One of the many things that people enjoy is having a great adventure. Planning to go out with your family and friends, traveling through a remote location, and being one with nature gives us unforgettable memories that can last a lifetime.
If you want to have the best camping experience, it’s vital that you have all the right tools and equipment. A camping tent can make or break an adventure, especially if all of you are planning to sleep in one spacious tent.
In this article, we will review the Coleman Montana and try to dissect all the features, advantages, and disadvantages it has. This is one of the most famous tents that has great features at an affordable price. We’re going to cover the comfort, weather resistance, weight, set-up, and durability of this camping tent.
The heart of your campsite is your tent. If you want to ensure that you’ll have a good camping experience, you need to invest in good quality equipment. We’ve been camping for years now and we know what to look for in a tent. Read our “Best Tents for Camping” article to see our top recommendations.
Verdict
The Coleman Montana 8 Person camping tent is known for its enormous space that can accommodate 8 people easily. With its hinged door, e-port, space, quick set-up, and affordability, you’ll surely enjoy your trip with this tent. Although, you have to look out for the poles since it’s made with fiberglass and the fly because it doesn’t fully cover the tent.
Comfort
The Coleman Montana 8 Person camping tent has 112 sq. ft. for the floor area. If you check out the advertisement for Coleman, they mentioned that this tent can fit a 3 queen-sized airbed. Theoretically, it can, but you’ll be left with no space for your gears and backpacks.
While testing the product, we noticed that it can be a bit too overwhelming if you fit 8 people inside. We suggest that you consider downsizing the number into 6 or 7 and use single airbeds instead. The peak height is 74in which provides loads of headroom and makes it easy for anyone to move around.
It’s worth taking note that this is a single-room tent which means you can’t expect to see any dividers. There’s also only one door to get in and out of the tent which, we think, is not enough since it can accommodate a number of people.
Perhaps, the main selling point of Montana is the hinged door feature. There are 2 poles to be attached for this door and you can open and close it like your typical household doors. It has a total of 3 windows, you’ll find two windows on the opposite side of each other in a reverse angle and the other one on the door itself.
You won’t see any other windows or holes in the tent so ventilation is a bit of a problem especially if you’re sleeping on a sleeping pad on the floor. Speaking of flooring, this Montana camping tent has a bathtub style flooring that can protect you when a heavy rain comes.
The floor has a 1000 polyethylene material which is already durable compared to other tents. The fly has 75D polyester material and the inner tent has 68D polyester mesh. All these considered, we can confidently say that this is a pretty durable tent.
Other features include an electric cable port with a zipper for better luxury and two small pockets. The electric cable is a great addition since you’d want to charge your mobile phones, but we’re somewhat disappointed because, for 8 people, Coleman only included two pockets.
Weather Resistance
Like what we’ve mentioned earlier, the Coleman Montana has a bathtub-style flooring to avoid a sudden rush of water inside your tent when it’s raining. Additionally, a rainfly is included to better protect you and the tent when the rain comes.
The only thing that we didn’t like about the fly is that it doesn’t fully cover the tent, only the upper side covering the windows and creating an awning on the door. Other than that, when you experience bad weather, you’ll surely know it instantly because of the wet walls.
During our trip, we didn’t experience any rainfall, but there was a moderate wind. We’re happy to say that the tent is durable enough to handle strong winds. This is mainly because you need to stake the entire tent to the ground since it’s not a freestanding tent. We’ll talk about this more later on.
If you’re looking for more ways to make your tent and campsite more comfortable, check out our article on how to set up a comfy camping tent for tips and tricks on how to set up the most comfortable campsite. We have mastered the art of being comfortable outdoors and we’re more than happy to share what we know with you.
Weight
The total weight of the Coleman Montana 8 person camping tent is 24.5 pounds. If you’re planning to buy this tent, we recommend that you either divide all the materials within your group for lighter weight or make sure that your destination can be reached with a car.
Ease of Setup and Packed Size
As we’ve mentioned above, this tent is not freestanding which means you would need to stake it to the ground. The advantage of this is that you can be sure of its durability when there are strong winds. The disadvantage is that you need to look for a camping site where the ground is good enough to be staked.
The poles are made from fiberglass which is a trademark of Coleman, but we find it lacks flexibility. There are numerous complaints on the fiberglass poles being broken if you try to bend it too much. With this in mind, we suggest that you bring your own poles that can fit the tent.
Additionally, the design of the tent is a dome that has crisscrossing poles which makes this stable and durable. It took us 12 minutes to completely set-up the tent including the rainfly and there were two of us who had to do this. If you’re planning to do it alone, it might take you a good 20 minutes. Packing it back up is fairly easy to do; with a packed size of 27.5 x 9.25 x 9 inches.
Pros
Now that we’ve mentioned all the features of the Coleman Montana 8 person camping tent, here’s a quick look of everything that we like about it:
- Affordable price
- E-port
- Hinged door
- Spacious
- Great design
- Durable
Setting up a tent in dry weather is preferable, but sometimes, you may be forced to set one up in the rain. This will make pitching your tent a little bit more challenging than usual. Follow our guide to setting up your tent in the rain to make sure that the inside of your tent will stay dry.
Cons
Even though we’ve chosen this tent as one of the best 8 person tents, we would still be honest of all the things that we didn’t like about it:
- Poles are made from fiberglass
- Too little vents
- Only has two pockets which are very small
- Rainfly can only cover the upper side
Conclusion
Camping with a lot of people can be challenging. Having one spacious tent for your whole party can save you a lot of time when it comes to set up because you’ll only be dealing with one big structure instead of multiple small ones. If you’re looking for a camping tent that can accommodate 6-8 people inside, the Coleman Montana 8 Person camping tent should be one of your top choices.
Despite being affordable, this tent is built with durable materials that can withstand bad weather conditions. It’s also very spacious and has a great design, though we recommend that you use this tent with 6-7 people instead of its maximum capacity for added comfort. Even if the Coleman Montana 8 Person tent is far from perfect and still has features that it can improve, this equipment is one of the top camping tents that we recommend if you’re looking for something with a huge capacity.
