Skylodge Cabin Tent: 12-Person 3-Season by Coleman

It’s spacious, easy to set up, has weather protection, and is durable, all at an affordable price. The Wireless 6 lacks some of the premium materials found in pricier tents, but it features solid workmanship and should provide dependable, comfortable shelter in most three-season camping situations. The only issue is while the Coleman Skydome calls itself an instant tent, it really isn’t one. It lacks telescopic poles or pop-open features to make it truly instant. It is, however, one of the easiest family camping tents we’ve ever assembled, making it a perfect middle ground for a family that wants an easier setup and a sturdy build, without the bulk of an instant tent.

Bit with such a fly, I would rather avoid such weather conditions, this is a tent for calm weather. For retail purchases returned without a receipt, the refund will be issued as a store merchandise
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This gives the fabric a lightweight but durable quality that can help to reduce UV radiation, as well as minimize abrasions from poking holes in the tent. Additionally, the Weathertec welded and reinforced floor allows for a lot of foot traffic. As always, investing in a footprint to stake your tent on will prolong its life. With enough room inside this 56 square foot beast to hold up to 4 people, you can fit a queen size mattress inside of it, ensuring a comfortable night’s rest for everyone. But with these instant shelters that are now flooding the market, that frustration is virtually eliminated. Boasting a set up time of under a minute, one person can easily have this model up and running in record time, even if they’ve never pitched a tent before.

Note that the packed size is quite good 26 x 10.5 inches (66 x 27 cm) and you can transport it on a bicycle. Also consider how many doors you will need, which will depend on the makeup of your party. Sleepovers, backyard movies, and allowing your kids to bring a friend because you have this tent as a second are all good reasons to consider the Coleman Cabin with Instant Setup. Just remember you are buying simplicity and speed, nothing more. Ships in the manufacturer’s original packaging, which may reveal the contents.

coleman cabin tent

There is one door and this is the entrance to the front screen room. The tent is a pleasant construction with large windows on the three sides, they are two-layer structures with mesh outside and with panels from inside. The picture above shows two of the windows with panels in position. Note also that the tent is quite tall with its 6 feet (183 cm) peak height. We found that company representatives are reluctant to estimate the lifespan of their tents. When pushed, most of the reps we talked to estimated five to 10 years, though the actual lifespan will vary widely depending on care and frequency of use (for more advice, read REI’s excellent tips).

Though, as with many of the instant tents tested, we were disappointed to find that there was no back window or door. Families who regularly pitch their tent in rainy locales need a wind-fighting tent with a good-size vestibule for storing wet shoes and gear, as well as a full rain fly for added weather protection. Car campers who plan to brave miserable weather will appreciate the extra coleman sleeping bags strength and protection of the REI Co-op Base Camp 4 Tent. The main bodies of our other picks are structured with two main poles with added support from smaller brow poles. The Base Camp, by contrast, has four full-size aluminum struts woven throughout it, somewhat like a basket, plus an additional brow pole that frames the front entrance and supports the larger of the two vestibules.

After setup, we assessed the size of each tent by inflating two camping pads that, when pushed together, create a queen-sized mattress. Most car campers want comfort, so if we couldn’t fit a queen-size mattress in the tent, it lost a point. If it wasn’t able to fit four sleeping bags side-by-side, it was docked further.

MSR’s Habitude 6 is also a good tent, but it costs about $200 more. Unfortunately, you have to buy a separate groundsheet for the Wawona 6 and for most other tents its size as well. Despite having the smallest capacity of the tents we tested—42.5 square feet—the Mineral King 3 easily fits two people with a full-size mattress, or two sleeping pads, and gear. Two large vestibules add nearly 40 square feet combined—that is, 18.75 square feet on either side. It’s natural to focus on the quality of a tent’s rain fly—you need that piece to work when the skies open up. But according to our experts, the durability of the floor of your tent is actually more important.

The main tent body has a giant front door that’s oriented to make entry and exit easy for all the tent’s occupants at night, and a smaller back window that doubles as a second door. The Wawona 6 is more complex to set up than a classic dome-style tent like the Wireless 6, but not by much. We recommend doing it with two people, but one person can manage in about 15 minutes. As with coleman cabin tent any free-standing tent, with this one you stake out the four corners, and then you feed the two main tent poles through the Wawona’s fabric sleeves, which go halfway down the tent’s body. The North Face’s color-coded poles make this process easy to navigate. (We were stubborn and didn’t look at the instructions.) Once you identify the front and back, the process is straightforward.

Since we tested a lot of instant tents in this roundup, we want you to know that they can be heavier than you might expect. While instant tents are getting lighter, they’re still heavier than standard tents and are not a good choice as a carry-along coleman tents when you hit the trails. They are best as car camping tents, and for backyard campouts and staycations. Normally cabin tents are used by groups going on a camping trip in a car or a truck as they are quite heavy when compared to dome tents.