The Best 8-Person Instant Tents (Bought & Tested!)

Here are the best 8-person instant tents that I’ve bought and tested:

1. Gazelle T8 Hub Tent

2. Core Equipment 8/9-Person Instant Cabin Tent

3. Coleman 8-Person Instant Cabin Tent

Disclaimer: I have only the second instant cabin tent in the actual capacity. For the others, I have them in a different capacity (Gazelle T4 Hub Tent and Coleman Instant Cabin 4 and 10). Still, I’ll be able to give you lots of original images that you will find useful.

Best 8-Person Instant Tent – Quick Summary

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Here’s a quick summary of everything you need to know about these 8-person instant tents:

And now, let’s get into the more detailed recommendations.

RELATED: Best Easy Setup Tents (AKA instant tents)

1. Gazelle T8 Hub Tent (Best Overall & Best Premium Pick)

Key Info:

• Set up timing (1P): 9-10 minutes

• Pack away timing (1P): 9-10 minutes

• Peak height: 78 inches

• Base area: 110 square feet

• Weight: 56 pounds

• Packed length: 68 inches

Pros and Cons:

Summary

Note: I bought the Gazelle T4 Hub Tent, so all the pictures I’m going to show you are of the T4. It is very similar to the Gazelle T8 Hub Tent though, just half the size.

I really love it, for many reasons.

First, my Gazelle instant tent is easily the highest quality instant tent I’ve ever used. The flooring is made of 300D polyester, while the tent body is made of 210D polyester. This is 2 to 3 times the thickness of the other 8-person instant tents in this review, and are very high quality materials.

Here’s a table showing you all the different materials in each instant camping tent:

Instant Tent	Floor	Body	Poles
Gazelle T8 Hub Tent	300D Polyester	210D Polyester	Fiberglass
Coleman Instant 8	Polyethylene	150D Polyester	Steel
Core Instant 9	Polyethylene	68D Polyester	Steel

One small knock against the Gazelle T8 is that their poles are made of fiberglass. But I think this was necessary to create the pop-up action of the Gazelle. It’s still high quality fiberglass though, and I felt that it was really sturdy.

Second, out of all the instant tents in this review, the Gazelle T8 has the most number of hubs, coming in at a whopping 8 hubs.

Usually, the more hubs an instant tent has, the more the tent body will be held up, and the more livable space you would have inside the tent.

Third, thanks to the insane number of hubs on the Gazelle T8, this tent has absolutely no slant in its side walls at all, giving me completely vertical side walls.

Because of this, I had a lot of livable space inside the tent; I could literally walk around the entire tent from corner to corner, and I could stand up everywhere inside this tent.

Fourth, my Gazelle instant tent has a completely removable tent floor. The flooring is connected to the tent body via a super long Velcro strip all around the entire tent, and I could strip out the entire floor in just a minute or two.

Fifth, this removable floor feature made cleaning the tent floor (usually the dirtiest part of the tent after a camping trip) incredibly easy. I could just lay it flat on the ground and wipe off the dirt.

On the other hand, all the other instant tents in this review have un-removable floors, leading to a giant mess of poles, tent fabric, and tent floors all lumped together on the ground.

Also, when packing up the tent after cleaning, the lack of the floor together with the tent made pushing out the air incredibly easy. It took me less than 5-10 seconds to completely compress the tent down, while the other instant tents in this review took minutes before I could get it back into the carry bag.

And sixth, the Gazelle T4 itself has a gear loft at the top of the tent, plus 6 huge mesh pockets all around the tent. (I think the T8 has 2 gear lofts, 10 huge pockets, plus 3 smaller pockets.)

This is much more than the other 2 recommendations below, which have a measly 2 pockets each.

However, here are a couple cons to take note of before buying this Gazelle.

One is the massive packed length. My Gazelle T4 has a packed length of about 68 inches, which I think is about the same packed length of the T8. Look at how insanely long it is compared to me:

And another con is that the Gazelle T8 is the most expensive instant tent in this review. I paid more than $300 for my Gazelle T4, and the T8 is slightly less than double that price.

If you don’t mind the price tag though, and you plan to camp in your Gazelle T8 Hub Tent all the time, then I think it’s incredible value for money as an 8-person instant tent.

If you’re wondering, the Gazelle T8 Hub Tent is also my top pick of all the best large instant tents I’ve tested. I’ve linked the article here if you want to check it out.

RELATED: Best Large Instant Tents

There’s also a screen room version of the Gazelle T8, and that’s the Gazelle T4 Plus Hub Tent. The name basically gives it away – it’s just the Gazelle T4, plus an extra screen room, if you need a screen room tent:

2. Core Equipment Instant Cabin 9 (Runner Up & Best Budget Pick)

Key Info:

• Set up timing: 12 minutes

• Pack away timing: 9 minutes

• Peak height: 75.5 inches

• Base area: 118.1 square feet

• Packed size: 46 x 13 x 12 inches

• Weight: 30.0 pounds

Pros and Cons:

Summary

If the Gazelle T8 Hub Tent is too expensive (it is quite pricey!) for your budget, and you need a great budget pick, the best recommendation I’ve got for you is the Core Equipment Instant Cabin 9.

Unlike the Gazelle T8, which has a manufacturer’s suggested retail price (MSRP) of over $500, I paid just slightly over $200 for my own Core 9-Person Instant Cabin Tent, which is less than half the price.

Of course, the price I paid may differ slightly from the current MSRP now, so click on this link to Amazon to find out the current price.

And even though I paid so much less for the Core, I still found the instant mechanism to still be decently high quality.

The pre-attached poles are made of thick and sturdy steel, and there are 3 hubs at the top of the tent to hold the tent body up. (This is unlike Coleman’s instant cabin tents, another budget-friendly brand, which I will talk about later in my next recommendation.)

On top of that, the Core also has the best vents of all the tents in this review.

These vents are not only huge, but each of this is an adjustable ground vent, meaning that they can be opened and shut by me from the inside of the tent.

Actually, the Core is the only tent in this review to have any vents (the Gazelle and Coleman do not have these such vents.)

However, since this is a budget-friendly tent, take note that some of the tent fabric are budget materials as well. For example, the tent body is made of just 68D polyester, while the floor is polyethylene (an inexpensive tarp-like material).

Nevertheless, for its reasonable price-tag, I found that this Core Equipment Instant Cabin 9 is a fantastic budget pick, beating out all the other budget brands.

Another budget brand I tested is Coleman, and read on to find out why it’s not as a great a pick.

3. Coleman Instant Cabin 8 (No award)

Key Info (for my Coleman 10P):

• Set up timing: 15 minutes

• Pack away timing: 11 minutes

• Peak height: 73.5 inches

• Base area: 135.7 square feet

• Packed size: 50 x 17 x 12 inches

• Weight: 32.0 pounds

I decided to give the key info of my 10-person Coleman Instant Cabin, because the stats on the 8-person Coleman seemed to be highly inaccurate in my opinion.

Pros and Cons:

Summary

The Coleman Instant Cabin 8, like the Core above, is also another contender to be a good budget pick.

It has the same affordable price tag as the Core, coming in at just over $200. Of course, you should still check out the current market price on Amazon by clicking here instead; sometimes, there may be good deals on it.

And one way that the Coleman beats the Core is in its double-thick tent fabric. Core’s tent fabric and rainfly comes in at only 68D polyester, while Coleman’s comes in at 150D polyester.

This is a rather high quality polyester that’s thicker and more durable.

However, I still find it hard to recommend the Coleman over the Core for a few reasons. Check out this table of data here:

Instant Tent	Hubs	Peak Height	Wall Angle
Gazelle T8 Hub Tent	8	77.5 inches	0 degrees
Core Instant 9	3	75.5 inches	15 degrees
Coleman Instant 10	1	73.5 inches	35 degrees

Notice that unlike the other 2 tents that I recommended above, the Coleman has only 1 single hub at the top of the tent?

This leads to it having a much lower peak height than the other 2 tents. The Coleman Instant Cabin 10 that I tested is the biggest tent by capacity here, but it has the lowest peak height.

It also has much more slanted walls, eating into my livable space inside the tent.

At certain areas of the tent too, the tent body felt really droopy and sank into the tent. This also ate into my livable space.

On top of that, the Coleman Instant Cabin 8 does not have any mesh ceiling/mesh roof. The top of the camping tent is just one entire block of fabric.

On the other hand, the other 2 instant tents in this review have loads of ceiling mesh for hot air circulation, ventilation and stargazing.

Overall, I feel that there are more cons than pros to this instant camping tent. The only way I’d recommend this Coleman Instant Cabin 8 is if the Core is out of the stock, and you need another option as a budget, instant camping tent.

So overall, here are my recommendations on the best 8-person instant tents:

1. Best Overall: Gazelle T8 Hub Tent

2. Best Premium Pick: Gazelle T8 Hub Tent

3. Runner-Up Pick: Core Equipment Instant Cabin 9

4. Best Budget Pick: Core Equipment Instant Cabin 9

5. Runner-Up Budget Pick (the Core above is out of stock): Coleman Instant Cabin 8

Frequently Asked Questions

If you have more questions, hopefully one of these will help you out:

How Long Does an 8-Person Instant Camping Tent Take to Set Up?

An 8-person instant tent’s setup timing will depend on the exact model that you choose to buy. Some models have slightly different setup processes, leading to slightly different timings.

Here are the setup and pack away timings of all the tents in this review:

Instant Tent	Setup Timings	Pack Away Timings
Gazelle T8 Hub Tent	9-10 mins	9-10 mins
Core Instant 9	12 mins	9 mins
Coleman Instant 10	15 mins	11 mins

Just to clarify:

• The setup and pack away timings include setting up/removing the rain fly, stakes and guy lines.

• Both these timings include taking out and packing the tent back up in the carry bag.

How Many People Can Fit in an 8-Person Instant Cabin Tent?

Typically, an 8-person camping tent will be able to fit 8 people, side by side, on 8 single sleeping pads. Here’s what an 8-person setup looks like:

Alternatively, you can also usually fit 3 queen air mattresses into an 8-person camping tent:

However, there are, of course, some exceptions to the rule. For example, the Core Instant Cabin 9 was only able to fit two queen air mattresses:

This is due to the very rectangular configuration of the tent. There is, however, lots of floor space leftover to fit loads of camping gear and other stuff.

Is an 8-Person Tent Too Big? Is it a Spacious Tent?

This depends on how much space you and your family like inside your 8-person family tent.

• Experts recommend decreasing the maximum capacity by 2, so an 8-person family camping tent will be able to fit a family or larger groups of 6 with relative comfort.

• However, you can also choose to camp in an 8-person camping tent with just a family of 4, or even a couple of 2.

Ultimately, going for any of these large tents, or any larger tent, will depend on your personal preferences.

Why You Can Trust Me

I bought and tested all 3 of the 8-person instant setup cabin tents in this review.

Well, kind of. I bought some variation of them, and here are the exact instant cabin tent models that I bought and tested:

• Gazelle T4 Hub Tent

• Core Equipment Instant Cabin 9

• Coleman Instant Cabin 4

• Coleman Instant Cabin 10

These instant setup camping tents cost me almost $1,000, and I took about 1 month testing and camping in them before making this review.

Conclusion

And with all that experience, here’s all the 8-person instant setup tents I can recommend to you for your next car camping trip:

1. Best Overall: Gazelle T8 Hub Tent

2. Best Premium Pick: Gazelle T8 Hub Tent

3. Runner-Up Pick: Core Equipment Instant Cabin 9

4. Best Budget Pick: Core Equipment Instant Cabin 9

5. Runner-Up Budget Pick (the Core above is out of stock): Coleman Instant Cabin 8

You can check out my complete review on the best instant tents (in different sizes from 4 to 10-person instant tents).

I hope this helps, and feel free to reach out to me on my YouTube channel if you have any questions on any instant cabin tent.