Trailspace’s community of gear reviewers has field-tested and rated the top three-season tents. Taking it down wasn’t really the issue here but dealing with the bulky mess was a pain in the butt. We just did our best to crumple it up and use coleman camping chair the two straps provided to tie everything together and stuff the tent back into the bag. If we can assist you with selecting the right model for you, and your family please feel free to contact us via email, phone or visit us in store.
Built Coleman tough, this tent features heavy-duty 150D fabric walls and roof, giving you a shell nearly twice as thick as standard tent material. Fully taped tent eliminates the need coleman instant tent for a separate rain fly, simplifying setup even more. Near-instant set-up aside, the Coleman 4-Person Instant Cabin Tent is also a fan-favorite choice because of its sturdy design.
2) The poles came free of the center “hub” at the top of the tent and had to be forced into place several times. Unfortunately, this tent’s life was also short lived. The front zipper came off track from almost the get go and never did zip up right after repeated attempts to fix it. About halfway through the brief year and a half that we owned it, one of the tent stake rings started to tear loose from the seam, followed by another a few months later. It seems like something else went wrong with it that I can’t remember now. At any rate, we left it behind in a dumpster at Indian Cove Campground in Joshua Tree last year.
The peak height is 6’2”, which will allow most hikers to stand up without needing to crouch. In addition, this cabin-style tent has excellent verticality of the walls, so you shouldn’t need to crouch if you’re anywhere but in the direct center of the tent. This will most certainly be a tight squeeze for six people, but it could more comfortably accommodate two parents and two children.
Anyone who has spent much time outside has kicked through a stake or guy line in the night. Once the tent was fully setup, it stood 76” high in the center of the tent. This 8 person Coleman Instant Tent takes up 14’x8’ of space and I would consider this the Cadillac of instant tents.
This 6-person tent offers enough room for two queen size air beds and comes with integrated storage pockets to help you keep small items organized. And when it’s time to go home, the camping tent packs away securely in the included expandable carry bag that lets you tear away the rip strip for easy packing. Coleman isn’t mincing words when they call this an instant tent. The advertised setup time is a blistering 60 seconds, and we found that this was not an exaggeration—even if you start the clock with the tent still inside its travel bag. The tent is freestanding, so any additional pegging can be accomplished at your leisure (unless wind is a factor).
Although it’s less than ideal to add a 20% upcharge to unlock this feature, it’s still much easier on your wallet than the majority of the tents in our review. However, this rainfly really only serves to add extra protection to the roof; it does not extend out far enough to provide sufficient protection for the doors and windows. If you’d prefer to pitch your tent in a matter of seconds rather than minutes, the Coleman Instant Tent 6 has you covered. At only $146.99, it’s one of the cheaper 6-person camping tents on the market, and it delivers a foolproof approach to tent-pitching that can easily be accomplished by one person, perhaps even one-handed. Beyond that, it’s really just a budget tent that’s lacking in bells and whistles, along with less flashy inclusions—such as ventilation, better weatherproofing, and a second door—that would definitely boost its value. For those cloudless summer nights, this could make for an attractive option for families in search of low-cost camping, however there are still several competitive options out there at similar price points.
But before we get to the part about setting it up, the first thing that caught our attention was the size of the tent while in its carrying case. The carry case for the tent is 3’ 10” in length and the height is 11-inches. Unless you have a pickup truck, it will take up a lot of room in your vehicle.
I found that part to be a bit annoying but the “cool” factor far outweighs my disassembly complaint. But we’ve been burned by this “instant setup in about 60 seconds” claim of Coleman’s before. If the tent (or canopy) has been properly folded and zipped up in the bag then, sure, you can put it up pretty quickly.