Best Family Camping Tents "Coleman Elite Evanston 8 Tent" 8.8 out of 10. based on 123 ratings
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Most helpful customer reviews
17 of 17 people found the following review helpful.
A Wonderful Tent!
By M. WHITE
This is our third Coleman tent. We knew exactly what we were getting, and were not disappointed. Since we had a larger tent, we wanted something that would fit the campground sites a little better. The directions on this tent were not good, and the diagrams are pitiful, but we already knew how to put it together. For one thing, you should stake the floor before you put up the tent poles. Also, don't put the gray door pole in until the black poles are settled in their pins. We were very impressed with the "awning" as it provides a place to sit out of the sun, and keeps the rain out of the tent. We had rainy, windy weather and no leaks. But the best part is the hinged door. If you have tried to unzip a tent door when you are carrying a child or dog, or even a flashlight, then you can understand the advantage of just pulling on the handle. The "ceiling light" is also a great addition, although our remote didn't work. We probably would have lost it anyway.
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful.
Surprising high quality
By TJDAY
First let me say that I own several tents, some costing well over $400. My usual style of camping is ultralite backpacking, but to make the family happy I bought the Coleman Elite Evanston 8 for family camping week. I wanted to keep my spend under $250, and at least on the web the Coleman hinged door seemed like a clever idea, so I picked this tent for under $200. Frankly I was prepared for it to be a throwaway after one week of use at this price.
However, I just set this thing up and have to say it has far exceeded my expectation...Here are a few notables:
LIKE- Fly is completely seam sealed and appears to cover enough of the tend for protection, while still allowing some breathability
LIKE- hinged door is easy to set up and is actually pretty cool
LIKE- set up is pretty easy - I did it alone but it would be much faster with a helper. Instructions are sewn into the tent bag so they dont get lost - which is a very nice feature.
LIKE - Front vestibule
or fly overhang is actually larger than the pictures look...some usable space and allows you to open the front window in modest rain.
LIKE - Roll up windows...and there is a small zipable hole on the back end by the floor that is screened to allow additional ventilation.
LIKE - all tent fabric seemed thick and decent quality, with no appearant sewing or production defect.
LIKE - actually a pretty nice looking tent, with the blue and grey rainfly with some red accents
DISLIKE - Coleman fiberglass poles are heavy and provide a somewhat squishy structure for the tent. You will definitely want to tie out all the guy lines (and consider adding more if you like) to make the tent storm/wind ready
UNDECIDED- Mine came with the lite system. It requires 4 D batteries which creates a very heavy powerpack which connects to a cord in the rear corner of the tent. When connected, it has a glowing switch at the door of the tent, push the glowing buttons for 3 modes of
light (high, low, and nightlight amber) which ithe kids think is cool. I suspect however, this light will be the first part of the tent to break, and is easily replaced by a camping lantern.
JURY IS STILL OUT - initial use of the zippers (which is a common failure point on many tents) suggested they were reasonable quality...I have seen worse.
FYI - Floor size is approx 11x11.
Hope this helps!
UPDATE (July 29, 2013)- After a 8 night campout with the familiy it was unanamous - we love this tent! The door was everone's favorite feature - we went days without ever messing around with a zipper to get in or out! With 3 kids and a dog thats a lot of zipping avoided! Door makes getting in and out very easy, and quickly closes on its own to keep bugs out. I did eventually zip the door fully during a heavy downpour, and the tent proved to be 100% waterproof (even when it rained hard all night). Ventilation was excellent - tent still "breathed" when all zipped
up (so it didnt build humidity) and rainfly allowed us to at least partially open windows even in rain. The lighting system worked well the entire trip, and it was quite convenient at night to have a bright ceiling light with a glowing switch right at the entry of the tent when you stepped in at night. (ok, its a feature I wouldnt have picked out, but after using it, wouldnt want to give it up!) Bottom line: after a week of hard use by myself, my wife, 3kids and the dog, this tent proved to be of quality design, materials and workmanship! I upgraded review to 5 stars.
13 of 17 people found the following review helpful.
Terrible Quality
By Katherine Demick
I recently purchased the Coleman Evanston 8 tent for my husbands birthday. Thankfully we decided to take a practice run at setting up the tent before we actually took it camping. I could find nothing but negative things to say about this tent (besides the color!) so I will list them here:
1. Setup is not easy, and couldn't be done with one person. The instructions and tent pole colors were contradictory.
2. Cheap materials. The mesh netting at the top of the tent was so thin I felt like I would have been able to rip it with a fingernail.
3. Cheap materials again! The poles are unbelievably flimsy, and the nylon on the tent is cheap and thin. The FIRST time sliding the poles through at the top it snagged twice and easily ripped. We weren't being forceful, and have had our previous tent for over 10 years without any tears.
Overall I was very disappointed with this, and have sent mine back. I would never again buy a Coleman
tent because the quality has so obviously declined. It's sad that such a staple brand in the camping world can't be trusted to sell a decent product anymore.