Coleman Hooligan 2-Person Tent

May 5, 2023

The Coleman Hooligan 2-Person Tent is a functional and affordable shelter for short backpacking adventures or weekend stays at the campground. Thanks to its WeatherTec system, full-coverage rainfly, and spacious interior, the Hooligan is a versatile tent for a wide range of 3 season camping trips.

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Comfort and Space

Whether you’re backpacking or car camping, having a tent that’s spacious enough for evening relaxation is a priority. Let’s take a look at how the Hooligan performs when comfort and livability are chief concerns.

Floor Space

The Hooligan features an 8’ (244 cm) by 6’ (183 cm) floor plan, which is quite large for a 2 person backpacking tent.

For most campers, this is more than enough space to fit 2 sleeping pads, as well as a decent amount of equipment, inside the tent. Alternatively, the Hooligan is appropriately sized to fit a single twin size air mattress for car camping.

Head/Shoulder Room

Although backpacking tents are known for having low ceilings, the Hooligan has a relatively tall 4’7” (140 cm) peak height. This peak height provides more than enough space for sitting upright, though it’s not tall enough for most adults to stand up in.

Coleman Hooligan 2-Person Tent without a rainfly — Image: OutWithMyGear

Keep in mind that the Hooligan is a dome-style tent. Therefore, even though the center height of this shelter is 4’7” (140 cm), the steeply sloping sides of the Hooligan limit your overhead space toward the periphery of the shelter. This means that your head will likely brush up against the walls of the tent as you move about the shelter at night.

Rooms/Vestibules

The Hooligan is a single-room tent, so it’s best for campers that are okay with sharing their personal space.

For added convenience, however, Coleman engineered this shelter to have a single fully covered vestibule. This covered vestibule provides an excellent sheltered place for gear storage so that you can maximize your relaxation space inside the tent. Of course, there are also some storage pockets on the inside of the tent for gear, but these are best for smaller items.

Breathability and Ventilation

Since the Hooligan is a double-walled tent, it provides a decent amount of breathability at night. On a clear evening, you can pitch this tent without its included rainfly. Doing so exposes the shelter’s full mesh canopy for maximum airflow on muggy nights.

Even when pitched with the rainfly, the Hooligan still provides a decent amount of ventilation due to its mesh canopy. This tent also has a large zippered mesh window that you can open on humid days to improve breathability.

Weather Resistance

To maximize the shelter’s weather resistance, Coleman crafted the Hooligan with their patented WeatherTec system. This system uses zipper flaps, inverted seams, and welded floor to help keep water from entering your sleeping space. Furthermore, the Hooligan has a full-coverage rainfly, which is ideal from a waterproofing perspective.

The tent’s dome-style construction also provides natural weather resistance. Although the shelter’s fiberglass poles are a slight durability concern, the dome shape of the Hooligan makes it easier for the tent to withstand moderate winds. This dome shape also helps prevent water from pooling up on the roof of the tent, which is important in a storm.

Durability

The Hooligan provides decent results with regards to durability. Since it’s a double-wall tent, this shelter features a range of different materials, from polyester taffeta in the rainfly to mesh in the canopy.

In particular, the Hooligan’s 1000D polyethylene floor fabric is both thick and durable, which is ideal when camping in rough environments. It also comes with a 75D polyester taffeta rainfly for a blend of packability and durability in the mountains.

But the tent’s mesh canopy is a slight durability concern as it’s prone to tears; however, mesh canopies are common in backpacking tents. All this means is that campers need to take care when packing and setting up this tent to avoid accidentally ripping its mesh fabric.

The final durability concern of note in this shelter is the Hooligan’s poles. These 0.4” (11 mm) thick poles are made from fiberglass, which is a popular material in budget-friendly tents. While fiberglass is relatively light and affordable, it isn’t nearly as durable as aluminum. So this is the type of tent that’s best suited for occasional backpacking trips rather than extended adventures.

Ease of Use

This non-freestanding backpacking tent uses Coleman’s classic pitch system. Setting up this tent is relatively straightforward as you simply need to unfold the tent body, stake it to the ground, and then thread the shelter’s single pole into place using the snag-free continuous pole sleeve.

After the tent body is set up, you’ll need to attach the rainfly and stake it out for maximum weather resistance. This entire process takes most campers less than 10 minutes to complete, but it does take some practice to use efficiently.

One thing to note with this tent is that it does not have any sort of color-coding system to aid with set-up. Since this tent only has a single pole, a color-coded pole wouldn’t do much good. But as the Hooligan only has one door, a color-coded system for properly attaching the rainfly would be helpful.

Packed Size and Weight

The Hooligan’s packed size and weight pose a challenge for backpackers. Although the tent packs down to a relatively small size of 24” x 7” x 7” (61 x 18 x 18 cm), it’s quite a heavy shelter.

Weighing in at about 8 lbs (3.6 kg), the Hooligan is far from being an ultralight tent. For comparison’s sake, the Eureka Suma 2 Person Backpacking Tent weighs just 3 lbs 13 oz (1.7 kg), which is a much more manageable weight for backcountry travel.

This means that, while there’s technically no maximum acceptable weight for a backpacking tent, the 8 lbs (3.6 kg) Hooligan is a bit too heavy for many remote adventures.

So this tent is better for campers that plan on sticking relatively close to the trailhead during backpacking trips. Alternatively, it could serve as a decent tent for people who primarily car camp but that occasionally want a shelter for short backcountry trips.