Coleman 4-Person Popup Tent

May 5, 2023

Engineered as the ideal companion for summertime car camping trips and music festivals, the Coleman 4-Person Popup Tent is a group adventure shelter that prioritizes simplicity above all else. It features a unique instant pitch design and an affordable price point that appeals to a wide range of campers.

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Comfort and Space

Whether you’re spending the weekend at a campground or at Coachella, you need a tent that’s both comfortable and spacious. Here’s what you can expect in terms of livability from the Coleman 4-Person Popup Tent.

Floor Space

The interior of the 4-Person Popup measures approximately 9’2” (279 cm) long and 6’6” (198 cm) wide so it’s long enough to accommodate tall campers. This works out to a total floor area of about 60 square feet (5.6 sqm), which is a little on the small side for a 4 person tent.

Depending on how you arrange yourselves in the tent, this shelter might feel a little cramped for 4 adults. This is particularly true if you plan to store bulky pieces of gear in your tent, like a backpack. Therefore, this shelter is best for either 2 adults and 2 children or a group of 3 adults.

Inside of the Coleman 4-Person Popup Tent — Image: Camping Guidance

Head/Shoulder Room

This tent features a classic tunnel-style design with steep sloping sides. At its highest, this tent has a peak height of 3’4” (102 cm), which is tall enough to sit upright in as you relax at night. Due to the steepness of the sides of this tent, though, campers on the edge of the shelter might find that their head brushes up against the shelter wall.

A peak height of 3’4” (102 cm) is also by no means tall enough for most adults to stand up in. That implies that this tent is better suited for campers that are okay with sacrificing a bit of livability for added convenience and affordability.

Rooms/Vestibules

Like many smaller 4 person shelters, the Coleman 4-Person Popup Tent has only 1 room. It also doesn’t have a screen porch or vestibule so gear storage space is limited in this tent.

Most smaller camping groups don’t mind sharing a single sleeping area at night and many can make do without a vestibule. But if privacy or gear storage are a concern, then a tent with an outdoor living space, like the Coleman 4-Person Cabin Tent with Screened Porch could be a good alternative.

A light of the Coleman 4-Person Popup Tent — *Image:* Camping Guidance

Breathability and Ventilation

To allow for ventilation on hot and muggy days, the 4-Person Popup Tent has what Coleman calls a “multi-position rainfly.” This multi-position rainfly covers the shelter’s mesh canopy and it can be rolled back to allow for ample airflow when you need it most.

The tent’s multi-position rainfly is a valuable asset in hot and sunny weather conditions, but it does have its drawbacks.

Coleman 4-Person Popup Tent with rolled doors — *Image:* Camping Guidance

Since the 4-Person Popup Tent doesn’t have any other integrated vents or mesh windows, the shelter’s mesh canopy is the only ventilation option. This is problematic on rainy days when rolling back the rainfly isn’t a possibility. So while this shelter offers good breathability on sunny days, it can leave you wanting in inclement weather.

Weather Resistance

Weather resistance is another area where the 4-Person Popup has mixed results. In windy conditions, the tent performs surprisingly well, thanks to its flexible pole structure. As these poles are designed to bend for storage and transport, anyway, they’re fairly difficult to break in high winds, which is ideal from a weather-resistance perspective.

However, the tent’s performance in the rain is a different story. Unlike some other Coleman tents, like the Coleman Skydome 4-Person tent, this shelter doesn’t use the company’s WeatherTec system. Rather, it derives most of its weatherproofing from the natural water resistance of its fabric and its seam-sealed floors.

In light rain, this natural water resistance is more than sufficient. But in a downpour, this tent’s lack of a proper seam-sealed, full-coverage rainfly can be problematic. As a result, this is the type of tent that’s best for summer camping when the forecasted weather is predominately sunny.

Durability

The 4-Person Popup Tent is made with the same classic 68D polyester taffeta fabric found in its 2-Person Popup sibling. This fabric is very common in the outdoor industry among budget-friendly tents because it offers a decent mix of durability and cost savings.

One downside to the construction of this tent from a durability standpoint is the floor. The floor of the 4-Person Popup is made from a fabric of the same thickness as the walls. Since the floor of your shelter often has to put up with a lot of abrasion, this relatively thin floor material poses a moderate durability concern.

The poles of this shelter perform well when it comes to durability. These poles are made from the same flexible material that you find in collapsible frisbees. As a result, they can bend and sway in the wind with minimal risk of damage. That makes them an asset in environments where windy conditions are the norm.

Ease of Use

With an instant tent like the Coleman 4-Person Popup Tent, user-friendliness is a chief priority. This tent features an instant setup system that allows you to get camp set up within just a few seconds.

To pitch this tent, you just need to remove it from its included carry case and expand it. The tent will immediately pop open, at which point you can stake it down to the ground for added security in the wind. After you do that, the tent is ready to go and you get on with your camping activities.

Despite its easy setup process, some campers do find that there’s a bit of a learning curve when it comes to figuring out how to put this tent away. Packing up this tent requires folding up into a circular shape, which can be tricky the first few times. So, be sure to practice folding up this tent at home before you head outside.

Packed Size and Weight

The 4-Person Popup Tent weighs in at approximately 7.1 lbs (3.2 kg), which makes it about 2 lbs (900 g) heavier than its 2 person counterpart.

While this is a bit more weight than you might want to carry on a backpacking trip, this tent is actually fairly light for a 4 person car camping tent. In fact, it’s almost 13 oz (369 g) lighter than the 3-person Quechua 2 Second Tent, even though it can accommodate an extra camper.

Although the 4-Person Popup Tent is relatively lightweight for its class, it struggles a bit with regard to packability.

This tent folds into a disk shape that’s about 35” (89 cm) in diameter and 3” (8 cm) thick. For car camping, this disk shape might be a bit cumbersome to transport in a vehicle, but it’s not impossible with a bit of pre-planning. However, the tent’s unique shape makes it impractical for more remote adventures.