Gear Review: Coleman’s 60-Second Instant Tent Could Save Your Camping Trip

How many times have you been on a camping trip and by the time you finally arrive at your campsite, the last thing you feel like doing is hassling with your tent? Maybe there's not a lot of daylight left. Maybe it's raining. Maybe you are all cranky and hungry from the journey. Maybe you forgot or lost a part of a tent pole. It can be a frustrating moment.

We recently learned of a tent that eliminates this problem: The Coleman Instant tent. This tent comes with the poles pre-attached to the tent. You literally pull it from your trunk, spread it out, and with a few bends of the poles, you have a four-person tent ready to go. Coleman claims it takes 60 seconds. It could be faster than that. The tent is a little heavy, so it's best used with a car to haul it around (the six-person tent weighs 25 pounds). For 2011, Coleman has three sizes—the 8'x7', the 10'x9', and the 14'x8'. The seams are taped so you don't need an additional rain fly.

With this tent, you can't lose a piece or forget how the assembly works. You won't bicker with your companions about who will wrestle with putting it together. Just pop the tent into position and move on to more critical tasks, such as getting dinner started or finding a good place to catch the sunset. We think this tent could relieve a lot of the interpersonal tensions of a camping trip. That alone is worth the $137-$242.00 price tag.—Mary Anne Potts