We know the significance of a good night’s sleep for enjoying the great outdoors. That’s why we’ve taken the Coleman Rocky Mountain 5 Plus Tent for a spin, putting it through its paces in various conditions to bring you an honest and comprehensive review. This model received the prestigious Red Dot Design Award in 2017.
It is a well-equipped family tent with 3 rooms and a darkened sleeping cabin. It has an impressive 4,500 mm water column. It offers more than 11 m² of fully protected space. This tent is part of the well-equipped upper middle-class series from Coleman. There is a large canopy in front of the front entrance. The processed material is robust – Coleman placed particular emphasis on the weather protection properties.
Comfort level is also not neglected for different heights people. 1.95m stand height in the living room is great for most people. For enhanced comfort, it features a rear window in the sleeping cabin. However, we miss a feature that would make staying in the tent more pleasant on warm days.
Read the following parts to find out more about the Coleman Rocky Mountain 5 Plus!
Coleman Rocky Mountain 5 Plus Review
Technical Specs:
- Capacity: 5 people
- Tent shape: Tunnel
- Colors: Green/gray (Coleman standard)
- Spaces: 2 or 3, separable
- Construction dimensions: 480 x 310 cm
- Sleeping area: 6.02 m²
- Living area: 5.10 m²
- Total area: 11.1 m²
- Stand height: 195 cm
- Outer tent material: 100% polyester, PU (polyurethane) coated, flame retardant
- Floor material: PU-coated polyethylene (100%), fully integrated
- Material linkage: Fiberglass
- Inner tent material: Breathable polyester (100%), mosquito nets
- Water column outer tent: 4,500 mm
- Water column soil: 10,000 mm
- Seams: Seam-sealed
- Furnishing: Darkened sleeping cabins, curtains, cable ducts, panorama windows, barrier-free door, rain protection canopy
- Optional accessories: Coleman tent carpet, Coleman XL privacy screen, Coleman Fast Pitch Shelter
- weight: 16.8 kg
- Pack size: 73 x 30 x 30 cm
- Scope of delivery: Reflective guy ropes, sewn-in groundsheet, tent pegs, carrying bag
| What We Liked: | What we Didn’t Like: |
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This tent is big and heavy – nobody wants to strap it to their back and go on a mountain hike with it! When camping with your car on the campsite, weight is not a problem. Groups and families will find plenty of space inside the tent. Some features also make it particularly kid-friendly.
Are you one of the particularly tall people? Then the mobile shelter gives you a little headache – our 1.94-meter tall tester could stand upright in the living room. Thanks to the fully sealed tent floor, you can risk a camping trip even in cold and wet weather in spring and autumn. Heavy snowfall does not suit Rocky Mountain 5 so well.
Do you like camping in the summer? The night-black sleeping cabin allows you a good night’s sleep when the sun rises at 5 a.m.
Floor Plan
Coleman Rocky Mountain 5 Plus has 3 rooms. For a tunnel tent, you have a large living room at the front and an inner tent with 2 bedrooms at the back divided by a removable partition. You can enter the living room through the barrier-free front door protected by a canopy. 4 large PVC windows provide the living room with plenty of light even in bad weather.
However, Coleman made a mistake with the floor plan. The side door is a feature of the Rocky Mountain 5, while the Plus version does not include a side door. Some numbers were also wrong. We have corrected the floor plan for you and are showing the corrected version here.
The 2 double-layer inner doors connect the sleeping and living areas. The darkened bedroom also has a rear window. You can find out whether the bedroom is dark enough anyway in the review below.
Available Space
It has a total usable area of 11.1 square meters. 5.1 m² of this is in the living room and 6 m² in the sleeping quarters. That’s not much, the Outwell Nevada 5P, for example, offers a whopping 5 m² more space. As with almost all tunnel tents, the double-walled design of the bedrooms costs some space. With an area of 2.22 m² per person, the tent is big enough for a pleasant stay.
Coleman states a capacity of 5 people. But we think the sleeping space is far too tight for 5 people! Even if you remove the partition in the sleeping cabin, each person only has a meager 56 centimeters of space for themselves. That’s not even enough for five narrow sleeping mats!
We recommend a maximum occupancy of 4 people. If you want to use the partition in the sleeping cabin, there is enough space for 2 adults and 2 children. However, in this configuration, it is really comfortable. The large and fully enclosed living room offers comfortable sleeping space for two more people. At least when the room is not occupied by camping furniture and luggage, as with us.
Sleeping Comfort
The Rocky Mountain 5 Plus is a really cozy place to sleep.
Long people can also fit in
The 215 cm long sleeping cabin has relatively stiff and steep walls, so you can put up a thick mattress without the tent wall hanging over your face. If you are less than 1.80 meters, you even have a cot with sufficient headroom.
The two rooms for 2 people and 3 people are respectively 120 cm and 160 cm wide. That is too narrow! We recommend a minimum width of 60 cm per person for short stays and 70 cm for longer vacations. Children can also get along well with 50 cm, depending on their age.
The thin partition between the sleeping compartments, which is typical of a tunnel tent, offers little privacy but can be removed in a few simple steps to create a large dormitory. With a standing height ranging from 175 cm to 185 cm in the bedrooms, you can comfortably get dressed while standing in the morning. In case you find your clothes in the dark.
Night-black sleeping quarters
Coleman calls his blackout technology BlackOut Bedroom. Other manufacturers call this Dark Room or Dark Rest – but they always mean the same thing: a thick, black fabric swallows the light. And that works really well in the Rocky Mountain 5 Plus, even during the day, it is black as night.
The fabric absorbs up to 99% light. Only a few rays of light penetrate the tent at the edges of the rear window, which can be closed with a flap, and through the gap between the inner and outer tent.
The Blackout Bedroom earned Coleman the Camping Magazine Editor’s Choice Award for camping innovation.
Warm night, cool morning
In addition, the blackout tent fabric increases the night-time temperature in the sleeping cabin by approx. 1 degree and the double floor slightly improves the insulation against the cold of the ground. The nightly temperature rise is not impressive – during the day, you will notice the advantages of the BlackOut technology more clearly. You are not exposed to direct sunlight, and the thermometer shows about 5 degrees less in the bedroom.
Late risers will also be happy about the window behind the sleeping cabin, which is equipped with insect screens. If it is open, the summer “grilling in the morning sun” is much milder than in other tents. And on hot tropical nights, when the window is open, a noticeable draft of air blows over the sleeping bags.
Living Comfort
Coleman Rocky Mountain 5 Plus has good living comfort thanks to some extra features.
Space: luggage yes, better not table
With an area of 5.1 m², the living room is large enough to accommodate a small camping table and 2 chairs. Of course, you can put an elongated table with 6 chairs in the 1.65 m long and 3.10 m wide room. Due to the absence of a side entrance, navigating inside the tent may pose an acrobatic challenge when trying to move quickly.
1.1 m² are available per person. That’s not the world, other tents like the Outwell Nevada 5P offer significantly more freedom of movement here. We therefore recommend moving the seating area to a pavilion and using the living room as a storage space for your luggage. It is wide enough to place camping cupboards on the right and left edges. Thanks to the 1.95-meter stand height and steep walls typical of a tunnel tent, even tall people rarely have to bend their heads in the Rocky Mountain 5 Plus.
Light & view: many windows
A total of 4 large PVC windows make the awning a bright and friendly place. During the day, you won’t have any problems finding items in your luggage even with the door closed. The windows allow a good view of the campsite in 3 directions. If you want privacy: If you wish, you can close the windows from the inside with curtains. It doesn’t get really dark in the tent, but nosy neighbors can’t see anything.
Unfortunately, Coleman didn’t donate any zippers to the curtains. Opening and closing the toggle locks is done with two hands.
Insect repellent
Mosquitoes, ants, and other pests don’t stand a chance. The front door, the rear window, and the inner doors are equipped with insect screens. The tent floor is sewn and sealed all around. That’s why you can really close every opening in the tent insect-proof.
Practical extra features: the front door is barrier-free
Flame-retardant tent fabric, sturdy sewn loops on the tent roof for the lantern, and a well-positioned cable duct to avoid tripping hazards are part of the high standard, the Coleman Rocky Mountain 5 Plus has no weaknesses here.
We really liked the numerous storage options between the two interior doors. They are as good as a small shelf. The front door really surprised us. At first, we thought that the high door threshold was an excellent trip hazard, but then we discovered: The threshold can be folded down!
The completely flat entrance is really handy for wheelchairs, buggies and running children. In addition, a zipper stopper ensures that the zips of the door are always accessible to children in an emergency.
Weather Protection
Great in the rain, so-so in the heat – why is that? Here you can find out how you fare in sun, rain, and wind in the Coleman Rocky Mountain 5 Plus.
Sun: high UV protection
The night-black sleeping cabins are actually practically free from the sun. But the awning also cuts a fine figure: the bright tent roof lets a lot of light into the living area but blocks dangerous UV radiation. Coleman specifies a UV protection factor of 50+ for the tent fabric. This is a really good thing if you have fair skin and are camping in a sunny spot.
Heat: the ventilation has “air up”
First the good news: the sleeping cabin is well-ventilated with large ventilation on the back of the tent. The ventilation has zippers on the left and right, so it can be fully opened like a window in good weather. The mesh fabric also keeps insects away.
When it’s cold, you can completely close the ventilation with Velcro fasteners on the underside. This is a clever design! The dark tent fabric also reduces the temperature in the sleeping cabin by up to 5 degrees during the day.
Unfortunately, you can only ventilate the living room through the front door. There is no side entrance, the windows cannot be opened and the tent floor is sealed all around. It works quite well if you position the tent correctly and the wind comes from behind (or in front). With no wind or crosswind, you have a few hot hours ahead of you on summer afternoons.
Rain: good water column
Anyone who has ever had to spend the night in a wet sleeping bag knows how uncomfortably cold a night outside can be. Fortunately, the Coleman Rocky Mountain 5 Plus is very well protected against water. The outer tent is made of polyurethane (PU) coated polyester with an impressively high water column of 4,500 mm. No more needs a tent. All seams are welded with seam tape. This means that the seams are more stable than the surrounding tent fabric.
The floor is made of sturdy polyethylene and is fully integrated, so groundwater cannot run into the tent at any point. The awning is completely waterproof. The sleeping cabins even have a double-layer PE floor and therefore remain waterproof even under hard cot feet.
The canopy over the front entrance is also worth mentioning. So you can open the entrance when it rains without water dripping into the tent. At least when the wind comes from the right direction.
Cold: Dense all around
Even in August, there are regular nights when the temperature is in the single digits. It’s good if your tent keeps you warm! The name of the Rocky Mountain 5 Plus promises a lot. Indeed, the fully lockable tent with its double-walled sleeping cabin is well suited for cold climates. When it’s not snowing. The large roof area collects a lot of snow. That means: you have to go out regularly to sweep.
Strong winds are driving clouds over a cornfield.
Wind: Lots of storm lines, but …
This tent can be securely attached thanks to its numerous anchoring points and flutters comparatively little. However, with a height of 1.95 meters, it offers the wind a lot of attack surface and has fiberglass poles that can splinter if too much pressure is applied.
Like all tunnel tents, it is best to set up this tent with the low and aerodynamic rear facing the wind. Compared to various no-name brands, Coleman tents do really well in rain and wind. This is also made clear by the following test video.
Humidity: wet + cold = puddle?
Moist air inside the tent is not a big problem. Thanks to the rain-protected ventilation opening and the canopy over the front entrance, you can ventilate well when it rains by opening the upper part of the door. The fully sealed tent floor keeps moisture out. However, condensation cannot run off into the subsurface. In a very humid climate, small puddles may form on the edge of the tent floor.
Weight & Pack Size
The Rocky Mountain 5 Plus is very compact for a full 5-person family tent. Weight and pack size are above average.
Weight: a box of water
Fortunately, the name of the Rocky Mountain does not stand for its weight. The tunnel tent weighs an acceptable 16.8 kilograms. That’s about as much as a box of water. So you can wear it well over short distances, especially if you have someone to help you. But you definitely want a car or RV for transport to the campsite.
Converted, we come to a weight of 3.36 kg per person. This is normal for a large tent with heavy fiberglass poles. Other 5-person tents like the Outwell Nevada 5P are heavier, but more spacious.
Pack size: little surprise
Sure, a tent of this size doesn’t fit in a hiking backpack. A family tent shouldn’t even go in there. Coleman Rocky Mountain 5 Plus needs 73 x 30 x 30 cm in the pannier.
For better comparability, we have converted the pack size into liters. The tent has a volume of 65.7 liters. That is little and leaves room for other things even in the trunk of a small car. Especially air tents like the Coleman Air Valdes 6XL allow themselves significantly more packing volume.
Construction & Dismantling
The structure is very typical for tunnel tents. You spread out the tent, insert the poles into the pole ducts, then set up the tent and tension it. There is a little special feature on the canopy. The small canopy tent pole is best installed after the tent has been erected.
Since tunnel tents are not free-standing, you’ll need to anchor them even in fair weather. This is a straightforward task, but it may take a few minutes to complete the setup. The supplied pegs are of a good standard and sufficient for the camping field. However, if you want to pitch the tent on hard or sandy ground, we recommend tent pegs that are designed for this ground.
The quickest way to assemble it with two people. Then it takes about 20 minutes for the first assembly. And with a little practice, it will take about 16 minutes.
Coleman donated a few small aids to the family tent to make it easier to set up. The tent poles are pre-bent, which reduces the effort required to bend the poles. They are also color-coded, so you can see at a glance where a pole belongs.
Mesh rod channels reduce friction when inserting the rods. And that is a great relief when setting up! Threading the poles is usually the hardest part, with this tent, the poles slide very easily.
The inner tent is attached to a ring suspension in the outer tent and is pre-assembled. The inner tent stays dry in case it rains while setting up. When dismantling, it can stay on the fly. So you don’t have to reassemble the inner tent every time.
That’s What Other Testers Say
Coleman Rocky Mountain 5 Plus could also convince other specialist authors in tests. The compact family tent won the Camping Magazine Editor’s Choice Award 2017 in the “Best Touring Tent” category. In addition, it won the renowned red dot design award in 2017.
Our Rating
We recommend the compact tunnel tent with the clever front door and the night-black bedroom for family campers and award 85 points. If you use it with a maximum of 4 people, the comfort is good.
- Sleep (30%)
- Housing (30%)
- Weather Protection (25%)
- Mobility (5%)
- Construction & Dismantling (10%)
Coleman vs. Rocky Mountain 5 Competition
For your family vacation or a music festival with a small group, the Rocky Mountain 5 Plus is a good place to stay. If you’re looking for a tent with even more comfort, check out our review of the best family camping tents. With extended bedroom areas, these tents are significantly more spacious.
Do you like the manufacturer Coleman and are looking for a really spacious tent that is also very easy to set up? Then we recommend the Coleman Air Valdes 6XL. The huge air tent has a veranda the size of a pavilion.
Main Advantages & Disadvantages
We have summarized the most important advantages and disadvantages of the Coleman Rocky Mountain 5 Plus for you.
Advantages:
- Night-black BlackOut bedrooms
- Insect protection on all openings
- Barrier-free front door
- Bright awning thanks to large windows
- Good UV protection with sun protection factor of 50
- Lots of well-placed pockets
- Clever window in the sleeping cabin
- Great protection from rain
- Mesh linkage channels
Disadvantages:
- Sleeping cabin for a maximum of 4 people
- Just an outside door
- Awning for a group of tables a bit narrow
Equipment for Improving Comfort
You can further increase the comfort of the Coleman Rocky Mountain 5 Plus with useful accessories.
- Living area carpet: Coleman tent carpet that matches the color of the tent makes walking and sitting in the tent more comfortable and protects the tent floor when you set up chairs or a table.
- Wind protection/privacy screen: For longer stays with 5 people, this tunnel tent is a bit cramped. With the Coleman XL winch protection, you can set up a cozy, wind-protected outdoor area in front of the tent.
- Coleman Fast Pitch Shelter: Do you love nature and like to sit outside often, but want to be protected from the sun and rain? The Coleman Fast Pitch Shelter offers 20.25 m² of additional protected outdoor space and can be set up in less than 5 minutes.
Conclusion
If you looking for a compact, weatherproof tunnel tent at a reasonable price, then you can choose the Coleman Rocky Mountain 5 Plus without hesitation! Unfortunately, Coleman incorrectly declared the size of the tent. It is very tight for 5 people. However, if you go camping with a maximum of 4 people, it offers you many good properties for your money. Late sleepers will love the night-black sleeping cabin, which can also be well-ventilated thanks to the flexible rear window.
The small family tent can easily cope with bad weather. With a water column of 4,500 mm and a completely sewn-in bottom, your luggage stays dry even in heavy rain. The manufacturer tests its tents in the irrigation system and with the wind machine – not everyone does that.
We were surprised by the small pack size of the Rocky Mountain 5 Plus. With 65.7 liters, it is also suitable for music festivals, motorcycle & canoe tours, and fishing trips.
Have a nice camping!
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