Coleman Red Canyon 8 Person Tent
CUSTOMER REVIEW
This is our first large tent purchase and I bought it because after reading tons of ratings on other tents, this is the one that, for the price, seemed to be as waterproof as advertised based on user ratings.
It's easier to set up than you would think. I'm a 5'7", 130-lb woman and set it up by myself. The instructions are attached to the inside of the bag next to the zipper (as they always are on Coleman tents with zipper bags). It took about 30 minutes because attaching the guylines takes a little while, as does finding spots to drive the stakes w/o hitting rocks. Once the guylines are attached, you don't have to do it again. The most frustrating part was raising the center poles by myself. They are very long and really could use 4 hands instead of 2, but after fiddling with them just right I got them up in 10 minutes or so. With 2 hands, they tend to just fall over and make S shapes instead of dome shapes due to their length vs. strength. But like I said, I got them up. The sides poles are easy. The poles are color-coded (per the instructions) with red or grey stickers, but after you set the tent up once, you can tell which poles are which w/o needing the color coding. The side poles are thinner than the center dome poles. Our poles were not red and grey like the poles in the picture on this website. They were all black.
The inside of the tent is very roomy and attractive, with some gold accents on the white areas of the tent. I like the white - it adds a very current look to the tent.
The room dividers come detatched, and attach with loops. The zipper on the only door to the tent is doing fine so far, but on all of our older Coleman D-door dome tents the zippers have eventually broken after a few years, so we'll see with this one. I'm surprised Coleman hasn't changed their door design. I also don't like how the door has a 4-inch lip in front of it that you have to step over when going in and out. I wish they'd lower the door to almost ground level. It would also make it easier to sweep out.
I also don't like the rain fly. In the picture, the fly is away from the tent all the way around, but when you set it up, there are 4 symmetrical spots where the fly touches the body of the tent. I haven't tested this tent in rain yet, but the fly should never touch the tent. We fiddled with the fly off and on for a couple of days and was never able to raise the fly off the tent in any of these 4 spots. I also think that due to the size of the tent, a rain fly should come down closer to the ground instead of stopping midway down the tent. So I hope this tent is really as waterproof as people say.
Also, the tent didn't come with the little yellow hammer advertised on the package. But that's ok, because for less than $2 you can get a rubber mallet at any major retailer in the camping section, and rubber mallets work tons better than little plastic hammers.
Make note of how they pack it, because you'll need to simulate that when packing up. Always use your tent poles to tightly roll the tent towards the door, otherwise you'll never get the bag zipped. The poles will give you a good gauge on how wide your roll should be and also help you roll tight. The instructions give you NO guidance on how to pack it back up.
You won't need a tarp. All modern tents have a bottom already made out of waterproof tarp material, and the tarp habit stems from back when they weren't, so don't bother.
Overall, for the price, if you want a large, roomy tent, this is a good deal. You can get a Coleman for the price of an Ozark Trail (which leak like a seive).
UPDATE: We've been *poured* on 3 weekends this summer, and the only drop of water in the tent was from the bottoms of our shoes. It is indeed as waterproof as people say despite my doubts about the seemingly insufficient rain fly. We haven't needed to use any seam-seal or spray of any kind. If yours leaks, something is dreadfully wrong and you should contact Coleman.
UPDATE #2 (6/2011): Our shock cords inside the poles have started to snap. The poles can support the tent just fine without the cords once the poles are laced in and the tent is raised, but it's a pain to deal with these long poles without them before the tent is raised. I'll be ordering replacement shock cord and repairing the poles instead of junking the tent because the tent itself is still going strong. We were in two incredibly strong thunderstorms in the Ozarks last year (tree branches were coming down) and still no leaks!
