Customer Reviews With Photos

I tried out the Green Elephant Telescoping Tarp Poles (I had purchased four of them) and was very happy with their ease of use and how they enabled me to put up much more tarp than using ropes tied to trees. The next time I put up the tarp, I used it continuously with all four poles for about seven weeks. I did not check any of them during that time; they all stayed up nicely, mostly over six feet extended and one extended fully. My husband and I took the tarp down today. We experienced a problem with locking and unlocking the poles. They seemed to have water in them, and while examining them, the bottom end popped off and water drained out. Without the pressure inside the pole we were able to have success locking and unlocking them. A couple of sections needed some elbow grease (strong twisting from my husband), but they came around and worked properly as well. I wanted to tell you of our experience since I read some reviews on whatcampingtent.com where buyers were upset with the locking issue. I don't know if they would have had similar results as us, but I plan to put my story on whatcampingtent.com reviews as well. Good product. Happy camper (50+ years of it!). Nancy

Purchased a blue one: I opened it the first time I went to the beach. Several of the metal bars that are supposed to provide the structure for the umbrella were bent and the umbrella wouldn’t open completely. Sent it back. Purchased a red one: Once again, I opened it when I got to the beach. This time the fabric was completely detached from the top of the umbrella structure. It was very easy to see that the quality of the sewing and thread was very poor. This time I didn’t even bother opening it and took it right back to the car and sat in the sun all day. I really wanted to like this umbrella. It has a very clever design and would be perfect for the beach. Unfortunately, I can’t justify buying another umbrella of such poor quality. I would gladly pay twice as much for this design if someone made a stronger/more durable version of it. However, I can’t find any other companies that make it. They must have a patent. It’s a shame. I, honestly, can’t believe this umbrella has such high reviews when most of the negative ones reference the poor quality.

Our friends that we go to the beach with every year had the version of this (from a different seller) that has the 4 bags. It was awful. Kept falling down in the wind and would randomly collapse so one person always had to stay with it in case it fell. Our friends couldn’t attend the beach trip this year so when we searched to find something better and I found this, I was hoping to avoid the disaster of the year prior. And it did not disappoint! It was incredibly windy the day after I took this picture and we got it up as easily as the day before, and it withstood the strong winds so nobody had to stay behind! Well worth the investment! We watched people next to us struggle with the other version with 4 bags and I was so happy we went with this one instead.

Easy to put together and durable. I criss- crossed the poles on the rain fly part to stop the smacking noises during a windy day and it worked perfect.

Pros: Cool design, cool look, innovative design. Cons: 1. The tent was mis-assembled from the factory. The poles were structurally incorrect and we had to bust out a screwdriver and disassemble them and then correctly reassemble them. I don't know how they even got the tent to fold into the package. Nothing seems broken, so that's good. 2. The outside light switch: only the nightlight switch works. Turning on the full-power/dimmed inside lights from the outside is a no-go. The inside of the switch works fine/normal. 3. As shown in the photos, the tent is missing a loop on each side to tether the room divider to the sides. I'd send this tent back for a replacement but the box is broken down already. It's a very decent tent but they'd better get on top of their QC situation. Update: We're officially camping in the tent for the first time. It's easy to set up and easy to get the rain fly attached. We just had a horrible lightning storm with a LOT of wind blow through and the tent did just fine. We curled up in bed throughout the storm, which lasted about 45 minutes and was really violent. My only gripe (and this could be fixed with a redesign of the rain fly,) is that the rain fly didn't keep rain from flying up under it and the water drops hit the screen and splattered us - just a little bit. In short, the rain fly doesn't protect the windows *quite* enough. I would also gripe that the tent fabric isn't totally taught and seems a little bit baggy. Our site is perfectly flat and level and I've pulled this thing straight from 4 corners and the fabric is still a little loose. The built-in lighting is so clutch, though. That's a really nice touch. All in all, I'm adding two stars to my original 2 stars due to the pounding the tent just took in that thunderstorm. Job well done. If CORE gets on top of its QC and extends the rain fly, this is a 5-star tent all day long

I overall like the tent. I have only tested how it fits and have not yet camped with it. My main concern is with rain. Once I see how it does, i will update this review. Pros: 1. Very good fit, exact for my model y. 2. Material seems sturdy but not too thick. 3. Flap to access the charge port is a must- have feature. 4. Exactly as shown in the photo. 5. Separate velcro tabs to roll up just the rain fly, or both the fly and the insect screen. Cons: 1. Hatch won't close with the tent attached. 2. Because of this, concerned about security and heavy rain. 3. There are small gaps on the sides that are mostly held closed by the light magnets. Wind could open them, but I haven't been camping yet, so it may not be a concern. 4. The bunji rope across the top follows the edge of hatch and a flap then is pulled inside and attached with 2 magnets to seal the gap. I don't know if rain will get in. Wind could allow water to get in. 5. The fly is narrow as described by seller, there are no side flaps. It seems like it is only for a little shade and minimal privacy. 6. No tent poles to hold up the fly, only 2 stakes are provided. 7. Lock clip provided... what is it for? 8. Tape provided so the car finish won't get scratched. If your car is wet, it won't stick. It seems to be painters tape.

I had a good experience with this tent, it was a good upgrade from my old one. I use this for car camping, I would never use it for backpacking, but it is super light for what it is (so light in fact, I thought it was missing poles or something lol). It is a "4" person tent, however my wife and I use it as a 2 person and put a queen size air mattress inside. I wouldn't try to sleep 4 in this unless you were on mats, stacked very close. Pros: Easy to set up with 2 people. Poles snap in instead of the old push-thru sleeve design, and I like that. The tent fly design is interesting as well, it keeps the water away from the tent body unlike others. All the seams were well sewn, really happy with that. The tent is also lightweight, not backpacking lightweight, but definitely lighter than what I'm used to in this size of tent. The tent is very well protected with the fly on. Decent size, fits a queen size air mattress with about a foot on either side and about 10" on top and bottom. Cons: Stakes were very lightweight aluminum, not really hearty enough for my tastes. Replaced with larger steel stakes. The design of the fly allows for great protection, but poor ventilation. This can be a fair trade-off in my opinion depending on the circumstances, take it as you will. The fly zipper when zipped is all the way at the ground, a few feet away from the tent body. It''s difficult to get to when inside the tent, however tying a little 2 foot piece of string to it fixes that. No windows with the fly on, but the fly does offer excellent protection. Overall I was very happy with the tent, it seems to be built well. Buy some better stakes right away, but if you're looking for a good car camping tent, this is a good choice.

I've had many tents, of varying quality but always large cabin type tents with room. These aren't designed to live out of or to backpack - I drive my car up to a spot in the woods and start unloading the ridiculous amount of camping gear I have for a 2 night stay. This tent goes up and comes down amazing fast and simple. I find it attractive, roomy, and a god send compared to previous tents that took forever to figure out and put up and tear down. I love that I can put up my tent myself in a quick and simple manner and get to the rest of my trip without wasting time figuring out how to put the darn thing together. I'd recommend this tent over and over and will never go back to the old type of tent without the easy-up features. UPDATE!!!: So I have had this tent a couple years, store it well and it was great the first couple times I got to use it. As you can see above, I loved and recommended it. Fast forward to the third time I used it - I was not shielded by forest and was subjected to a little bit of wind/breeze which grabbed at the tent naturally. I felt that since it goes up so quick and easy - we'd throw it up and secure it with tie downs right? Wrong - two corner pieces snapped. They couldn't stand even a small amount of wind without breaking. I'm not sure if you can see in the picture, but two corners are rigged together with wire and rope. Bummer, and lesson learned - let's contact Coleman to order new parts and I just won't set the tent up unless I have perfect air stillness in the future. Well, it doesn't appear that they sell replacement parts for this tent anymore. I've taken two courses of action - contacted their customer service via email and ordered similar looking parts for a newer model tent in hopes that they might fit my tent and I can use it again. The result? Coleman has ignored my concerns for over a week now without any sort of correspondence or care. Even worse, the parts I ordered over a week ago (so that I would have them in time for my next trip 10 days from when I ordered) are still not even showing as shipped on the website. It says my order is processing on the Coleman website. I mean...seriously? I pay a somewhat hefty price for one of their tents, use it 3 times and it breaks, then pay to replace the shoddy parts - and I can't even get correspondence back or any move on an order to pay to replace the parts myself??? Bad form Coleman, bad form indeed. I believe this tent to be better than 1 star, the customer service sucks though so you best hope nothing goes wrong with it for you because the tent has easily breakable, non-replaceable parts - and Coleman isn't trying to help you out. I had an issue with a Columbia tent once - the customer service could not have been better. Giving 1 star, and adding a picture in hopes that people will search out 1-star reviews, and picture reviews - see this and be forewarned.

Great tent so far. Used it on seven outings so far. No issues and sets up in two minutes!

There are definitely a ton of things to talk about, and I'll try to cover them all. The good and the bad. To start off this is my first bivy. But I've had my fair share of experience with small backpacking tents enough to weigh in on some key points. It's rather light weight, and packs down small. It seems well built, with ripstop outer shell and a removeable inner netting it's built like your average double wall tent. Strong doubled up patching on all corners and tie out points. I'm 6'1" and I was afraid of my head and feet hitting the netting once I got on a sleeping pad. And unfortunately my 25" wide sleeping pad didn't fit, and flattened out the whole foot end with no room for my feet. So, I bought a cheap mummy style pad and it fits great. It's actually thinner than my other one, so my head and feet don't hit the netting as much as I thought they would. And the outer shell is far enough away from the netting even if my sleeping bag touched the whole footbox I wouldn't get condensation on me and wet out my sleeping bag. I've rain tested it once so far and no signs of leaks. The rain fly covers down to the ground well, and far enough from the netting no splash back should reach over the bath tub. The bath tub is high enough, and well laid out that it should keep you covered from most if not all weather. The Velcro on the doors keeps the vestibule closed while you unzip it so it doesn't drape down and get your netting or you wet until you detach the velcro (from the inside that is). And when open there isn't a direct drip line from the open door to your netting so unless it's raining sideways you shouldn't get wet from opening and closing the rainfly zipper. It has nice vents, they come with kick stands to keep them open, and a stout band across the opening to keep them wide open and rounded. The fact that you get a vestibule on a bivy is in itself a pretty nice feature I've seen tons of small 1 person tents and bivy's with no vestibule. Getting in and out was a bit of a challenge at first, but after 2-4 times it started to get easier to do and understand. However, one time while going to lay down to get in, I sat on the edge of the bath tub, and it yanked on the roof where the netting was hung from. Pulling it down and tearing some stitching. I'm worried it will cause a leak but it was completely self inflicted and USER ERROR, That all said to warn you, don't sit on the edge of the bath tub and rip your tent! It didn't fully rip it off, but it did unstitch a couple stiches that went through not only the tab holding up the netting, but also both layers of the tent pole guide loop. So if I have to patch it, I'll be going through like 4 layers of material, and it will be tricky. I'll also have to seam seal as it's a stitch line directly over the netting and my sleeping area and if it leaks it will likely leak right on me. So only time will tell how bad that mess up is, or if it's even a problem. Or if it rips worse from normal use. Pros- -Dark color and low profile are good for stealth camping (blends in in the woods). -Quick set up and tear down. -Rain fly sits low to the ground, allowing air to move, but keeping rain kick back out. -Inner netting is removeable (fully double wall) -The inner is made and connected in a way that entire use of the door one handed is possible and easy. Very handy and well made in that aspect. 10/10 on the door function. it's not loose or gets caught up ever. -Both doors have tie backs to keep the rolled up and open. -Weather resistant, no leaks in first tests. -Enough space in a minimalist, survival, or stealth camping situation to get the job done. -Vents up high and a ventilated foot box. -You can store a little bit of camp gear in the overhang at the end of the footbox. -There's enough room in the vestibule for a small or empty backpack and your shoes. -They include a patch kit with a piece of fabric of EVERY kind. I can't get over how cool this is, they have every color they used in material, the netting, and even a collar for if you break your pole you can fix it on trail, as well as an adhesive patch. It's one of the most comprehensive repair kit's I've ever seen with a tent. -There are 2 tie out points on the pole arch so you can tie down in windy conditions. -It's fairly wind resistant. -The pole bag, and stake bag are quality made, and heavy duty. -The whole set up is fairly light, and for what it is, is a good price to weight ratio for a beginner backpacker, or a backup survival tent/bivy. -There's a pocket in the side for phone, or other valuables you don't want in the vestibule. Cons- -Dark color makes it hot. Heats up quickly in the sun, and stays warm all day. Even with the door open it's pretty hot inside. -Tight fit, taller or larger people will have trouble getting in and out, or even fitting in it with a sleeping pad. -Doesn't fit normal 25" wide pads, has to be a mummy pad or a thinner pad. -Not much head room, enough to lean up from a laying position to reposition or turn on a light, or check your phone. -The inner height of the netting means when you hang your light, it will dangle pretty low, and if you lean up it will be right in your face. -Going from a round top, to a triangular foot box it creates a crease up top, not too noticeable in first pitch, but if you don't get it tightened out perfectly it will cause wind to make it flap, and you'll get a slapping sound over and over as wind hit's it. Tightening it down will help but not fully eliminate it if you have a strong cross wind. -The bag it comes in has a huge instruction sheet sewn into the bag, I tried to tear it out and it just pulled the stitching out of the draw string track. so DEFINITELY CUT IT OFF DO NOT PULL!!!!. I have to resew it back together now. I figured it was like most pull away tags just softly stitched in, but it's stitched in with THE ONLY thread going around the top of the bag. so it will ruin the tent stuff sack if you try to rip it out just an FYI. -One of the string zipper pulls for the inner came off before I received it, I'm not sure if it was forgot to be put on, or lost somehow in transit, but if it came off during shipping it should still be in the bag and or box, and it wasn't so I'm assuming it was just a little quality control error, not a big deal as zipper pulls are super cheap and easy to tie on. But something worth mentioning I feel, as it makes it hard to zip and unzip since it's just an empty zipper with no pull on one side. The build quality, the overall layout and function I like and am happy with. the practicality of using a tent so small is definitely situational, but if you have a need or a want for a bivy, and don't mind cramped spaces while you sleep (who spends time in their tent when they are not sleeping,) and don't mind changing in camp outside your tent, (or changing on your back in your tent with some struggle involved) then this is definitely a decent choice. It's not for everyone, but to the correct market, I'd say this is a nice bivy. Is it worth the price point? I don't know 100% because I haven't tried or seen any comparable priced bivy's in person. But comparing it to what I see in the price point while searching whatcampingtent.com, it seems well priced, with a lot of functions and a good build for that price range. I will be taking this on all my day hikes that have any potential for needing to stay the night in the woods, it won't be my normal backpacking tent, but it will hold a designated place as a backup or emergency tent and will fill that roll perfectly fine if that day every comes. If you need a place to sleep, and are 6ft and under this tent will do the trick! If you've read all this and think the issues I brought up are negligible and the good parts sell this tent, then I 100% recommend you check it out with serious intention. However if you're turned off by the things I have to complain about, this just might not be for you. Doesn't make it a bad product, but it DEFINITELY has a target audience and isn't for everyone. I put a lot of effort into this review and made it as comprehensive as I could. I hope I covered everything I learned and I hope it helps!

This was very easy to transport and set up everyday. We used it for 6 days on the beach and only one of those days where, in extreme winds, we unsuccessful in getting it to stay up, but beyond that, it was extremely durable even with avg high beach winds. Perfect for a family size of 4, for bigger groups, I would suggest the 4 pole option.

This tent is a game changer for cold weather. The setup was easy for me, if it isn’t really windy and you don’t need guy lines, you only tie a couple knots on either side. The top of the tent connects with adjustable hammock straps and carabiners, everything was held together and made very well from quality material. The amount of space inside was impressive, you can comfortably sleep 2 people with a stove and 4 without provided you used cots, as a single person hammock setup, it is more than enough room. Lastly for the pros, it holds heat very well, on a night below freezing it was still about 80 °F in the tent, the vents and windows ensure you can easily regulate the temperature and clear out smoke. Really, my only cons would be that first off, you need quite a bit of space to put this up. The next and final thing is that single person setup COULD be pretty difficult on the sides if you weren’t an experienced camper. I had a buddy tie the lines while I held the poles straight but now that this line is tied I can just keep it that way and slip the loop over the pole for easy setup next time. Overall 9.5/10 I’d highly recommend it.

I got this to stay out of the sun on breaks for a friend and I adventure riding around the great salt lake and although the price was low, the quality is very high. Well made, light (no, not carbon fiber poles for this price, but reasonably light), and simple to pop up. Very happy with my purchase!

I really liked the simplicity of setting this up. I do wish there was a floor option.

Very easy to put together and fold back up, the only thing is me and my boyfriend took it for camping for a last minute trip because we couldn’t get a hotel and this was a best option. Everything was fine till he laid down and his head touched one end and his toes the other and he’s about 6.4. And it was kinda tight for the both of us to lay down we were bumping into each other and rolling ontop of each other, it’s the equivalent to a twin size mattress.