Coleman Red Canyon 8 Tent Review (Bought & Tested!)

I bought this tent with my own money and put it through 8 hands-on tests.

Setup 20.5 min
Peak 73in
Base area 140.6 sq ft
Weight 20.2 lbs

The author testing the Coleman Red Canyon 8 Tent. — *My Coleman Red Canyon 8, pitched in my yard.*

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Test scorecard

7.2out of 10

Spaciousness9.5

Quality7.3

Comfort & Features7.2

Rain Protection7

Portability7

Ventilation6.5

Ease of Use5

The Coleman Red Canyon 8 is one of the most spacious 8-person tents you can buy for the price — shockingly huge and feature-rich, though it needs seam sealant to handle heavy rain.

What won me over

HUGE base area
Comes with 1 gear loft + 2 room dividers + clothesline
Decent hot day ventilation
Inexpensive

What let me down

Thin rainfly fiberglass poles
Only 1 door
Not great against heavy rain

Check price on Amazon

Video review thumbnail for the Coleman Red Canyon 8

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

See the 8 tests

In the Box
Set Up & Take Down
Spaciousness
Comfort & Features
Ventilation
Rain Protection
Quality
Portability
Pros, Cons, Recommendation
Bonus – MUST read!

In the Box

I bought my Coleman Red Canyon 8. Inside I got the tent body and rainfly, a gear loft, the poles, a floor mat, 2 room dividers, and a carry case with 17 stakes.

This is a picture of me unboxing the Coleman Red Canyon 8-Person Tent. I'm holding onto the fiberglass poles, which come in a separate carry bag. — *Unboxing mine — the fiberglass poles come in their own carry bag.*

Set Up & Take Down

Set-up time (1 person) 20.5 min2 people: 10.5 min
Take-down + pack-up (1 person) 14 min2 people: 7 min
Poles 6 fiberglass
Stakes / guylines 17 / 68 stake loops

Setup runs 6 color-coded fiberglass poles: 2 long red poles cross into an X, then 2 white side poles, then the rainfly and its 2 thin poles. The red poles are awkward to raise solo. On my own it took 20.5 min; with my brother, 10.5 min. Take-down is the reverse — 14 min alone, 7 min together.

Here's what all the 6 fiberglass poles of the Coleman Red Canyon 8-Person Tent look like when assembled. The red arrow in the picture is pointing towards the red poles. — *All 6 fiberglass poles — 2 red, 2 white, 2 thin black for the rainfly.*

Curious how it stacks up against another big Coleman? See my head-to-head:

Coleman Montana vs Red Canyon

Coleman Red Canyon 8 set-up video thumbnail

Want the full step-by-step? Watch my Coleman Red Canyon 8 set-up walkthrough on YouTube.

Spaciousness

Capacity 8-personfits 8 pads (up to 10) or 3 queens
Peak height 73in
Base area 140.6 sq ft16ft 4in × 9ft 7in — shy of the marketed 17 × 10ft

At 73in peak I can stand upright at 5’3″, but it’s a dome — the peak is dead centre and the roof slopes off fast. The measured floor is 16ft 4in by 9ft 7in (140.6 sq ft), a touch under the marketed 17 × 10ft but huge for the class.

This is a picture of me standing under the peak height of the Coleman Red Canyon 8-Person Tent. I can easily reach the top of the tent by extending my arm up a little. — *Standing under the 73in peak — I can reach the top.*

I fit 8 regular sleeping pads with room for 2 more at the sides, or 3 queen mattresses with gear space left over.

This is what 8 pads looks like in the Coleman Red Canyon 8-Person Tent. From left to right: Big Agnes sleeping bag, Klymit Double V Uninsulated, Exped MegaMat Duo 10, Klymit Double V Insulated, Sea to Summit Self-Inflating Camp Mat. Even with these 8 pads, there's still space to fit 2 more right at the sides. — *8 sleeping pads inside, with room for 2 more at the sides.*

This is what 3 almost queen sized beds looks like inside the Coleman Red Canyon 8-Person Tent. — *3 queen mattresses fit, with gear room to spare.*

Comfort & Features

Doors 1no hinge
Windows 2left 42 × 26in, right 38 × 24in

This is a picture of both windows inside the Coleman Red Canyon 8-Person Tent. — *Both windows, one on each length.*

Pockets 29 × 8in each
Dividers 2with clothesline
Gear loft 1

This is what the gear loft of the Coleman Red Canyon 8-Person Tent looks like when set up. — *The square gear loft Coleman includes.*

Lantern loop 1
E-port No

One door, and it’s small — 51 × 39in and just 53in tall, so I duck through it at 5’3″. The 2 windows run one per length (42 × 26in and 38 × 24in), each with a bug net and a latch.

This is a picture of me ducking to get through the door of the Coleman Red Canyon 8-Person Tent. — *Ducking through the single 53in-tall door.*

Storage is genuinely rich: 2 pockets (9 × 8in), a gear loft, a lantern loop, 2 room dividers and a clothesline. No e-port and no hinged door, though.

This is a picture of me climbing over the divider of the Coleman Red Canyon 8-Person Tent. — *Climbing over a divider — there’s no zip through the middle.*

This is what the clothesline of the Coleman Red Canyon 8-Person Tent looks like. I've also set up the 2 dividers, to the left and the right of the clothesline. — *The clothesline strung between the 2 dividers.*

Ventilation

Vents 32 large + 1 ground vent
Large vent 31 × 21in
Ground vent 23 × 9in

There are 3 vents — two large (31 × 21in) and one small ground vent (23 × 9in). Even through 15 minutes of heavy rain their mesh stayed dry, so there’s always a little airflow.

This is one of the vents of the Coleman Red Canyon 8-Person Tent, pictured from the inside. — *One of the mesh vents, seen from inside.*

On a hot day I pull the rainfly off and the side vents open up into extra windows.

This is what the Coleman Red Canyon 8-Person Tent looks like with the rainfly taken off. — *Rainfly off for maximum hot-day airflow.*

Rain Protection

Light rain 15 minno leaks
Heavy-rain hold 15 minfirst drops at the untaped bathtub-floor seam

This is a picture of me using a water hose to conduct a heavy rain test on the Coleman Red Canyon 8-Person Tent. — *Running a hose over the front wall for my heavy-rain test.*

After 15 minutes of heavy rain, I noticed that the bathtub flooring seam of the Coleman Red Canyon 8-Person Tent started leaking a little. — *After 15 min, the untaped bathtub seam let a few drops through.*

Seam taping Vent + rainfly only
Vestibule Nonerainfly shades the door only

This is a picture of me standing in front of the rainfly pole of the Coleman Red Canyon 8-Person Tent. This shows that the rainfly pole actually doesn't provide much rain cover apart from the door. — *The rainfly reaches only to the door — no cover for footwear.*

In light rain it stayed bone dry, no leaks. For heavy rain I ran a hose on the front wall — after 15 min a few droplets came through the one untaped seam, where the bathtub floor meets the body. The fabric and rainfly themselves stayed dry.

One limit: the rainfly only reaches the door, so there’s no vestibule — gear left outside will get wet.

Coleman Red Canyon 8 rain-test video thumbnail

See it for yourself: watch my Coleman Red Canyon 8 rain test on YouTube.

Quality

Floor Polyethylenebathtub ~8in

This is what the flooring of the Coleman Red Canyon 8-Person Tent looks like. — *The polyethylene bathtub floor.*

Body & rainfly Polyester“Double-thick Polyguard”

This is a picture of me duct taping the rainfly pole of the Coleman Red Canyon 8-Person Tent. It broke on my first use. — *Duct-taping the thin rainfly pole that snapped on my first use.*

Mesh Regularnot no-see-um
Poles Fiberglasscolor-coded
Blackout No

The floor is polyethylene with a ~8in bathtub; body and rainfly are polyester, and all of it stayed dry through the hose test. Seams are inverted but only the vent and rainfly are taped.

This is what one of the seams of the Coleman Red Canyon 8-Person Tent looks like. — *A typical seam — inverted, but not taped.*

Stitching is double-stitched and clean — one small hole, a few loose threads. The mesh is regular (not no-see-um) and the zippers are catch-free. The real weak point is the poles: all fiberglass, one thin rainfly pole snapped on my first use, and another bent permanently within days.

Portability

Packed size 26 × 13 × 10in
Weight 20.2 lbseverything, incl. stakes and guylines

Packed, the Red Canyon is 26 × 13 × 10in and 20.2 lbs with everything in the bag — stakes, guylines, gear loft and all.

This is what the Coleman Red Canyon 8-Person Tent (top, green) looks like beside a Coleman 2-Person Sundome Tent (bottom, black). — *Packed up next to a Coleman Sundome 2 for scale.*

Pros, Cons, Recommendation

Now, what are the pros and cons, and would I recommend the Coleman Red Canyon 8?

HUGE base area

At 140.6 sq ft it swallows 8 pads with room to spare — as big as some 10-person tents.

This is a picture of my Coleman Red Canyon 8-Person Tent in my yard, with the door opened. — *My Red Canyon in the yard, door open.*

Genuinely feature-rich

It ships with a gear loft, 2 room dividers and a clothesline — rare at this price.

Good hot-day ventilation

Pull the rainfly and the side vents open into 4 windows; even in heavy rain the 3 vents keep air moving.

Really inexpensive

Very reasonably priced for an 8-person tent.

Thin rainfly fiberglass poles

One snapped on my first use and another bent permanently within days.

This is a picture of my brother holding up the rainfly pole of the Red Canyon 8-Person Tent. Notice that it's now bent after a few days of use. — *The rainfly pole, bent after a few days of use.*

Only one door

For a tent this big I expected at least two.

Struggles in genuinely heavy rain

Water trickled through the untaped bathtub seam after 15 min — worth a pass of seam sealant.

This is a picture of water running over the Coleman Red Canyon 8-Person Tent. The red arrow is pointing to the seam, from which water leaks into the tent. — *Water running over the seam that leaked; the arrow marks the spot.*

Overall recommendation

Get the Coleman Red Canyon 8 if you want a super spacious, feature-rich 8-person tent on a budget that’s still pretty good quality. Just pack a couple of pole splints and some seam sealant, and it’s a huge amount of tent for the money.

Bonus – MUST Read!

Before you buy, I bought and tested 14 of the best Coleman tents head to head — see exactly where the Red Canyon lands in I Bought & Tested the 14 Best Coleman Tents. Torn between two big Colemans? I bought both and compared them in Coleman Montana vs Red Canyon.