It also includes a footprint — typically sold separately — that can be placed below the tent to protect the tent floor from abrasive objects like sticks, rocks and roots. Vertical walls, two large side windows, and one floor-to-ceiling door with an adjacent window gave a decidedly cabin-like feel. A roomy floor plan and the center height allow for easy movement and plenty of breathing room. An integrated rainfly further contributes to the ease of setup—particularly for the entry-level camper. Keeping our kids excited about a week outside includes not only planned activities but also a comfortable home base to come back to. Coleman’s Skylodge Cabin Tent gives our little adventurers plenty of space to play with their favorite toys when they need some time alone and to sprawl out at night for their active dreaming.
And if you’re the type that doesn’t like a single spot of light when you’re sleeping at night, check out how dark this tent is at night, it’s seriously quite amazing. It’s almost pitch black even though there are still street lights from the outside. This makes the walls of the Coleman Instant Tent a lot droopier, which eats into your livable space inside the tent. First, for the Coleman Instant tent, sometimes one of the black elbow joints of the poles would jam and won’t prop up properly, and I’d have to fold it back up and try to prop it back up again. In fact, my Core tent’s peak height is so high I couldn’t even reach the top on my own. As for my Coleman tents, of all 14 Coleman tents, my WeatherMaster 10-Person Tent has the highest peak height of 80 and a half inches, and this itself is a whole 10 inches shorter than my Core 10-Person Tent.
The tent weighs just 16 pounds, less than any other family tent we tested for this guide. Like the Mineral King 3, the Tungsten 4 has a mesh canopy, though the opaque polyester part of its walls go higher, and provide more privacy, than the Mineral King’s. Its tape-seamed bathtub floor and fly had no problem handling rain. The Tungsten’s fly is not adaptable in the same way the Mineral King 3’s is, but it is treated for extra UV protection, which should help lengthen the tent’s lifespan. For this guide, we focused on tents that suit the most common terrains you’re likely to encounter when car-camping—grassy lawns or clearings, beaches, dirt campsites, and basic platforms—in spring, summer, and fall. We’re not looking at tents designed for such specialized activities as mountaineering, backpacking, or winter camping, though some of our recommendations have cross-over potential.
No, the tent does not have any vestibules to store your dirty boots and outdoor clothing, etc. Does the Evergreen 4 tent have storage pockets or a gear loft inside? To sleep under the stars with your family without sacrificing comfort, head to Walmart to get the best-selling cabin tent shoppers will be using all summer. Reviewers say the popular tent is as compact when not in use as it is spacious when it is — that’s thanks to the wheeled carry bag it nearly folds into. In a car filled with kids, gear, coolers, bags, or all the above, anything that saves space is welcome. Shipping fees and delivery times vary depending on location, size and weight of the item(s) and is only available within the province of the Canadian Tire retail location (“Store”) from which the item(s) was purchased.
It’s a four-season tent, which means its polyester and cotton blend, along with a water-resistant ripstop fabric, is durable enough to withstand winters. When it’s being transported on top of your vehicle, the tent is folded, but easily pops up during setup. It’s a heavy tent, weighing 131 pounds, so it’s highly recommended that you check the weight limit of your car manufacturer’s roof rack.
I love it because it makes going in and out of the tent a breeze, I can be inside or outside the tent in like 3 to 5 seconds, tops. On top of that, having this hinged door also reduces the need to use zippers. On top of that, the dark room feature also makes the Coleman tent quite a bit cooler inside the tent during the day, making it perfect for hot summer days. I feel that my Core tent’s instant mechanism is slightly better, for 2 reasons. In contrast, my Core 9-Person Instant Cabin Tent has a peak height of only 75 and a half inches, or 6.3 feet.
But when we started our search to find the best family camping tent, we knew that ease and speed of setup were the most important features to look for. No one wants to deal with a complicated coleman sleeping bags camp setup when you have kids to watch after. My family loves this tent and—as far as family camping tents are concerned—it has made us complete converts to the world of instant tents.
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When heavy trade winds buffeted our Oahu-coast testing site, we pitched each tent in full face of the blast. We then rotated the tents looking for structural weaknesses, and we tested their guy lines and tabs to see which tents had the best and most intuitive design for withstanding wind. Weighing 2 pounds, 8 ounces, this backpacking tent by Big Agnes is an ultra-lightweight option for long hiking trips.