Coleman Meadowood 4L BlackOut

If you have a couple of kids and want a tent with more space for a family camping holiday, then the Coleman Meadowood 4L BlackOut might be just what you are after.

Take a Look Around

Use the 360-degree viewer to browse around the tent.
Jump to a different view by clicking on the Coleman lantern logo, or click on the information icon for more details.

The Tent Layout

This is an excellent family tent layout.

I particularly like the built-in porch and large living space, which provides you with plenty of space for family camping holidays.

The layout shows that this tent has generous living space (Image Credit: Coleman)

Tent Bedrooms

The bedrooms in this tent use Coleman’s BlackOut technology. They are not only dark, which helps you and your kids sleep longer when the sun rises early in the mornings, but Coleman also says they keep a little warmer at night and cooler in the day.

Other practical items are storage pockets and a bedroom divider that you can remove to create one large bedroom.

If you have the divider in place and your kids wake at night, you can unzip it to get to them easily.

Watch the video below to see the bedrooms.

Tent Living Areas

The Coleman Meadowood 4L excels in living space, with two zones: an inner zone and a porch zone.

This is a great combination of tent living spaces for family camping.

The inner zone covers two tent sections, which provides you with plenty of space for camping furniture. You’ll want to put some furniture in the tent if you are camping for several nights, as that helps keep all the clothes, food, etc., out of the way.

I also recommend getting the tent carpet that fits this part of the tent.  A tent carpet will make it feel much more like home and will make the tent warmer underfoot.

This inner sanctum of the tent has large windows, so it is bright and light. Plus, the window blinds are zip-up ones.  These are much less hassle than toggle window blinds, and also means you can set them partially open at any height. For example, you can have then closed at the bottom and open at the top, providing you with a bit more privacy first-thing in the morning.

The second living room zone is the porch area, which is a generous size.

Built-in porches like this are perfect for family camping. They provide a wet-dry zone. This is an area of the tent you can leave wet coats and muddy boots, leaving the inner sanctum of the tent warm and dry.

Porches like this are also a great place to sit out of the breeze, sit if it rains, and somewhere to bring chairs and toys in at night.

If you wish to put a door on the porch, get the Coleman Vestibule for this tent, which comes with a door and a groundsheet to enclose the front of the tent fully.

And while talking of doors, all the doors into the inner part of the tent have a bug-free mesh that can be zipped into place, allowing you to get a fresh breeze into the tent on warm summer days, but keep the flies out.

The porch entrance into the tent lays flat, unlike some tents where the groundsheet is turned up, causing kids (and adults) to trip.

Pitching the Coleman Meadowood 4L

To pitch this tent we recommend two people.  Having two adults available is not easy if you have to look after young kids, but the second person occasionally needed. It is possible to pitch this tent single-handed, as I’ve done many times with similar tents.  But an extra pair of hands helps 🙂

All the tent poles slot together and are colour coded. Once you’ve pegged out the corners of the tent, insert the poles into the sleeves on the tent that match the colour of the poles, and then the tent will take shape.

Just remember to re-peg the corners and put out the guylines so that the tent fabric is nice and tight, which helps the tent keep strong and makes it easier for any water to run off.

Watch the excellent Coleman pitching video below.

Tent Use and Alternatives

We recommend this tent ideal for a family with one or two kids who want a tent that they can take on family holidays, where you’ll be camping for a handful of nights.

If you are only planning on camping one or two nights at weekends and no longer, you might want to consider the Coleman Meadowood 4, which is shorter, easier to store and quicker to pitch.

Although the Coleman Meadowoood 4L is larger than the 4, it’s still a viable tent for weekend camping, giving you that flexibility for short and longer camping trips.

This tent’s pack size isn’t too large (74x36x36 cm) and not too heavy for a family tent, coming in at just 22.5kg.

Of course, if you have more than a couple of kids, or you want even more space for your family camping holiday, then have a look at this tent’s big sister, the Coleman Meadowood 6L.