Coleman Phad X2 Two Man Backpacking Tent

It's June and have just got back from a weekend in Snowdonia. 1000ft up on an outcrop on one of the smaller hills. Woke up to 55mph winds, driving rain, and the storm blew ALL day. Gave this tent a serious test - and it passed! The poles were really flexing in the wind and the back of the tent was actually flattening right down from the force of the wind, but it sprang back each time, maintained its shape, stayed intact and more incredibly stayed dry inside!

The two entrance doors - one on each side were very useful as when the wind was blasting from behind I opened one door, later on in the day it was buffeting from the opposite direction and so I went out the other door.

The porch area groundsheet is zipped to the main area groundhseet at a slight slope. This is good because when the wind was pushing the rain under the edges of the outer tent it didn't even get halfway up to the interior. Plus the porch area groundsheet can be easily unzipped and the mud/water rinsed off.

My one advice - if you are going to be pitching this in an exposed area then make use of all 14 anchor points, plus even buy some longer, stronger, sturdier pegs because I found the ones supplied weren't quite long enough to keep them being pulled out of the ground from the pressure of the wind. (Way of getting round this was to drive the pegs within an inch of the floor or less and then place a heavy rock on top of each peg, and also placing more rocks on the black straps at the tent entrance, and also placing a couple around the edges of the porch groundsheet.

One little point about the guy ropes - they are great in being a highly visible bright green, (They almost glow) but they were becoming slightly loose in the wind so I was having to go out every few hours to tighten them. I'm thinking they would be easily modifiable with better guy-rope grips though.

Feature-wise there are mesh panels to keep the mozzies out, six side posckets on the inside of the tent, and a good ventilation system . The inside of the tent is very well ventilated, with vents even at the top of the tent. This makes it a bit fresh in high wind, (The vents tend to come open in the wind) but on the plus side it doesn't let in water, get sweaty or bad smelling and doesn't really drip condensation. Just make sure you have warm clothes and a snug sleeping bag!

This tent is well made, strong, sensibly designed and well worth every penny - the weather turned quick and I weighted and tied it down well it didn't let me down. I trust and recommend it. (Though of course don't recommend staying out in Snowdonia during a storm...NOT sensible, and very yuck...)

Had this tent for over a year now and would reccommend it to anyone, the only slight downside is that at 3.5kg a lot of lighter tents are around that would appeal more to the weight conscious backpacker.
However for camp sites and wild camps that dont involve carrying your gear for miles and miles I couldnt fault it, in fact it out performs a lot of more expensive tents I have stayed in.

Very good product. I bought it for Glastonbury for just myself this year and it did the job fantastically well, the festival did see quite a bit of rain overnight on the Thursday night, but the tent held up fine to this. My two minor criticisms are 1) the size of the tent and 2) the Pegs. I did also buy the tent for the Reading festival coming up and I am going with the wife, so 2 Man tent - yeah I guess if you're not going to have any gear in the tent or you're not big. I am 6ft 3 and 14 stone, another guy the same size as me in there would have been extremely cosy, if you want a two man with comfort and space for your gear get the three man version, I guess I will battle through with the wife. You could leave your gear on the outside porch area of the tent on the grey sheet but the rain will get to it, trust me I know first hand. Also the pegs that come with it are useless; go buy some decent tent pegs. It is pretty light weight to carry, about the size of your rolled up sleeping bag which is decent to, all in all a good sturdy product just a minor gripe on the size I guess.