Sundome 2 and a 32-ounce Nalgene for scale. The carry bag is roomy enough that everything goes back in without a fight, which isn’t true of every tent I’ve tested.

Pros, Cons, Recommendation

Now, what are the pros and cons, and would I recommend the Core Straight Wall Cabin 10?

Super spacious

A 90in peak, 65in corners and 135.8 sq ft of floor. Of all my 10-person tents, this one has the highest peak height. The catch: if you’re short like me, you can’t reach the gear loft or lantern loop without help.

Great in light rain

A full hour of light rain and not a single leak.

Awesome colors

The colors are genuinely vibrant, in daylight and lit up at night. One of my better looking tents.

Divider is quite see-through

You can see a lot through it, so there’s hardly any privacy even with it up.

Windows could be bigger

They’re not small, but they’re not big either, and on hot days I wanted more airflow from them.

Bonus: Must Read!

Every figure above is from my own testing. Measured by hand, bought with my own money.