Coleman Evanston Screened Camping Tent, 6/8 Person Weatherproof Tent with Roomy Interior Includes Rainfly, Carry Bag, Easy Setup and Screened-In Porch

My family has been using this tent periodically for around 3 years now, I felt like it was a good time to give a long-term review.Summary: Great tent, incredible price, but don't get excited about the porch.The Good:-The price is RIGHT. Dollar for dollar you can't beat this tent, especially since it's frequently listed at nearly half off retail.-Ventilation is fantastic. This is THE tent to go for if you're a summer-camping family, bar none. Huge mesh windows on both sides and the rear wall of the tent. I've been camping a long time and it's rare to see this much ventilation in a conventional dome-style tent.-Easy setup. Two crossed fiberglass poles for the main body, one arched pole for the porch, and a single short pole on the rain fly to pop out the two corners. Can be setup in 5-10 minutes by capable campers. Can be done solo but due to size is helpful to have a helper or two. The only thing that gets a bit tricky is the rain fly. There are a LOT of guy lines that frequently get tangled, and it's a bit awkward to get it hooked over the porch initially as it likes to slip out of position while you're staking it out.-Spacious. We have used a queen size air mattress with a twin and a pack-and-play for our youngest and still had plenty of room for duffel bags and backpacks.-Shockingly weatherproof. I took a gamble on this tent for the ventilation, specifically wanting it for really hot lakefront camping during the summer months where temps routinely end up in the 90's with high humidity. However, where we camp is prone to sudden and fierce thunderstorms, especially in the evenings and overnight. The amount of mesh concerned me to say the least. That said, I've been in some serious booming storms with a lot of wind, and have yet to feel a drop on my face in this tent. I've been very impressed. In fact, storms are now my favorite time to be in this tent as you get all the benefit of a cool breeze with none of the spray requiring you to zip your windows up or leakage from the seams you get in other tents. FYI: I always seam-seal the rain flys of my tents before first use, in this case using gear-aid Silicone diluted with a bit of mineral spirits. I cannot vouch for the seam integrity without sealing them.The Bad:-As mentioned, the fly can be a bit tricky to get on solo.-The tent stakes are trash. This is a minor gripe, because frankly every tent ships with the same garbage throwaway stakes.-Folding the tent... Kinda sucks. It's pretty prone to forcing an air-bubble to the end when rolling it up that has nowhere good to escape, which means slowly forcing the air through the nylon to get it packed away. the included bag is functional but EXTREMELY tight, in the wrong direction. The tent needs to be carefully folded to EXACTLY the length of the folded poles, or you're going to do a lot of smashing to get the bag zipped.- The porch is useless. It doesn't affect the functionality of the tent itself in anyway, but don't get excited about the porch. It's low enough and tight enough to feel very cramped if you're trying to sit and talk with someone, virtually impossible to put more than one chair in without blocking the door, not weatherproof, and prone to pooling water in all but the most ideal circumstances. We left some shoes and a cooler on the porch the first trip we used it, caught a storm and everything in the porch was soaked. Since then, the only use it has served is giving us a glorified doormat to kick our shoes off in and a second barrier for bugs, which IS helpful with kids that don't always zip up correctly. It helps keep the dirt and sand out of the main tent a bit I suppose, but honestly I think the tent would be better off without it.

Bought this online, arrived in 2 days! First set up as usual, a pole in wrong sleeve, but that was all, easily corrected. No he would not look at the pic or instructions, after all it is just a tent! LOL The tent was wonderful, easy to set up, we never get them back in the original bags, flunked that course in scouting apparently, loved the screened porch! I agree that it would not keep much dry in the rain, however we camp where the dew is heavy and open bags stored near the actual tent entrance were perfectly dry and the tub storage near front of porch were also pretty dry. The width inside is perfect, the length, front to back could be a bit more roomy. Our queen size mattress was front to back with no extra room, if we were on perfectly flat dirt instead of rocks we think we would have gained a ft only. The door to the interior only opens on one side and therefore one of us had to crawl over the other to get outside. Will try the bed left to right next time, at least I won't get crawled over, I will let you know if this set up works better. But we did have rooom for 2 sterlite storage drawers for nightstands with storage for our personal items, flashlights etc on each side and our dog's bed and I do not think we felt cramped at all. A shortie beach type chair was perfect for removing shoes and sitting on the porch for dressing etc. He is very tall and liked the porch for dressing too. If a storm came all of our gear would have fit inside with us, that would be cramped indeed but it would fit and that is the point. The second day my SO decided I had purchased a condo, and he now laughingly refers to it as such. No it is not that big and will fit on most gravel bars and smaller campsites. The ventilation is great, but if you like to stargaze you ARE open to the overhead elements all night without the included rainfly. The opening covers approx 1/2 of the bed you will wake wet if rain or heavy dew occurs. The rainfly is designed very well and we think it would absolutely keep the rain out with windows open unless sideways rain happens, very sideways rain. In that case it would be time to go home anyway. We LOVE this tent and hope it gives us years of enjoyment. Am so looking forward to our next Current River float trip! As for returning it to it's original storage bag, we decided we would just keep it in a plastic storage tub, everything fit plus a couple of big lantern type flashlights, this will make it handy for next trip and no aggravations trying to fold, roll and stuff to fit in bag. We just put the rods, stakes and rainfly in the bag and it is in the tub too!On our second trip we were able to get the tent back into it's storage bag, and zipped too. Next trip I have purchaed diferent stakes because these jsut dont seem to like gravel much. the bed left to right was perfect!OK we had rain, and not just a little bit either, heavy winds too. A small leak near a back corner, considering it was a 3" rain not a big deal, one towel on the floor took care of the couple of cups of water. Wind, held up very well. We moved our pop up canopy over the tent opening in attempt to keep porch and its gear dry. So so luck on this due to the amount of rainfall. Now everyone else packed up and went home, we were dry and loving it. Some rain from canopy runoff caused water to come onto porch floor, but I think if some leaves or a bit of straw were centered front to back on the porch creating a high spot the water would have run out on its own to the weep holes.We loved coming and going from the tent to our canopy so much, without getting wet that we will most likely set up camp this way permanently LOL