Coleman Sundome Dome 4 Review Tested by GearLab

Coleman chose not to use grommets like the rest of the tent world and instead attached a pin on every corner that slides inside the pole. Though not ideal, it is fairly easy to get used to doing. Packing the tent back up into the bag isn’t very hard either. There is a removable extension on the bottom that we assume helps keep the bag small for shipping but, once removed, allows a little more breathing room.

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 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.

Although there might not be much extra space for fitting bigger families in, for a couple and one child this tent would be a great starter tent.

Even after we figured in the size of the air mattress, we still had plenty of room to store our gear off to the sides plus the little bed for our dog Lily. I really wanted to recommend this as an affordable entry level tent. Outside of dry weather campouts in the backyard, there are better alternatives to be found. Trailspace’s community of gear reviewers has field-tested and rated the top three-season tents. 5) This style dome does have the sleeves (2) which you must walk back and slowly feed the dome poles through during set up. The Coleman sundome can be set up by one camper – even one without any experience.

We reached out to Coleman for more information and their advisor told us that their tents “don’t stop water but will stop UV”. So if you’re looking for a tent guaranteed to keep you dry, the sundome 4 man model might not be the best choice. Festivals aren’t the safest campgrounds for your tent, so a low-cost, reliable model might be a good investment.

Even with the added privacy vent, I find ventilation for this tent to be a little less than impressive. The front and rear windows are fairly small, only covering the top portion of the tent. There is good size ventilation mesh on the ends of the tent, but once the rain cover is in place those are also covered.

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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.

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. 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 coleman sundome 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.