Coleman Cobra Tent, ultra-light compact man tent

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After this, you’ll use the clips already attached to the tent to clip each side of the long pole. This action will pull the flysheet high and tight. The Cobra 2 is shaped like a structured wedge which provides good resistance when pitched head-on into the prevailing wind. It is squat and can be pitched close to the ground reducing the effect of adverse weather conditions. There is a nice facility in the inner door which allows airflow, while keeping bugs out, but I find that condensation control is only as good as it's fly performance. As for giving it a first pitch in the garden....fingers crossed for good weather on Sunday. I'm working Saturday.

Overall this is an excellent and reliable lightweight tent that won’t cost the earth – in either sense. There is also a large vent which is above your face while you sleep. This takes away that warm breath that often causes the dampness on the tent walls when you wake up in the morning. This larger vent is covered by a large flap which stops the rain from coming in – you can see this flap on the photograph below at the top of the tent. The Zoic is a range of solo, two and three-berth lightweight tents from American outdoors company MSR. It’s designed to keep you cool in warmer weather camping, and after last summer, that’s probably not a bad starting point. We rather liked the credit printed on the flysheet: “architecture by Jake Lah.” This is a nod to the founder and boss of Korean company DAC, and a reminder that without poles, a tent is just a pile of loose fabric. With only one access to the tent’s exterior, you may have to store the gear by the door. If you keep it towards the rear, it’s going to be a pain getting to it. Also, you can only access the second vestibule from inside the tent.Materials Outer 75gm 20D ripstop Nylon, X-tex lamination, 20,000mm; porch wall 51gm 30D 6.6 ripstop Nylon, silicon-coated both sides, 5,000mm Inner 25gm 20D 6.6 ripstop Nylon, DWR treated, mesh window Groundsheet 75gm 50D PU Nylon taffeta, 5,000mm Poles DAC 9.35mm Featherlite alloy Pegs 8 Lightning pegs, 11gms each, square section alloy; 4 Flash pegs, 7gms each, rectangular section alloy We found the Cobra 2 simple to pitch for one person. It can take only 5-10 minutes in good weather and up to 20 minutes in the wind. Nevertheless, it’s possible to pitch the tent on your own in bad weather. The ‘Eco’ in the title refers to the fact that this tent is made with fabric created with recycled plastic, so there’s a definite positive environmental story here. The materials contain the equivalent of around 90 plastic drinks bottles. The Cobra 2 has dual vestibules – the inner compartment has a zippable door flap on both sides. However there is only one exterior door flap which can be irritating if camping with two people and someone has to climb over the other person to get out. It also needs a bit of effort when bending the longer pole to get into the designated eyelet. But once done, the tent becomes firm and taut. Who Should I Buy the Cobra 2?

Besides, there’s also an aluminum section to fix any of the poles if breakage ever occurs. Coleman Cobra 2 Performance According to Coleman, you should pitch the Cobra 2 in an area measuring 2.2m 2 . This recommendation is to allow for the tent to stretch fully. This way, it can make the most out of its weatherproofing and waterproofing capabilities. Nevertheless, it can take less space in emergencies. In hot weather, you will notice that the tent is breathable and does not hold in humidity because it comes with three vents. One is located at the top complete with an insect mesh. There’s another small mesh by the footwell and another by the door. The vent on top includes a large flap that stops the rain from coming in when the zip is down. Firstly, I found that the ventalation (which is generally good), should be configured just right to minimise the amount of condensation you get. Coleman includes its iconic system WeatherTec in this tent, meaning it has passed a series of tests in different weather conditions in a controlled environment. The Cobra 2 has the WeatherTec seal of approval, which guarantees that:

For an igloo-like tent, we’d have expected it to self-support. This feature is necessary if you want to install it on reasonably hard ground. That means enhanced waterproofing with an increased hydrostatic head rating on the flysheet and added wind protection, with the introduction of 15D nylon walls on the inner, instead of mesh. It’s all designed to make it more robust and better suited to camping in rougher conditions. Another thing to like is toothed groove grips on the guy lines. They work better than the usual figure of eight loops used on many guy ropes. It’s not a spectacular tent, but it does exactly what is says on the tin, and for those of us whose lightweight camping is at the lower end of the scale, it’s absolutely perfect.

The Coleman Cobra is a fly-first pitch. This is useful as it helps prevent the inner tent from being exposed if you’re in bad weather. The inner tent will come pre-attached to the outer fly. Assuming you never detach it yourself, this means you can always ‘unroll and pitch’ it, with the inside of the tent never being exposed to the elements. With ventilation panels at both ends, allowing air to flow through, and zippable mesh on the inner doors, condensation isn’t a major issue. The vents have covers, so can remain open even when it’s raining. For lightweight campers more used to cramped conditions, the amount of space will be the thing that immediately jumps out – at 1.85m, there’s plenty of headroom inside for most people to stand upright without stooping and that makes a huge difference. Also, there are gaps between the interior module and the canvas, which improves breathability. Still, we found that since the interior sides are loose, they tend to flop inwards. It’s a slight quibble because you can’t stretch the inner layer out further. Yet, the outer canvas is sturdy enough to stop the wind from causing too much flopping.

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The Halo is just right for me, as I say it has two entrance/porches with enough room for cooking if raining. Fire retardant fly-sheet** will self-extinguish if exposed to flame and will not flare dangerously out of control. Tensioning is ok, if a little fiddly and once up, the tent has a good amount of room for me and my gear. It'd be ok for two when adventure racing or something, but as always, 2 berth means 1 in practice. There is a great amount of porch space, with a decent amount of room under each 'wing', but weirdly only one outer door. I imagine to keep down costs or something.

To be honest I think Vangos are good for the money. I have never had any quality issues. The beauty of the dome semi geodesic style is you get more usable space.

Need it in a hurry? We are also able to offer before 12 noon and Saturday delivery services. See here for information on these services MATERIALS Outer 70D polyester, hydrostatic head 6,000mm Groundsheet 70D polyester, hydrostatic head 6,000mm Poles PowerLite alloy Access is via one of the two side doors, both of which have large storage porches before you enter the inner tent. The vestibules provide somewhere to store your gear and are a sheltered space for cooking and eating. The stated weight on the Cobra is 2.05 kg, but when I weighed mine it came in at closer to 2.2 kg. Definitely within the margin of error that I’ve come to expect with tent weights. The Coleman Cobra 2 man tent, pitched Pitch