Brand · Camp Gear
Coleman makes the furniture of a car camp: the Coleman cooler in hard and soft versions, tents, cots, camp chairs, folding tables, canopies and beach sun shelters. Here's the thing: inside one brand, you still choose the same way you would anywhere else. Coolers by quarts and wheels, cots by sleeping area and weight rating, tents by people and standing height. The names on the boxes help you find a line. The specs decide the purchase. (I've carried enough green coolers up the cabin steps to have opinions about handles.)
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On this site, Coleman covers most of the camp section by itself. The grid above filters the types:
That's a whole campsite from one name. The grid changes as listings come and go, so I'll write about the lines and what separates them, not about how many of each are up this week.
Most specs here come from Amazon listings, and the grid marks them. Where a listing doesn't say, the grid shows a dash. Leave the dash alone. A guess is not a spec.
The hard coolers split into named lines, and the names roughly follow size and how long the listing says ice lasts:
The listings also give can counts, from a handful in the smallest Chiller to over 200 in the big Classic and Marine chests. Can counts are a better picture of space than quarts for most people. Nobody pictures a quart. Everybody pictures a case of soda.
Ice-retention days are the maker's number under the maker's conditions. Treat them as a way to compare one Coleman cooler with another, not as a promise for your trip. The hard cooler page and the large cooler page explain how those claims are usually stated.
Wheels matter more than people think. A 100-quart cooler full of ice and food is a two-person lift, plain and simple. The Classic Rolling, Xtreme Rolling and the 100-quart Marine list wheels, and the 100-quart models list a drain plug too. If your camp is at the end of a gravel lane, look at the cooler with wheels page before you look at anything else.
Danny's take, offered at a volume the whole cabin heard: "A cooler you can't move full is a cooler you'll pack half empty."
The soft line runs by can count: 9-can lunchboxes, 16- and 30-can bags, a 30-can backpack and a 42-can rolling bag. The backpack is the one for a walk-in stand or a day at the shore when your hands are already full. More on the type is on the soft cooler page and the backpack cooler page.
Coleman's types on this site include powered coolers, and they turn up in searches as "Coleman thermoelectric cooler" and "Coleman PowerChill." Dometic's guide to electric coolers says a thermoelectric cooler keeps contents cool rather than cooling them itself, and cools only to a set number of degrees below the air around it, so pre-chill what goes in. A compressor model can freeze whatever the weather. The thermoelectric cooler page and the electric cooler page lay out how they differ from compressor fridges.
The Coleman tents in the grid include the Sundome, a dome tent, and the Montana 8-person, whose listing gives a 74-inch center height. That's standing room for most adults in the middle of the tent, and less toward the walls, as with any dome.
Here's how I'd read a tent listing: count the people, add the gear, then read the height. Eight sleeping bags fit an eight-person tent. Eight sleeping bags and eight duffels do not. (Shop-teacher rule: measure the closet before you buy the canoe.) The 8 person tent page, the family tent page and the dome tent page cover those trades across brands.
If you came here searching "Coleman instant tent" or "Coleman cabin tent," filter the grid by tents and read each listing for pre-attached poles or straight walls. The instant tent page explains how pre-attached-pole tents go up, and the cabin tent page covers straight-wall designs. Any tent, instant or not, still needs stakes and guy lines once the wind comes up.
Every Coleman cot in the grid lists a steel frame, and most list a 300-pound weight rating. What separates them is the sleeping area and the style:
My one opinion on this page: pick a Coleman cot by its sleeping area first. The listed sizes run from 72 x 30 inches on the Trailhead Easy-Step to 80 x 32 on the Pack-Away Big 'n Tall, and at 2 a.m. an extra six inches of length matters more than anything else on the frame. If you're over six feet, read the long one first. The camping cot page lays out frame types across brands.
The camp chairs in the grid are folding quad chairs with steel frames, per the listings. The differences are capacity and the extras:
That last one is the outlier. A 19-inch seat height is close to a kitchen chair, which some knees appreciate. Mine are on the committee. More is on the camping chair page and the heavy duty camping chair page.
The Utopia Breeze lists a 10-inch seat height, a steel frame, cup holders and a 250-pound rating. A low seat is the beach-chair standard; it keeps you level with the sand and out of the wind. The beach chair page compares heights across brands.
The tables run from small to "the whole kitchen":
A 27-inch table height is lower than a kitchen counter. It's right for a camp chair and wrong for standing over a stove, which is what a camp kitchen is for. Measure the chair you'll sit in before you pick the table. The camping table page and the camp kitchen page go into heights and tops.
Two shelters cover the camp side, per the listings:
The top vent lets hot air and wind out the roof instead of lifting the frame. Coleman canopy shoppers should read the 10x10 canopy page and the canopy tent page for anchoring across brands.
The two beach shelters list their anchoring, which is the spec that matters on sand:
Stakes in sand hold about as well as a promise from Danny to pack light. That's why sandbags are in the box. The beach shade page and the beach tent page cover the type.
Count the days and the people, then pick quarts. Then decide whether you'll carry it or roll it. Then compare the stated ice days within that size. Don't reverse the order. A six-day cooler you can't lift stays in the truck.
Pick a capacity above your head count if you'll keep gear inside. Then read the center height. Then read what the maker says about the floor and the fly. Weather claims count only when the maker states them for that model.
Read the weight rating and the sleeping area or seat width as a pair. A wide seat with a low rating, or a high rating on a short cot, solves half the problem.
A table has to fit the chair. A canopy has to fit the site, with room for stakes and lines outside the footprint.
Engel's guide on keeping ice longer applies to any hard cooler:
MSR's tent care guide says not to pack or store a tent wet, damp or dirty, and that mildew can start on a wet, crumpled tent within about 24 hours. Hand wash with mild, non-detergent soap only when it needs it, and never machine wash or dry it. Store it loosely in a breathable bag, out of direct sun.
For wind, MSR's setup guide says to point the narrow end into the wind, stake the windward side first and finish with the guy lines. The same order works for a canopy: stake before the wind finds the frame.
Never use a fuel-burning stove, heater or lantern inside a tent or other closed space. The CDC says never to use a portable gas camp stove indoors, and lists lanterns among sources of carbon monoxide.
Both names show up in the same tent searches, and both sell family tents, camp chairs and soft coolers. On this site, Coleman has a full page with tents, coolers, cots, chairs, tables and canopies. Ozark Trail has a catalog card, and the site's data doesn't hold an Ozark Trail tent listing to set against a Coleman one. So compare any two tents the same way: sleeping capacity, center height and the weather features the maker states. The camping tent page does that across brands.
Here's what I could verify outside a store shelf:
Warranty terms and where each product is made aren't covered here. Check Coleman's own terms and the listing of the exact item.
Pre-chill the cooler, dry the tent, and bring one more stake than you think. The wind always brings a friend.
What the listings show is checkable: the Coleman hard coolers in the grid run from small personal chests to 120-quart marine coolers, and their Amazon listings state ice retention from a few days up to six. Those figures come from the maker's conditions, not a deer camp in November or a beach in July. Pick the size and the wheels first, then compare the stated days and can counts.
Coleman is listed among the outdoor and recreation brands on the Newell Brands website. The company's roots go back to William Coffin Coleman, who, per the Kansas Historical Society, moved to Wichita in 1901, sold gasoline lamps, added stoves and built the Coleman Lamp and Stove Company there.
Lanterns are where Coleman started: the Kansas Historical Society says W.C. Coleman began by selling gasoline lamps and lanterns. This page's grid covers coolers, tents, cots, chairs, tables and shelters, so for lanterns across brands, including battery and rechargeable models, see the camping lantern page. Never run a fuel-burning lantern inside a closed tent.
Check the sleeping area in the grid, not the name. The Coleman cot listings here give sleep areas from 72 x 30 in on the Trailhead Easy-Step to 80 x 32 in on the Pack-Away Big 'n Tall. Most list a 300-pound weight rating. If you're over six feet, the longer frames are the ones to compare first.
The product grid on this page links to the Coleman listings on Amazon US, filtered by type: hard and soft coolers, tents, cots, camp chairs, beach chairs, tables, canopies and sun shelters. Listings change week to week, so check that the one you open names the exact size or capacity you want.
