Coleman Hooligan 4-Person Backpacking Tent

May 5, 2023

A spacious abode for backcountry adventures, the Coleman Hooligan 4-Person Backpacking Tent is a comfort-focused shelter for 3 season outings. This tent features a huge internal living space and a covered vestibule. Coleman’s WeatherTec system improves performance in inclement weather conditions.

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Comfort and Space

If there’s one area where the 4-Person Hooligan stands out among the pack, it’s comfort and livability. In this section, we’ll take a closer look at how this tent performs when your comfort is a priority.

Floor Space

With an internal floor space that measures 9’ (274 cm) by 7’ (213 cm), the Hooligan is a massive 4 person tent.

This works out to a total interior living space of 63 square feet (5.9 sqm), which is more than sufficient for 4 adult campers and their sleeping pads. It also offers enough space to store your gear inside the tent, though you generally won’t need to as the Hooligan also has a huge front vestibule.

Head/Shoulder Room

The Hooligan is a dome-shaped tent that has a 4’11” (150 cm) peak height. This ceiling height is tall enough to accommodate campers that prefer to sit upright while they read or relax at night, though it’s not tall enough to stand in.

Inside of the Coleman Hooligan 4-Person Backpacking Tent

But do keep in mind that this shelter has fairly steep sloping sides. So you may find that your head brushes against the ceiling if you’re sitting near a tent wall.

Room/Vestibules

Although the Hooligan is a single-room tent, one of its primary features is its enormous front vestibule. The vestibule extends about 4 feet from the door of the tent, providing you with plenty of gear storage space during your travels.

Unlike many other tents where the vestibule has minimal overhead space, the vestibule on the 4-Person Hooligan also has a 4’11” (150 cm) peak height. This means that the vestibule on this shelter also serves as an entryway for your tent where you can sit down and tie your boots before heading outside.

Vestibule of the Coleman Hooligan 4-Person Backpacking Tent

Breathability and Ventilation

The Coleman Hooligan 4-Person Backpacking Tent is a double-walled tent with a separate rainfly and mesh canopy. As a result of this mesh canopy, this tent provides ample airflow and breathability in a wide range of weather conditions.

While some double-walled tents lose much of their ventilation capabilities due to their rainfly, the Hooligan has a solution to this issue: an integrated vent with a storm flap. This vent is located at the rear of the tent and it can be propped open with a dedicated pole for maximum breathability, even in the rain.

Coleman Hooligan 4-Person Backpacking Tent without a rainfly

Weather Resistance

To help keep you dry in periods of inclement weather, Coleman engineered this tent with their WeatherTec system. This system combines a durable, full coverage rainfly that’s treated to 1000 mm waterproofing with welded corners, covered zippers, and inverted seams.

The Hooligan’s dome shape design also helps encourage water to bead off the rainfly for improved waterproofing. This prevents water from pooling up on the roof of your shelter where it can start to soak through in periods of heavy rain.

Coleman also stress-tested the Hooligan in a wind tunnel and claims that it can withstand winds as high as 35 mph. However, we would be wary of using this tent in very windy environments because it’s built with fiberglass, rather than aluminum poles.

Durability

Even though the Hooligan is a budget-friendly tent, it’s still made with some fairly durable materials. The floor of this tent is crafted out of rugged 1000D polyethylene, which is both abrasion- and puncture-resistant.

Meanwhile, the Hooligan’s rainfly is made from 75D polyester taffeta. Polyester taffeta is a durable and relatively packable material that can handle all but the most extreme conditions.

The only two potential durability concerns with this tent are its fiberglass poles and mesh canopy. Fiberglass poles are not as durable as aluminum poles in high winds, so take care when using this shelter in exposed locales.

Mesh, while a popular choice for keeping the bugs at bay, is known for being easy to tear. This means that campers need to be careful when setting up and packing up this tent so as to avoid puncturing the mesh in the process.

Ease of Use

The Coleman Hooligan 4-Person Backpacking Tent is a freestanding shelter that uses the company’s conventional pitch system. It has 4 tent poles as well as an Instant-Clip suspension system that allows you to quickly connect the poles to the tent body.

To set up this tent, you’ll first lay the tent body flat on the ground and stake it down. You’ll attach two of the poles to the tent body using the Instant-Clip system. Then, you’ll cover the tent with the rain fly. You’ll insert the last 2 poles into place (1 in the vestibule and 1 at the rear vent), and stake out the rainfly to complete the process.

A pole of the Coleman Hooligan 4-Person Backpacking Tent

Most campers will find that this pitching process takes about 10 minutes. Due to the fact that this tent has 4 poles of varying sizes, the setup process is fairly complicated. This tent also doesn’t have a color coordination system for any of its components. So it’s worth going through the pitching process a few times before your first trip.

Packed Size and Weight

Tipping the scales at 12 lbs 10 oz (5.7 kg), the 4-Person Hooligan is a fairly hefty tent, though it’s not exceptionally heavy given its spacious interior.

When compared to the 2-Person Hooligan, which weighs 8 lbs (3.6 kg), the 4-Person model offers more bang for your buck in terms of weight savings. This is particularly true given the fact that the 4-Person Hooligan has a substantially larger vestibule than the 2-person model.

Nevertheless, a tent that weighs nearly 13 lbs (5.9 kg) is far from lightweight from a backpacker’s perspective, even if it does pack down to 26 x 16 x 4” (66 x 41 x 10 cm). As such, the 4-Person Hooligan is better suited for occasional backpacking trips where weight savings aren’t a major priority.