Reviews > Shelters > Tents > Coleman Cloudview 2 > Kathryn Doiron > Long Term Report

Coleman Cloudview 2 Tent - Long Term Report

Product Information:

The Cloudview 2 is a two person tent. There are two main support poles and one vestibule support pole. The tent has a fly that gives near total coverage of the tent. The top of the body of the tent is netting and the two side pockets are backed with netting for airflow purposes. The tent comes with a set of tent stakes which allow for the staking of the floor at each corner, each corner of the fly and two more stakes to pull the fly away from the sides of the tent (a total of 10 stakes). Coleman has this tent listed under their backpacking category. The tent was not supplied with a ground sheet and as such I did not carry or use any ground protection. The fly comes factory taped , clips down at the corners of the tent and has Velcro tabs sewn to the inside to allow the fly to be attached to the poles. The fly corner clips are adjustable to tighten the fly without stretching it.

I have had several trips with this tent both by myself and with a partner. I have more thoroughly enjoyed myself when I spent the night alone in the tent as there was ample room and I felt good that I could have all my gear stowed out of the elements. With another person in the tent, the space was much more restricted and there was no room for either of our packs. With both sleeping bags pushed to the very back of the tent there was about 1 foot (30 cm) of head space and that was where most of our loose and little pieces of gear ended up. It was nice to be able to pull some gear in, but the fact that it accumulated right in front of the door made entering and leaving a little more tricky. The side pockets became a much more valuable storage space for storing breakables and very small items. I would store my watch, glasses and headlamp in the pocket. I found I never really used the skylight as an attic. I either had it open or closed. I would only remember to use it when I was packing up my gear. I felt I could have made better use of this space, but didn't.

I have found that I like the many tiebacks for the vestibule opening, door opening and skylight. Used together, they make the tent much more open and inviting, whether inside or outside the tent. I do notice that when both zippers of the vestibule flap are open, that the zipper flap can and does get caught in the zipper when zipping the vestibule closed. While the zipper is smooth to zip up, catching the flap does slow things down. One thing I have not used with this tent are the many Velcro tabs sewn to the inside of the fly. I do use the ones associated with the vestibule support pole. I have found that if I don't use it, it is easy to knock the support pole into a lower position which lowers the fly and reduces the vestibule head space. I did try to use the Velcro tabs once. I found them to be annoying to do up and in the end I have found I have not needed them. There are about 5 per pole, 3 for the front half and 2 for the back half of the tent. I found that in order to do all the tabs up, I had to start with the tabs at the top of the tent and work my way down evenly on each pole. If I tacked all the tabs down in the back of the tent, it was difficult to get up under the fly to reach the tabs for the front half of the tent. I have also had rain seep in through the stitching on one of the Velcro tabs. This was a Velcro tab located right above the door opening and as such I could easily see it. I do not know if any of the other Velcro tabs have leaked. If there was any leakage, given that the tabs are not attached to the poles, any leaks might simply have run down the inside of the fly rather than dripping on the tent. I think that if all the Velcro tabs were to be replaced with only two strategically located tabs per pole, there would be less potential for leakage. With a light to medium breeze, I have not noticed any excessive flapping of the fly without the tabs fastened.

Having another person in the tent, while it did make the tent feel smaller, I found there was still some buffer space on either side of myself as did my partner. Several things I noticed where that, as I had known ahead of time that he would have to get up several times during the night, I placed him on the right side of the tent (when looking at the tent). With the door zipper pull placed in the middle of the bottom of the door, he had few problems coming and going. Due to a little stiffness in the morning, having a strategically placed tree in front of the tent, helped with leaving the tent. I did get up once during the night and found that even from the left side of the tent, I had no difficulties leaving. I did find that with my head near the door, I had to swing my legs around over the other person. A lack of coordination could be painful. As I did not know my hiking partner that well, we did try to maintain a buffer between us. On a level surface, this was easy, but on a slightly tipped surface I found that we couldn't help but end up touching each other. While my partner found that the shared body heat kept his kidneys from complaining, I was not entirely comfortable being pressed up against the side of the tent. My bag picked up some condensation and the flattening of the loft made a cold spot. I can see how this would work well with a couple or with people who don't mind getting close to each other. By snuggling together in the middle of the tent, there are fewer chances of picking up condensation from the walls of the tent.

During the field testing for this tent, I did not have any problems with condensation. I have found that with the cooler weather moving in and an extra person in the tent, there was condensation. I am not sure if this was due to the cooler weather, there being two people in the tent, or from my being pressed up against the side of the tent. My partner was also partially pressed against the side of the tent and he also picked up a little condensation. Another factor was on that particular trip I had set up on a tent platform and due to Labour day, there were two tents on the platform so I could not stake out the sides of the fly. I did notice that even with the top of the tent made almost entirely of mesh, the tent, when tightened down for cold weather did seem warmer than the outside temperature. Most likely this was due to being out of the wind.

The condensation on the tent did not seem to be localized to one particular area. Rather, when I was packing up the tent, I noticed that almost the entire inside of the fly was wet with condensation. In the picture below, you can see that the window was completely covered with condensation. I always have the skylight closed at night for privacy. the side vents were only partially open to allow for a second storage pocket. I packed the damp tent up and hiked out in the drizzle. It is interesting that I did not think to check this until I experienced my first rain with the tent. The inside of the tent's storage bag is coated and this made me feel a little better about putting a wet tent into my pack. The tent was not soaked and I did not notice any leakage. I have a large space in the apartment to set up the tent to dry and a ceiling fan helps speed up the process. For the last trip, with the very noticeable condensation, I set up the tent and dried the outside of the fly, then I flipped the fly over and dried the inside, then I dried the body of the tent. As the tent is free standing, when not staked down, I can easily pickup the whole tent and shake out debris while still in the woods.




Field Conditions:

I have taken the Cloudview 2 tent with me on a several long weekend hikes. I have had about 8-10 nights in the tent about 4 of which were with a hiking partner. All trips included three days and two nights in the White Mountains of New Hampshire.

Conditions for several trips were about the same as I keep going back to the Ethan Pond area due to the ease of the trail. Camping elevation was at 2850 ft (868.7 m). There were light intermittent showers the first day, temperature that night dipped to about 40 F (4.5 C). The next day was sunny and clear with temperatures peaking around 68 F (20 C). The second night dropped to between 45 and 50 F (7-10 C). The last day was clear and sunny with temperatures pushing 77 F (25 C). Conditions for these trips were about the same in temperature and precipitation, or lack thereof.

Conditions for the last few trips, which occurred with a hiking partner, occurred in a different area. Conditions were much cooler due to elevation and camping in the shade of a mountain. Camping elevation was at 3300 ft (1005.9 m). Temperatures on one trip where in the 60 - 70 F (15.5 - 21 C) range and dropped down to about 50 F (10 C) at night. There was no rain on this trip. The last trip, again to the same area had temperatures reaching a high of 60 F (15.5 C) and a low of 35 F (1.6 C) on both nights. There was some rain the last morning we packed up. The tent did show condensation on this last tent but I did not note any on any previous trips.

Pros:

- Storage pockets that convert to air openings

- Skylight that converts to an attic

- Adjustable clips at the corners of the fly that secure it to the corners of the tent

- Pitch of the vestibule limits space

- Vestibule door pull hard to reach and door hard to use

- Numerous Velcro tabs are not necessary

- Condensation was observed with a second person and lower nightly temperatures

Reviews > Shelters > Tents > Coleman Cloudview 2 > Kathryn Doiron > Long Term Report