Furthermore, the walls had soaked through and wetted out. Our best guess is that the water ran down the rainfly, made contact with the tent body, and then coleman sundome proceeded to leak through the seam where the wall is sewn to the bathtub floor. All in all, we were pretty disappointed in its wet weather performance.
While this is advertised as a 4 person tent, realistically if you have someone over 6 feet tall it may be difficult to lay across the width of the tent due to the dome. The base is 7 feet, but the sloped sides quickly encroach on that space. With the air mattress you would only reasonably fit two adults and gear, which made it perfect for us, but perhaps something bigger would be needed for a larger family. The tent also has two small pockets for storing additional items, but adding anything of considerable weight pulls the tent inward, making the space smaller.
So, keeping in line with what Coleman calls a four person instant tent, I went along the same lines once again while choosing our new tent. I’m not quite sure of what four people the coleman ice chest company was referring to when they say it ‘sleeps four’. Plan C was to venture out beyond the bounds of our campsite for a little stealth camping and maybe some smoother ground.
Specifications from Coleman state the Sundome 2 is 5’x7’. Usable interior dimensions were actually closer to 4’9″ x 6’9″. Please complete the fields below to send your friend a link to this product. Your friend will receive an email from you with a link to our site. But when you pick up the Sundome for ONE THIRD the price of the slightly larger Tetragon 9, you can put up with a lot of little bothers. The mesh pockets are great for storing small valuables to keep them accessible but safe.
You also get a zippered mesh door and back wall along with a floor vent located at the back of the tent. As far as ventilation is concerned, the front and rear zip up windows offer mosquito screens to allow air to flow through the tent. Two panels of the dome are also screened in, leaving you exposed to the open air without the rainfly on. There is also a small vent at the rear of the tent to provide additional ventilation. The screens kept the tent from getting too humid in the rain and created a bit of a cross breeze to keep things cooler. The only problem with leaving the rainfly off is that there isn’t any privacy in the tent from your campground neighbors.
I measured my poles and I did find some aluminum poles online that are the exact size to fit my tent for $36 for the pair so that’s an option I would take if I break a pole. With two people there is enough room to set up a queen size inflatable mattress, and still have room for extra gear you may want to store in the tent with you. There is a mesh gear pocket to store things like you wallet and phone in to keep them off the ground. You’ll also find a zippered opening near the door to run an electrical cord through so you can run a fan, or C-PAP machine in my case. The 4-person version of the Coleman sundome tent is affordable and easy to set up, making it a fantastic option for new campers. Much like with all Coleman tents, their main selling point is often the overall value of the tent rather than special design features that make it stand out.
Coleman’s WeatherTec system with welded floors and inverted seams can keep you dry in rainy weather as well. Unfortunately during our first night using the tent it rained quite a bit, but the interior of the tent was bone dry despite our tarp and underside of the tent being wet for the entire weekend. I attribute this to the fact that the floor seams are several inches above the ground, making it unlikely for the water collecting under the tent to enter. We also used the small mat that comes with the tent to place our muddy shoes inside at night and keep the tent clean and dry throughout the weekend.