Coleman Cobra Tent, ultra-light compact man tent

Product Information

The hubbed poles and colour-coded clips make pitching straightforward, although consulting the instructions for the first pitch would be advisable. The liveability factor is good – it’s spacious for a solo tent, with steep walls and that cross pole adding up to lots of headroom. 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 The Halo is just right for me, as I say it has two entrance/porches with enough room for cooking if raining. 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.

As you can see in the photographs below it is much narrower at the feet and much wider at the head end, because of this you wouldn’t be able to top and tail in this tent. As with all two man tents this style, you do end up very close together – because of this I’d recommend it for pairs that know each other well or adventurous activities when sharing some personal space aren’t an issue. As a one man then it is very spacious and you can easily fit yourself and all of your gear inside.

To make Cobra 2, Coleman went through the pains of considering all sorts of areas you could potentially pitch this camping jewel. Firstly, it is double-skinned and shaped like a structured wedge to resist prevailing winds. It is narrower at the feet and wide at the head area. Another thing I was really pleased to see in the bag was a handy patch for repairing the tent. Going even further, Coleman have included an aluminium section to fix any of the poles if you should have a breakage.

Since this is a two-people tent, you don’t have room for gear on the inside. Luggage has to go in the exterior pouches. The pouches do not have a groundsheet, and luggage can get wet if you leave it out. In other words, you may want to use a waterproof cover over your gear. Yes, there are lighter tents out there, but that’s not such an issue when you’re on two wheels or floating on water. And if there are two of you sharing the tent, you can spread the load between you.

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There’s only one exterior door flap. Sometimes it can be a pain getting out since you have to climb over the other person, but it’s nice to have the door to the side and not by the feet.