Coleman Evanston Screened Tent

8ight person Coleman Evanston Tent, $109.99).Purchase and Delivery of the tent was October 2022. As I type, I’ve only set up the tent as a test and have not tested overnight. If necessary, I will update this review after my next campout in two weeks. Everything arrived in good shape and setup fine with no visible flaws.I was not certain the dimensions of this 8-person tent based on specifications provided. To clarify: The Main Cabin alone is 12’ wide x 10’ deep with the door into the main cabin along the 12′ section. The attached Porch is12’ wide where it meets the main cabin and tapers down to 8’6” wide at front of the porch. The porch is 5’ deep. In total, the tent is 12’ wide (again, it tapers down to 8’6” wide at the front of the porch) and 15’ deep. If you prefer to use a tarp under the tent, a 12’ x 16’ tarp is the common size you’d need.What I Like:-Price. $109.99. You can’t beat this price for an 8ight-person tent from Coleman. Compared to the SIX-person model for $135.99, which I believe was also already a good deal.-Headroom. The specifications indicate 6’ interior height. I’m 6’3 and was able to stand in the center of the cabin area without crouching.-Easy. The instructions are straight forward, and simple to understand. I made a couple of small mistakes during assembly that I should easily avoid the 2nd time around. Otherwise, it was easy enough to assemble alone. Note, I have one remaining question regarding assembly/design, described later.-Cary Bag. I took the time to neatly fold and repack the tent. With that, it was easy to fit everything back into the included carry bag. I also packed an additional rainfly (will use to help cover the porch if rain is expected). I don’t expect this bag will outlive the tent. For now, however, it’s nice to have a bag that even with the extra rainfly and steaks I’ve packed, everything fits relatively easily without having to fight it to close. Note, check the bottom of the bag to release extra space in the bag.-Zippers and Quality. Throughout the tent, the zippers stood out to be a slightly better quality than what I’ve experienced from Coleman in the past. This is specifically true for the three zippers on the front porch where it will receive heavy use. The overall quality appears to be in line with what I’ve experienced from Coleman in the past.Things I don’t love:(While considering the following, these observations would not deter me from recommending this product or making the same purchase again. However, I wanted to share my observations and hope they help you make a good decision for your next tent.)-Entire Back Wall. It’s difficult to see from the pictures provided online, but from about 2 feet from the ground and up, the entire back wall is all mesh, without a zip-up privacy window. It’s the only section within the main cabin that does not include a zip up privacy window. I’ve included a picture for this. My concerns: 1) If you are not using the rainfly, you will not have privacy from that back end of the tent. Privacy is restored after the rainfly is added. 2) With the rainfly added, at the bottom there is space between the mesh and the rainfly along the back wall. Picture is included with my hand as a guide where the mesh sits v.s the Rainfly. That gap will result in quicker heat loss within the cabin on a colder night/morning. Add to that, while the rainfly naturally ends a few inches below the mesh, if a stronger wind/rain blows directly in toward that back wall, a draft and even some water splatter could blow up and back into the cabin. I don’t suspect the water will be any major issue, but it is something of concern. 3) If any portion of the mesh were to rip there, beyond a repair, there would be no way to prevent bugs from entering the cabin.-Floor Material Stepping into the Cabin. When moving from the porch into the cabin, the flooring (tub) material does not sit flat on the ground. It feels a bit awkward when stepping closer to the door. Picture included. To be fair, it’s likely designed this way to help shed water away from the cabin. Over time, stepping too close to the door could cause excess stretching to those surrounding components. If it’s bothersome or a trip hazard for someone with a shorter stride, when steaking out the tent, consider not pulling the last three steaks as taught at the front of the porch. This should allow the tub to sit a bit flatter in that area by the door.-Door Walking into the Main Cabin. The door from the outside walking into the Porch feels comfortable. It’s large and centered. However, the door walking into the Cabin feels a bit cramped and awkward. It is smaller by comparison to the porch door and then offset to the right. This causes (another) somewhat awkward step moving through the porch and into the cabin.-Water on the Porch. Water will pass through the mesh on the porch. It’s the way this tent is designed. Consider bringing an extra towel to dry the area as necessary. The good news… I was able to cover the porch without too much trouble. Get creative here to find your own solution. I was originally considering a 10’x10’ beach tent. Or steak out a tarp. In the end, and I’m sure I’m not the 1st person to try this, I used the rainfly from my previous 6 person Coleman dome tent (still in good condition). It is blue/white in the pictures. It seems like this will be a good solution without much work, additional cost, or additional items to pack (as mentioned, the rainfly fits easily into the carry bag along with the rest of this tent). I used an adjustable 5’6” pole to hold up the center of that entry area. And I used 2 extra steaks for guy lines on either side. Water could still get in around the edges, but in a light rain with good drainage away from the tent, the area should stay relatively dry. I also expect this solution will be quiet vs. a tarp moving in the breeze. I’ve included a few pictures illustrating how I made this work. COLEMAN should sell an accessory for this.-Assembly Instructions not 100% Clear. As I hinted earlier in «What I Like – Easy…», from the outside, there are two loops halfway down each corner of the front porch. I expect they are intended for additional Guy Lines, but no instructions or additional guy lines are provided to specify the design here. (Note, the loops are near but separate from the Porch-door-loop-and-toggle-hold-back-system). In my initial setup I assumed they were intended to pass the guy lines through into a single point. I’ve included a picture for this, where I am pointing. I think this setup could have worked fine. However, after reviewing online pictures, the guy lines don’t pass through those loops. Again, I’d guess they are for two additional guy lines but that also might be excessive. Maybe I’ll use them to hang glow sticks to show the way in the dark.- No Extension Cord Port. It’s worth noting before you purchase, if this is important to you: There is not a port for an extension cord. However, I believe you could easily run a line through the bottom/center of the front porch where those three zippers meet. From there run the line into the cabin from the bottom corner of the front door. You’d need to keep the two zippers closed at that bottom corner and it would become a trip hazard, but you could make it work without letting the bugs in.I hope this helps. Best of luck!

All you need to go camping on the weekend

Very spacious & easy to put up. We love the front open screened areaLots of height inside