Four People, Two Dogs, One Tent: A Coleman Sundome Story

The first night we slept in the Coleman Sundome, Biscuit snored loud enough to wake Wyatt. That is not an exaggeration. We were at Garner State Park, the four of us and the two dogs packed into a 4 person tent, and somewhere around 2 a.m. the snoring started. Ray turned over. Caleb laughed. Wyatt asked if the tent was soundproof. It is not. But nobody got up to leave, and that is the part I keep coming back to.

Before the Sundome, we borrowed my brother-in-law's old cabin tent. It leaked at the seams, and I spent one rainy night at Lost Maples putting towels down while the boys slept through it. Ray and I talked about buying our own tent for months. We wanted something simple, something we could set up without a diagram, something that would fit the four of us and give the dogs a corner. The Coleman Sundome checked those boxes and it has now been through two years of weekend trips.

Our first trip with it was Garner, and the snoring story tells you most of what you need to know about the space. Four people on air mattresses is snug. We fit, but we fit like a family that likes each other, not like a family that needs its own wing. The ceiling is tall enough to sit up in, which matters more than you think when you are changing out of wet clothes at midnight. The dogs curled up at the foot of the mattresses and stayed there until breakfast.

I want to be honest about the dogs. Biscuit and Pepper are French bulldogs, which means heat is the thing I watch, not cold. We hike early, we take shaded trails, and we carry them when they are done. The tent helps because it stays cooler than the car and gives them a place to nap with the doors unzipped and the screens closed. They have slept in it on every trip since we bought it. That is not a small thing for a family that camps with flat-faced dogs.

The rain test came at Lost Maples last spring. A front moved in around dinner, and I watched the drops hit the fly while I waited for the leak. There was no leak. The boys played cards, Ray made coffee on the camp stove, and the dogs stayed dry. I have owned tents that needed a tarp and a prayer in weather like that. This one just did its job.

Two years of Texas weekend trips, one front at Lost Maples, and the Coleman Sundome has never leaked on us.

Now the honest part, because every tent has one. The stakes that come with the Sundome are not the strongest I have used. I replace a couple of them with bigger ones for windy nights at Padre Island. The included rainfly covers the top but does not reach the ground, so in a sideways storm you want the tent facing the right way. Neither of those things has ever ruined a trip. They are just things I know now.

Setup is the part I was most worried about, because I am the one who usually does it. The Sundome is a dome tent with two poles, and the poles are marked so you cannot mix them up. That last detail matters. I had it up by myself in about ten minutes on the first try, and Ray had it down even faster the next morning. For a family that camps a dozen weekends a year, that is the difference between a real trip and a chore.

Who is this tent for? A family of four that camps together and does not need a palace. A couple with a dog. Two friends who want something they can carry to a walk-in site. It is not the tent for backpackers, and it is not the tent for a weeklong base camp with a full kitchen. It is the tent for Friday night, a state park, a fire ring, and the sound of Biscuit snoring at 2 a.m.

One more thing about the zippers. I read reviews before we bought this tent, and a few people complained about the zipper. Ours has been fine, but I will tell you what I tell the boys: do not yank a zipper when it catches, ease it back and try again. Treat a tent like it belongs to someone you like and it will last. That advice has served us well through two seasons and one very enthusiastic dog who likes to push his nose through the door flap.

The other thing I would change is the carry bag. It is the classic stuff sack, and once you put the tent and the poles in, you have to sit on it to get it closed. I have learned to roll the tent tight and let Ray do the sitting. It is a small gripe. If the biggest problem with your tent is that the bag takes two people to close, you are doing fine.

What I'd Tell You If We Were Sitting at My Kitchen Table

If you are tired of borrowing tents, or you have a tent that leaks, or you just want something simple enough that the kids can help set it up, the Coleman Sundome is a good place to land. It is not fancy. It is not the lightest tent you can buy. What it is, is dependable. Two years in, ours still smells like campfire and the zippers still work. That is the review that matters to me.