The low wide profile and included guylines hold up well in the wind, and the tent floor has a tub design. As long as you can avoid a tear or puncture, you should stay dry. However, it isn’t the design that is at risk — it is the construction. The use of weaker materials like cheap plastic clips, elastic connection points, fiberglass poles, and the tarp floor is where the Sundome could fail after harsh use.
Reading back through this review, I seem to view the tent in a negative light. It will be great for light to medium duty use, but is not a heavy duty camper. coleman screen tent I did seal the seems when I bought it, a practice I do with all my tents. So, in the couple of rain storms I’ve experienced I haven’t any bad leaks.
I’m not a fiberglass hater, but these are a little on the thin side. I can see it being easy to form cracks and break, although in over a year of use I haven’t done either as of yet. I still carry materials to make a repair though, just in case.
And, to assure complete independence, we buy all the products we test ourselves. This tent is right on par with its cost; however, because the poles broke on us right away, the actual value may depend on whether you get a good batch or not. We are a premium, hand-curated store to shop for the best gear. Find your proven favorites, as well as new athlete-founded and designer-driven brands that are hard to find anywhere else.
Unfortunately, the lack of storage options continues to the exterior of the Sundome 6. Unlike most other camping tents, such as Kelty’s popular Discovery 6 model and its full-length rainfly, the Coleman’s partial design does not create any vestibule space. Typically, covered tent vestibules are a great place to store items like shoes, camp chairs, or anything else you’d like to keep out of the elements, but not so with the Sundome.
The two gear pockets are placed awkwardly along the ends of the tent, where the bug mesh starts. You run the risk of hitting your head if there’s anything heavy in the pocket. There were three folks in the neighborhood park that could see me setting up the tent. The carry bag boasts a ten-minute setup, but it only took me a little over eight.
Whilst the tent does come with two storage pockets (which is an improvement on the smaller models), there is still no vestibule with the Sundome. Even without gear, it’s going to be a fight for floor space. Groups of four or families would definitely be better off investing in a larger model – like the 6 person model.
I used duct tape to keep the poles from splintering more. This quick fix bought us one more summer of fun with our old Coleman tent. As I packed our Coleman tent away after our last camping trip I knew it was time to part ways, we couldn’t find any replacement parts for it. The coleman screen tent 2 only has one door, which isn’t a big deal If you are camping solo. However, for two occupants, getting out will require some gymnastics to avoid stepping on your tent mate.
All the poles that came with this tent are available as replacements at any sporting goods store that sells Coleman camping gear or online. I also don’t use the supplied stakes; I have those good nail spikes with the orange top. Another con in my opinion would be the lack of structural guy outs. There is one guy out loop sewn coleman instant tent into the bottom seam of the rainfly on each side for a total of two that are really used to hold the rainfly out over the mesh panel. It does provide a little support but not nearly enough, especially with the small 8.5mm poles. It should have 4 structural guy out loops about half way up the rainfly, 1 loop on each pole.