Coleman Evanston 6 Tent Review (Bought & Tested!)

I bought this tent with my own money and put it through 12 hands-on tests.

Setup 17.5 min
Peak 68.5in
Inner area 83.6 sq ft
Vestibule 42.3 sq ft

The author testing the Coleman Evanston 6 Tent. — *My Coleman Evanston 6, in my yard.*

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Test scorecard

7.6out of 10

Spaciousness8.5

Ventilation8.5

Rain Protection8

Quality7.1

Comfort & Features7

Portability6.5

Ease of Use6

The Coleman Evanston 6 gives you an extra 42.3 square feet of screened-in porch, room for 1-2 more people or a pile of gear, but there’s hardly any rainfly over that screen room, so bring a tarp for prolonged heavy rain.

What won me over

Generous base area
Super affordable
Decent ventilation

What let me down

Screen room not protected from rain
Large packed size

Check price on Amazon Check price on Coleman

Video review thumbnail for the Coleman Evanston 6

If you prefer watching to reading, check out my video here instead.

See the 12 tests

In the Box
Set Up & Take Down
Peak Height
Base Area
Screen Room
Doors
Windows
Storage
Ventilation
Rain Protection
Quality
Portability
Pros, Cons, Recommendation
Bonus: Must Read!

In the Box

I bought my Coleman Evanston 6. Inside the package I got the tent body, the rainfly, a foot mat, 4 poles in a carry case, and 14 stakes in another case.

Here's the Coleman Evanston 6-Person Tent when first unboxed. From top to bottom: Poles, stakes, rainfly, foot mat and tent body. — *Everything in the box: poles, stakes, rainfly, foot mat and tent body.*

Set Up & Take Down

Set-up time (1 person) 17.5 min
Set-up time (2 people) 9 min
Take-down (1 person) 12 min
Take-down (2 people) 6 min
Poles 4 fiberglass

Here are all four poles of the Coleman Evanston 6-Person Tent. — *Here are all four poles: two for the body, one gray for the screen room, one for the rainfly.*

This is a Coleman Evanston 6-Person Tent that has been set up halfway. — *The tent half-pitched, with the body poles propped up.*

Stakes / guylines 14 / 7

Two body poles cross in an X. A gray pole raises the screen room, and a fourth carries the rainfly. You clip the body on, drape and stake the rainfly, then guy it out.

I pitched it solo in 17.5 minutes, at 5’3″. With my brother it took 9. Take-down is the reverse: 12 minutes alone, 6 with help.

Coleman Evanston 6 set-up video thumbnail

Want the full step-by-step? Watch my Coleman Evanston 6 set-up walkthrough on YouTube.

Peak Height

Capacity 6-personscreen room fits 1-2 more
Peak height 68.5in

At 68.5in peak I can stand fully upright, dead centre. I’m 5’3″. It’s a dome, though, so two steps out my head brushes the roof.

Base Area

Dome floor 9ft 7in × 8ft 9in83.6 sq ft; marketed 10 × 9ft
Sleeping pads / queen mattresses 6 / 2

This is what 6 pads looks like inside the Coleman Evanston 6-Person Tent. — *6 regular sleeping pads fit inside, side by side.*

This is what 2 queen beds looks like inside the Coleman Evanston 6-Person Tent. These are the Alps Mountaineering Vertex Queen (left, blue), and the Etekcity Upgraded Camping Mattress (right, brown). — *2 queen beds in the tent, with gear room at the head of each.*

The measured floor is 9ft 7in by 8ft 9in (83.6 sq ft), a touch under the marketed 10 × 9ft. I fit 6 regular sleeping pads shoulder to shoulder, with a little gear space by the door.

For four people I’d rather run 2 queen-sized mattresses. One of mine is a hair under a true queen (80 by 56 inches), which is what made it fit, with gear room left at the head of each.

Screen Room

Screen-room floor 42.3 sq ft9ft 7in longest, 7ft 4in shortest, 5ft wide
Screen-room peak 62in

Then the screen room adds another 42.3 sq ft: 9ft 7in at its longest, tapering to 7ft 4in, 5 feet wide. That’s 125.9 sq ft of total space.

This is a picture of me using a tape measure to measure the shortest length of the Coleman Evanston 6-Person Tent's screen room. — *Measuring the screen room’s shortest length (7ft 4in).*

Its peak is only 62in, so I’m just shy of standing upright in there.

This is a picture of me lying down in the screen room of the Evanston 6-Person Tent. There's actually space for even 2 of me! — *Lying down in the screen room, there’s room for two of me.*

Total base area 125.9 sq ft

Doors

Doors 1 + 1dome + screen room, no hinge
Dome door 47 × 26in52in tall
Screen-room door 7ft 3in long55in tall, bug net

This is a picture of me exiting the Coleman Evanston 6-Person Tent through the door. — *I duck through the dome door at 5’3″.*

This is a picture of me opening up the screen room door of the Coleman Evanston 6-Person Tent. — *The big screen-room door, spanning almost its full length.*

The single dome door is 47 × 26in and just 52in tall, so I have to duck through it at 5’3″.

The screen room has its own door, near full-length at 7ft 3in and 55in tall, with a bug net and latches to hold it open.

Windows

Windows 3left 46 × 23in, right double 51 × 21in

There are 3 windows (left 46 × 23in, right double 51 × 21in), each with a bug net.

Storage

Pockets 29 × 7in each

This is a picture of me pointing to one of the pockets inside the Coleman Evanston 6-Person Tent. — *One of the two interior pockets.*

Lantern loops 2

This is a picture of my brother hanging up a lantern in the Coleman Evanston 6-Person Tent at night. — *Hanging a lantern from the peak loop.*

E-port / blackout No

Storage is lacking for a 6-person tent: 2 pockets (9 × 7in each) and 2 lantern loops. No e-port, no blackout.

Ventilation

Vents 1full-length mesh-wall vent
Mesh Regular

Rainfly off, the three windows and a big mesh wall open the tent right up, and the screen room even more so.

When the rainfly is off, this is the view you will see when lying down inside the Coleman Evanston 6-Person Tent. — *The view lying down with the rainfly off.*

And this is the view you will get from the screen room, without the rainfly. — *The screen room, wide open without the rainfly.*

Rainfly on, that mesh wall becomes a full-length vent. I left it open through light, moderate and even heavy rain with no water getting in.

This is what the single vent of the Coleman Evanston 6-Person Tent looks like from the inside of the tent. This is just the mesh wall at the back of the tent. — *The mesh-wall vent, seen from inside the tent.*

Rain Protection

Light rain Drypassing shower; screen-room floor got wet
Moderate rain ~2 hrscorner + seam leak; screen room soaked

The corner seams are usually quite vulnerable because they're not protected by the rain, so I found a fair amount of leaking. — *A fair bit of leaking at the vulnerable corner seam.*

The screen room of the Coleman Evanston 6-Person Tent is completely drenched. — *The screen room drenched after the rain.*

Heavy rain (hose) ~30 minbathtub-floor seam then dripped

This is a picture of me using a water hose to simulate heavy rain on the Coleman Evanston 6-Person Tent. — *Hosing the tent down for my heavy-rain test.*

Vestibule cover Nonerainfly doesn’t reach the screen room

A passing shower left the tent dry inside, but the screen-room floor got wet, because there isn’t enough rainfly to cover it.

Here's how much the rainfly of the Coleman Evanston 6-Person Tent protects the screen room. The red arrow is pointing to the rainfly. Notice that the screen room juts out quite a bit, and is exposed to the elements. — *How little rainfly reaches the screen room (red arrow).*

Two hours of moderate rain brought a bit of leaking at one corner, and the screen room got completely soaked.

Under a heavy hose, the untaped bathtub-floor seam started dripping at about 30 minutes, just a few drops, and the rest of the fabric stayed dry.

Coleman Evanston 6 rain-test video thumbnail

See it for yourself: watch my Coleman Evanston 6 rain test on YouTube.

Quality

Floor Polyethylenebathtub ~7in high
Body 68D polyester

This is the tent body fabric of the Coleman Evanston 6-Person Tent. — *The 68D polyester tent-body fabric.*

Rainfly 75D polyester taffeta
Poles Fiberglasscolour-coded
Seam taping Rainfly onlyrest untaped, some inverted

This is the bathtub flooring seam inside the Coleman Evanston 6-Person Tent. — *The inverted, untaped bathtub-floor seam.*

Blackout No

The floor is polyethylene with a ~7in bathtub; the body is 68D polyester and the rainfly 75D polyester taffeta. All of it stayed dry after 30 minutes of hard hosing.

Only the rainfly seams are factory taped; the rest are just inverted to shed water. Stitching is double and consistent, the mesh is regular (not no-see-um), the zippers are catch-free, and the fiberglass poles are colour-coded.

Portability

Packed size 26 × 15 × 12in
Weight 19.4 lbseverything: stakes, guylines, poles

Packed, it’s 26 × 15 × 12in and weighs 19.4 lbs with everything in the bag. Bulky, about the size of my 8-person Montana, and the carry handle is short.

From left to right: Coleman Evanston 6-Person Tent, Coleman Sundome 2-Person Tent, 32-ounce Nalgene bottle. — *Packed size beside a Coleman Sundome 2 and a 32oz Nalgene.*

Pros, Cons, Recommendation

Now, what are the pros and cons, and would I recommend the Coleman Evanston 6?

Generous base area

The dome is 83.6 sq ft and the screen room 42.3 sq ft, a whopping 125.9 sq ft total, about 20 sq ft bigger than my Coleman Montana 8-Person Tent (103.5 sq ft).

Super affordable

I actually paid less for the Evanston than for my Montana 8-person or my Coleman Red Canyon 8-Person Tent.

Ventilation on hot and rainy days

Three windows, a full mesh wall and window awnings meant decent airflow even in the rain.

Decent rain protection

Not the best, but better than I expected. I’d still seal the bathtub seam and corners before prolonged heavy rain.

Stand-up peak height

A real 68.5in at the centre lets me stand fully upright.

No rainfly over the screen room

Even light rain gets into the screen room, so you’d need an extra tarp or canopy to keep it dry.

A pain to drain after rain

Draining the screen room afterwards was annoying, and the mesh area traps dirt and grass when you pack up.

This is what the mesh drainage area of the screen room looks like. — *The mesh drainage area didn’t clear the water well.*

Large packed size

Packed, it’s as big as my 8-person Montana, bulky to haul and store.

Overall recommendation

I’d definitely recommend the Coleman Evanston 6. Get it if you want a huge, seriously affordable family tent with a bonus screened-in porch. Next to 125.9 square feet of total space at this price, the cons feel pretty insignificant.

Bonus: Must Read!

How does the Evanston stack up against Coleman’s other tents? I bought and tested 14 of them head to head in I Tested the Best Coleman Tents.