Coleman Evanston 6-Person Tent Review: Big Space, Small Price

Introduction

The Coleman Evanston 6-Person Tent is a dome-style camping tent with an attached screen room, and it occupies a genuinely useful spot for anyone who wants a lot of covered floor area without spending much. Out of the box, the package includes the tent body, a rainfly, fourteen stakes in a carry case, four poles in a second carry case, and a foot mat.

Setup leans on colour-coded fiberglass poles that match corresponding pole sleeves, which keeps the process predictable. Two long black poles form the dome body, a grey pole supports the screen room, and a fourth pole slots into the rainfly itself before the fly is draped over the top. Once the S-hooks on the rainfly meet the rings at the base of the poles, the tent body is staked down with seven stakes and the whole structure is guyed out with seven pre-attached guylines.

Who This Tent Is For

This is a tent for families and small groups who want room to spread out rather than a minimal shelter. The dome section alone offers 83.6 square feet of base area, and the attached screen room adds another 42.3 square feet, for roughly 126 square feet in total. That total is about 20 square feet more than a Coleman Montana 8-Person Tent, which measures around 103 square feet, so the Evanston is generous for its stated capacity.

It is also unusually easy to live in for anyone who dislikes crouching. The peak height is about 68.5 inches, which allows an adult to stand upright at the centre of the dome, and the same is true even with thick queen mattresses on the floor.

For sleeping arrangements, the tent comfortably takes four people on two queen-sized camping mattresses, with a decent amount of leftover space for gear. Six people fit as well, using six regular sleeping pads, though that layout is shoulder to shoulder and leaves only a small corner for bags. The dome interior measures about 9 feet 7 inches long and 8 feet 9 inches wide, slightly under the marketed 10 by 9 feet, and the length falls a few inches short of accommodating two full queen beds. Anyone sleeping at the corners will find their head touching the sloped wall when sitting up.

Main Strengths: Space, Ventilation, and Value

The headline strength is the combination of floor area and price. The Evanston is bigger than several eight-person tents on the market, yet it costs noticeably less. In one direct comparison, the Evanston came in around $40 cheaper than both a Coleman Montana 8-Person Tent and a Red Canyon 8-Person Tent.

Ventilation is the second strength, and it holds up in worse weather than you might expect. There are three windows across the tent, plus a mesh wall, and the rainfly can be removed from the outside on hot days to open up airflow further. The screen room adds still more ventilation once the fly comes off.

The detail that makes the biggest difference in the rain is the window awnings on the rainfly. They shield the window mesh well enough that the windows can be left fully open in light to moderate rain without water entering. In heavier rain the awnings still protect the upper portion of the mesh, so a window can be left slightly open rather than sealed completely.

The mesh wall also forms a long vent along almost the entire length of the tent once the rainfly is in place. That vent can be left open in light, moderate, and even heavy rain without letting water inside, which keeps the interior from turning stuffy during a wet trip.

Setup, Take Down, and Packed Size

Setup is quick for a tent of this size. With two people working together, the whole Evanston went up in about nine minutes. Solo, the same job took roughly 17 and a half minutes, so a little under double the time. Take down and pack up follow the reverse sequence, at about six minutes for two people and about twelve minutes alone.

The pole layout is the main reason it moves fast. The two longest black poles slide into the black-tipped sleeves at the centre of the tent, the grey pole goes into the grey-tipped sleeve at the front of the screen room, and the rainfly pole is held by two small pockets and two Velcro strips before the fly is lifted into place.

Packed down, the Evanston measures about 26 by 15 by 12 inches and weighs around 19.5 pounds for everything. That packed size is roughly the same as a Coleman Montana 8-Person Tent, so it does take up real space in a vehicle despite being the smaller-capacity tent. The included foot mat and the carry cases for the stakes and poles help keep the load organised.

Weather Protection and Build Quality

Under light rain, the Evanston performed well with no leaks, and both the windows and the door could be left open. The screen room floor did get wet, because there is not enough rainfly to cover the whole screen room.

Under sustained heavy rain, tested over about 30 minutes, the tent held up before a few drops began trickling in. The seam joining the green tent fabric to the bathtub flooring became soaked, while the surrounding fabric stayed dry. The screen room was completely drenched, and a sizeable gap at its two edges allowed a puddle of water to collect.

The materials held their own. The flooring is polyethylene with a bathtub section that rises about seven inches, and no water seeped through it even after half an hour of pouring rain. The rainfly is 75D polyester taffeta and the rest of the tent is 68D polyester, and both stayed dry over the same period. The seams are not taped, though several are inverted, including the green fabric to bathtub flooring seam, a vertical seam, and the white to green fabric seam. Stitching is generally double-stitched and consistent, with only minor exceptions.

The mesh is standard mesh rather than no-see-um, and it is decent quality. The zippers are also decent, all catch-free, with no snagging on the windows, the tent door, or the screen room door, although one zipper arrived without its attached pull cord. All poles are fiberglass and colour-coded.

Things to Consider Before Buying

The screen room is the main caveat. There is hardly any rainfly coverage over it, so water gets in during light rain, and considerably more during heavy rain. Keeping that space dry in wet conditions means adding a separate tarp or canopy. Draining it afterwards is also a chore, since the mesh area does not clear water well and the remaining water has to be swept off by hand.

That same mesh area tends to trap dirt and grass when the tent is being packed up, which is worth knowing if you camp on soft ground. The packed size is another point to plan around, since it matches the bulk of a larger eight-person tent.

Smaller practical notes: the dome door measures about 47 inches long by 26 inches wide, and the top of the door sits about 52 inches off the ground, so shorter adults will still need to duck on the way in. The screen room door is far bigger at roughly 7 feet 3 inches long and 55 inches high, and it needs the front of the screen room staked taut for smooth zipping. Storage inside is limited to two pockets measuring about 9 by 7 inches, plus a loop at the centre of the ceiling for a lantern and a second loop above one of the windows.

Buying Advice

If your priority is maximum usable floor area for the money, the Evanston is a strong candidate. It offers more space than some eight-person tents, sets up quickly with two people, stands tall enough to walk into at the centre, and ventilates well even in wet weather. For a family of four on two queen mattresses, it is a comfortable, low-cost base camp.

Before a trip that involves many hours of heavy rain, seal the bathtub flooring seam and the corners as a precaution. Budget for a tarp or canopy if you intend to use the screen room as a dry living space, and plan vehicle space for a packed size that rivals larger tents. Riders of tight campsites will appreciate that the footprint is still manageable for its capacity.

Treat the six-person figure as a sleeping-pad count rather than a comfort guarantee. Four people plus gear is the sweet spot, and six works only if everyone is happy sleeping shoulder to shoulder.

Conclusion

The Coleman Evanston 6-Person Tent trades weatherproofing in one specific area, the screen room, for an unusually large base area at a very low price. Everything else, from the quick colour-coded setup to the standing-height centre, the strong ventilation, and the dry bathtub floor, performs better than the price suggests. Buy it for space and value, seal the key seam, and add coverage over the screen room if wet weather is on the forecast.