6-Person Skydome™ Camping Tent – Blue NightsWith a quick setup in under 5 minutes, the Skydome™ Camping Tent lets you enjoy more time with friends and family on the next camping trip. 6-Person Skydome™ Camping Tent – EvergreenWith a quick setup in under 5 minutes, the Skydome™ Camping Tent lets you enjoy more time with friends and family on the next camping trip. We found plenty of reviews from users online emphasizing the value of the Coleman sundome 4 person tent, particularly for car camping. For rain protection, the length of the rainfly of my Sundome Tent is pretty decent, covering about one-third of the entire tent body, and it leaked only after 30 to 35 minutes. The Coleman tent is not really a four person tent unless you have small children, under the age of five.
For carrying, the included rectangular bag for the Sundome is simple in nature, but the full-length zipper and well-placed handles get the job done. We would have loved to see internal dividers like those found on the REI Kingdom bags, but those likely would have raised the price of the Coleman. However, like the Sundome the mesh windows in this tent mean that without the rain fly on, users lose all sense of privacy. The floor is also best used with a footprint or trap underneath to make sure it isn’t damaged. The fiberglass poles’ sleek design means they are less likely to catch on the sleeve during setup and breakdown, which makes this a frustration-free setup. Because of the basic setup, you also won’t have to struggle with poles or the rainfly in the hot sun for long stretches of time.
According to Coleman, the tent’s frame is built to withstand winds of up to 35 mph. While I wouldn’t recommend this tent for winter (it’s a three-season tent), it has enough coleman screen tent ventilation for hot summer days, and is warm enough for mild autumn and spring nights. Now as for the fiberglass poles I think they are the weakest point on this tent.
It will be great for light to medium duty use, but is not a heavy duty camper. 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 did have a bit of mist blow in through the ends, since the rain fly doesn’t actually come too far down the tent. As I said earlier, I haven’t had this tent in a bad storm yet, I think heavy winds would possibly blow more rain in and make water inside the tent an issue. Sure, maybe four really good friends or close family members will fit in the tent, if they are below average size.
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 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.
The metal tips clipped to each corner were easy to insert into the base of the tent poles. Using our back yard as a test site, I proceeded to test its set-up time which is set at 10 minutes. Silke watched from the edge of the deck as I deftly maneuvered my way around the laid out tent and proceeded to stake off the corners. It was very similar to our old coleman instant tent tent in layout and design so I had an unfair advantage to setting it up the first time. Even though Coleman uses an inverted seam to sew the tent body to the tub floor I still went around all four sides with seam sealer before I took it out on its first camp. So I’ve spent 12 nights in the tent and with a good steady rain on 4 nights and no leaks yet.
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. A classic dome structure, single door, and vented roof make pitching this tent relatively easy, though we had issues with the rainfly. The floor is also cheap polyethylene material — you will basically be sleeping on a tarp — and we had some pole malfunction right out of the gate. However, coming in at 9.8 lbs with 63 sq ft of tent space, a family of four can certainly make due. The Coleman Sundome is a basic dome tent, not intended for camping in extreme weather conditions.
The Coleman sundome can be set up by one camper – even one without any experience. As always though – we recommend you practice setting the tent up at home before you head out on your trip. It helps you feel more confident in your ability and will speed things up considerably. 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. Also, I found that the rainfly pole doesn’t provide enough shading over the door of this Skydome Tent.