Tent Popgoesthe

Campsites may be designed as family-oriented outdoors experiences, but at times they could qualify for at least a PG 13 rating. We’re talking, of course, about pitching the tent. Experience counts for little. Sophistication of your set-up counts even less. If there isn’t a vital piece of equipment missing, there’s a sudden attack of brainfade, usually accompanied by a sudden mighty gust of wind. It should go without saying that this only happens within full view of the rest of the campsite.

By now, I consider myself pretty adept at setting up the family’s own foursleeper dome tent on my own. I’ve done it in less than ideal circumstances and I’m not particularly phased by near-darkness or wind. It’s a fairly standard design of its sort, based on a framework of flexible multi-section poles that have a mysterious ability to disengage and collapse the whole thing or launch themselves at the nearest sensitive part of the anatomy.

Would I swap all that fun for one of today’s pop-up designs? What a question. To try the concept out for ourselves, we got to grips with the 7-sleeper big daddy of Coleman’s Instant Dome Tent range.

First thing you notice is that the Instant Dome’s sturdy steel and glass fibre poles are attached to the tent, which has an integrated groundsheet. Pitching it is a matter of standing the unzipped package on end, on its central hub. Hinged poles flip out from the hub (some are centrally jointed). Extend the four main poles until they click into place and you’re in business.

Coleman claims that it takes just one minute to set up this tent – or to take it down, for that matter. For someone with my experience this ought to be easy. I opened up my smartphone’s stopwatch widget and punched Start.

Two minutes later, huffing mightily, I contemplated the tangled mess of fabric and poles on the grass. It was then that I decided it might be a good idea to read the instruction leaflet sewn into the carrier bag. Ah… “MINIMUM OF TWO PEOPLE REQUIRED”.

Always up for a challenge, I decided against calling for help. I can now report that, with experience, you can single-handedly erect this tent in under one and a half minutes. Getting it dismantled and packed back into its bag… well, let’s just say that it will take a lot longer. – Anthony Doman

PM Verdict

When it comes to the shelter aspect of its performance, the Coleman Instant Dome 7 offers plenty of stand-up space and admittedly snug sleeping accommodation (it is a dome, after all). Although we didn’t test the Dome 7 fabric’s hydrostatic abilities in extreme weather, an unplanned demonstration suggested that it provides good insulation: we demounted it with all zips closed and the thing just sat there like a giant pumpkin, refusing to deflate in a dignified, rapid manner.

And the rapid deployment? Great. This should be how all dome tents should work.

COLEMAN CXS+ 250 HEADLAMP R699

This is one smart headlamp. There’s light-sensing tech with swipe control, five modes and seriously good 250 lumen output to match the 160-metre range on High. Like its stablemates it features Batterylock. The CXS+ runs on two AA cells.

Set on high, the bigger Coleman puts out 330 lumens.

On low setting, the bigger Coleman still throws a pretty decent light and runs for a long, long time.