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See the 14 tests

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

In the Box

I bought this tent second-hand from a friend. Here’s what comes with it:

• Tent body, with the poles pre-attached
• Rainfly
• Removable pocket organizer
• Gear loft
• Carry bag
• Stakes × 9

Set Up & Take Down

• Set-up time (1 person) 6.5 minincluding staking and guying it out
• Set-up without staking 5 min
• Pack away 6.5 min
• Pre-attached Poles, pole clips, 4 guylineswhich is most of why it’s this fast

This is the one thing the tent is genuinely good at. Almost everything is already attached, so there’s nothing to thread and nothing to clip on.

What I didn’t like is the rainfly shock cord. It’s under so much strain and tension when attached that you’re eventually going to have to replace it.

Pack away would have been quicker with compression straps, and with a carry bag even slightly bigger than the one provided.

Peak Height

• Peak height 65.5inagainst a marketed 66in, so that one is honest
• Headroom None to spareI’m 5’3″ and my head almost touches the roof

Livable Space

This has the lowest peak height of any 6-person cabin tent I’ve tested, and it also has some of the least vertical walls I’ve ever seen. It feels far more like a dome tent than a cabin tent.

Base Area

• Length 117.5in
• Width 104in
• Base area 84.9 sq ftquite a bit under the marketed 10 by 9 feet

• Sleeps 6 single pads, or 2 almost-queens

So 2 actual 80 by 60 inch queens won’t fit, because the tent isn’t quite long enough for them. There is some leftover space for gear at the foot of each mattress though.

Dark Rest

The dark rest feature is the reason to look at this tent, so I tested it against a similar tent without it. Two things held up:

• It keeps the inside about 0.5-1 degrees cooler on a hot day. (Emphasis on the ‘very slightly’.)
• It blocks the sunlight properly during the day, which let me sleep in.

Overall though, I’ve seen better dark rest features in other tents. This one isn’t especially innovative, and the fabric doesn’t last (more on that below).

Skylight Panels

• Skylight panels 2plastic, on the rainfly
• Panel size 39in long, 19in widetriangular

These are genuinely unusual, and I don’t think I’ve seen them on another tent. You can stargaze without taking the rainfly off, even if the view isn’t exactly unobstructed.

Windows

• Windows 3
• Side windows 25 × 21in2 of them, and the tops don’t zip up
• Front window 33 × 28in
• Zippers SBSsmall and flimsy-feeling, but they don’t snag

Because those side window tops don’t close, this is a summer tent only. In any other season cold air gets in easily.

Doors

• Doors 1at the front
• Door size 46 × 36in
• Ground to top of door 46inI ducked low every single time

The door zip is the worst part. From inside, the wall is so floppy that I can’t unzip one-handed, and from outside the rain flap catches in the zipper track every time.

Storage

• Pocket organizer 6 pocketsremovable, 14 × 6in each, S-hooks onto the back wall

• Gear loft 11 × 11intiny, but a small lantern still fits on the loop beside it
• Power port 1Velcro seal, tight enough to keep bugs out

Ventilation

• Ground vents 1at the back
• Vent size 29 × 7inmeasured from the inside; almost a foot wide from the outside
• Window ventilation in rain Nonethe rainfly doesn’t cover the windows at all

On hot days you can pull the rainfly right off, and the ceiling mesh gives you both airflow and a view. On rainy days you get that one floor vent and nothing else, because the fly is so small that the window mesh was already damp after 15 minutes of light rain.

Rain Protection

• Rain test 15 min light rain
• Result Fabric wetted through, flooring seam damp all the way around

Fifteen minutes of light rain was enough for water to seep into the fabric from the outside. Inside, the un-taped flooring seam had gone damp, and when I checked the whole way round, it was damp everywhere.

It’s also the only seam exposed to the outside that Ozark didn’t tape. Overall, this tent is not waterproof at all.

Quality

• Flooring Polyethylene
• Tent body and fly Polyester
• Poles Alloy steelalready showing signs of rust
• Mesh Regular mosquito netting

The stitching is where the price shows. There are patchwork areas all over the tent, including on the rainfly.

• Instant mechanism 1 top hub + 4 elbow jointsthe joints buckle easily in strong winds
• Dark rest coating Peeled after 1.5 yearsin storage, not in use

The whole tent felt floppy even when I shook it gently, so I’d keep it well away from strong wind.

The bigger quality problem is the dark rest fabric itself. After just 1.5 years in storage it started peeling, and every time I touched a wall it left a sticky residue on my fingers. I’d wanted to test this tent for longer, but I junked it after a few days because it was really gross.

Portability

• Packed size 44 × 11 × 9.5in
• Weight 17.8 lbs
• Carry bag 1 hand strap

It’s the lightest instant tent I own, but notice how much longer it is than a regular 6-person tent. That extra length is what the instant mechanism costs you.

Pros, Cons, Recommendation

Now, what are the pros and cons, and would I recommend the Ozark Trail Dark Rest 6?

Inexpensive, freestanding family camping tent

It’s about as cheap as a 6-person tent gets, and it stands up on its own without staking.

Takes 40 to 70% less time to set up

6.5 min with staking and guying, against a regular 6-person cabin tent.

Decent dark rest feature

Useful for blocking out sunlight in the day and blocking shadows at night, and worth about 0.5-1 degrees of cooling.

Unique skylight windows

You can stargaze without taking the rainfly off, which I haven’t seen on another tent.

Will not stand up to rain and wind

15 minutes of light rain got through, and the elbow joints buckle in anything strong.

Very little livable space

A 65.5in peak and slanted walls mean a lot of bending and crouching. It feels like a dome tent, not a cabin tent, and you can’t walk around in it.

Dark rest fabric will degrade after 1-2 years

Mine peeled and went sticky after 1.5 years in storage.

The plastic skylight panels turn yellow

They yellow with age, which takes the one genuinely novel feature down with them.

Quality is not the best

Patchwork stitching throughout, rusting poles, and flimsy window zippers.

Warranty is only 6 months long

Six months, which is the shortest warranty on any tent I own.

Bonus: Must Read!

Note "Dark rest" tents is an Ozark marketing term. These tents are more commonly known as blackout tents.

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