The Coleman Red Canyon 8 Tent is a three-season family camping tent with nearly 16 square meters of floor space, three rooms, and an unbelievable price.
Key features and advantages
- There is a lot of room.
- Excellent design.
- 3 rooms.
- Excellent ventilation.
- Excellent value.
- Excellent packed size.
- Excellent area/weight ratio.
Where to Purchase
- This tent is available for purchase on Amazon.
- It’s also available at Walmart.
What is the Coleman Red Canyon 8 all about?
This tent stands out due to its excellent design; it is so noticeable that you cannot miss it when you see it in the crowd. It’s on my list of the best three-room family camping tents.
Its floor space is also impressive, with 170 sq ft (15.6 m2) offering more than enough space for the stated 8-person capacity. Few tents on the market provide nearly 2 square meters per person.
To see what I mean, compare this tent to the Core 9-Person Instant Cabin Tent and the Coleman 8-Person Instant Camping Tent. These are fantastic tents, but they only have 11.7 m2 and 12.9 m2 of floor space and sleep 9 and 8 people, respectively. You can now see how large the Red Canyon 8-floor area is.
This is billed as a three-season tent. This suggests the following:
- There is an inner tent as well as a fly.
- The inner tent has numerous mesh openings for ventilation and unrestricted airflow, as shown in the image below. This is ideal for camping in warm weather.
- However, such a mesh design is less suitable for a cold environment.
The tent is dome-shaped, with all the benefits and drawbacks of such a design. It is better described as an extended-dome type because the central dome is extended on the sides due to adding two extra poles, as shown in the image below.
It is not self-contained; to properly set it up and use its features, it must be staked to the ground. But, given the size of the space and the extraordinary and somewhat complicated design, this is not surprising.
Who is it intended for?
The Coleman 8-person red canyon tent is ideal for:
- gatherings of friends at open-air festivals and camping.
- For families with up to four children. As you can imagine, having children necessitates upgrading; there always needs to be more space.
Bunk cots can save a lot of space in the case of children but also in the case of adults. Kids adore them, and a bunk bed can be converted into a bench during the day. Some of them can be found here.
Sleeping on such cots is more comfortable and provides more storage space; you can store many items beneath such cots. You will require it because there is no vestibule or external storage area.
Packing dimensions
Because of the transportation, I’ve included this issue in this section. This tent’s packed size is astounding, measuring 25.6 x 11 x 10.2 inches (65 x 28 x 26 cm). As a result, it can be transported even on a motorcycle, making it ideal for motorcycle clubs. Its weight, 22.4 lb (10.16 kg), may appear less impressive, but this is not bad for such a large tent.
In fact, it has one of the best area/weight ratios of any tent described here, with 1.54 m2/kg. This ratio is typically around 1 or lower for other tents. Dome-type tents are typically much better in this parameter than cabin-type tents.
Weather Defense
The insect
The fly you have here isn’t a full-coverage fly. This is both a good and a bad thing. The windows provide unobstructed views, which is a plus. This is unquestionably significant; the tent is extremely comfortable and livable. Furthermore, the fly is well separated from the inner tent dome (as shown in one of the images below), with excellent air circulation from all sides.
The disadvantage is that rain protection is not complete. This is especially true for the door with a small awning that does not extend far enough to protect the lower portion of the door. Water will enter if you unzip the door panel while it is raining.
They don’t say anything about the waterproofness rating. They do, however, mention Coleman’s Weathertec System. It has welded seams on the floor, taped seams in other areas, water-repellent materials, and inverted seams in some sections.
The window and the door
When it rains, you will zip up the door with the panel from the inside. The mesh on the upper section of the door creates yet another window from the outside. I’ve noticed that having only one door is inconvenient.
The opposite side window has a mesh and a waterproof panel that is used in the same way as the door panel.
Even with the panels closed, there is plenty of ventilation thanks to the mesh and the ventilation opening above the floor.
What about using it in the winter?
Do not consider using this tent in inclement weather. As a result, this is not a winter tool. Its structure has large openings and a lot of mesh, which does not keep the heat in. Furthermore, its poles are not intended for this purpose and are not weather-resistant enough.
The setup and structure
Poles
The poles are shock-corded and simple to use, and you have 6 of them.
- Above the central zone, two main poles form an X-shaped dome structure.
- Two side poles create headspace for the side rooms. To be fully functional, the tent must be staked to the ground. This is why I stated earlier that it is not self-contained.
- Two shorter poles are used only with the fly to create small awnings on the front and back. One is depicted in the image:
Internal space
The inner space is lovely. The central area has many headspaces and a height of 72 inches (1.83 m). The side areas are significantly lower, sufficient for sleeping and sitting on the ground or the cot.
The tent is configured so that four people sleep in the central zone and two in each side zone.
However, there are no pockets; only two small mesh pockets are on the side areas, which are quite remote and not very useful; one is visible above.
The internal space is impressive, with many mesh on the ceiling and several windows around it. You can sleep under the stars with a clear sky and be completely insect-free.
Dividers
are both removable and attached to the side walls with toggles and loops. They do not go to the roof so you can see out the side window, even from the center. It’s also worth noting that they don’t reach the floor, which is probably to allow for air circulation.
Setting up a family is like putting up a tent in the garden so you can see how it goes. As you can imagine, it takes some time, but this is a large camping tent that you would not take down every day, so once done, you can enjoy the rest of your vacation:
In general, I would not rely on this tent during heavy rain. This is a summer tent, and if you need something for other seasons, please look around the site; there are plenty of options. The best option is a full-coverage fly.
The tent area is large, but remember that there is no outside protected storage space, so some space will be lost to store your gear. The setup is, in theory, self-evident, but with six poles here, it takes some effort.
The design is excellent but not flawless; having only one door in such a large space is not the best option. However, the door is not all that bad because it is centrally located.
The side rooms are fantastic, but remember that they do not accommodate a double-wide bed or mattress. Pity. The stake-out points are missing on both sides of the tent’s middle section. Having it on the back would significantly improve ventilation through the small back opening.
Specifications
- Type: 3-season, non-freestanding.
- Capacity: 8 people.
- Weight: 22.4 lb (10.16 kg).
- Shipping weight: 25.05 lb (11.36 kg).
- Dimensions: 17 x 10 ft (204 x 120 in; 5.2 x 3 m)
- Floor area: 170 ft² (15.6 m²).
- Area per person: 21.2 ft² (1.95 m²).
- Peak height: 72 in (1.83 m).
- Packed size: 25.6 x 11 x 10.2 in (65 x 28 x 26 cm).
- Colors: 3, see the pictures.
Conclusion, rating, and pros and cons
Thank you for taking the time to read this. If you still require something unique, please take a look around this website; so you will find something suitable.