Coleman Mosedale 5 Review & Buying Guide

The Coleman Mosedale 5 has been around for years, and it has proved to be great little family tent. In this Coleman Mosedale 5 review I wanted to shed light on a few important things that can make it or break it when you are not sure if the Coleman Mosedale 5 would be right for you.

Coleman Mosedale 5 review

In this Coleman Mosedale 5 review you will find out:

Coleman Mosedale 5 review

Coleman Mosedale 5 review – image via GoOutdoors

Who is the Coleman Mosedale 5 tent recommended for?

The Coleman Mosedale 5 is 5-berth poled tent with considerable weather protection. I recommend it for up 5 people, e.g. a family of five and to lesser extent, a group of friends. It does not hurt if you have some experience at camping and you have pitched a tent before, but in general, the Mosedale 5 is beginner friendly and mostly hassle-free, an ideal partner for casual getaways and weekend breaks.

Coleman is a well-known and reputable brand, and generally make good quality products so rest assured, you’ll set up for a pleasant camping experience with the Coleman Mosedale 5.

Size, Layout

The tent has 2 zones – a sleeping area and a living area. Some bigger (and more expensive tents) have a 3rd zone attached to the living area. In this instance, you can buy this separately and attach to the Coleman Mosedale 5 if you’d like to: it’s called the Coleman Mosedale 5 front extension. I don’t know why they don’t call it a porch. Nevermind.

Coleman Mosedale 5 footprint review

Coleman Mosedale 5 footprint – image via GoOutdoors

The size of the entire tent is just over 16 square metres, and you’ll need around 36 sqm of space to set it up.

Bedrooms

You have two bedrooms, two completely Black-Out bedrooms with capital B & O, as Coleman is the pioneer of the ‘revolution’ of black-out bedrooms. Most people like blackout bedrooms and they are considered ‘family-friendly’ thanks to its effect on how long the kids stay in bed in the morning. If you’d like to know more about tents with blackout bedrooms: click here.

The bedrooms are not the same size, you have a 3-berth master bedroom and 2-berth second bedroom. The second bedroom is actually the ‘decent’ one, with its 140 cm width it is actually large enough for two people on a normal double mattress.

Coleman Mosedale 5 - two blackout bedrooms

Coleman Mosedale 5 – two blackout bedrooms

The ‘Master’ bedroom on the other hand is only 170 cms wide, which I believe is a bit tight for three adults. You can’t even fit inflatable beds in this room for three people, so the only option here is to sleep on mats and sleeping bags.

I’d say the master bedroom is more suitable for 3 kids, or 2 adults with some of their gear (bags etc.).

Coleman Mosedale 5 - second bedroom

Coleman Mosedale 5 – second bedroom (2-berth), separated from the master bedroom by a rather flimsy divider

The room divider is removable, so you can have one big bedroom instead of two doubles, that way you could have 67 cm per head, which is above average sleeping space and, although a bit tight, but suitable for most adults.

Coleman Mosedale 5 sleep area - you may be better off open it up to have one big blackout bedroom to fit 2 adults and 3 children.

Coleman Mosedale 5 sleep area – you may be better off opening it up and have one big blackout bedroom to fit 2 adults and 3 children. Image via eBay

Living area

The living area is quite large, more than 8.8 square metres. This is than plenty to have some equipment – e.g. chairs, tables, organisers, even some cooking equipment etc. – and still have some space the move around.

The living room feels light an airy thanks to the light grey fabric used on the ceiling, the large clear PVC window on the sidewall, the smaller windows on the front and the large front and side doors.

The bespoke carpet is highly recommended not just to increase your comfort level, but to protect the groundsheet and prolong its life.

There are plenty of little pockets where you can keep smaller stuff. There is one cable entry point, plus the side door.

Pitching

Pitching is relatively easy, there are only 3 colour-coded fibreglass poles. A few users reported that the front pole is the most difficult to push through the sleeve (and some managed to snap it in the process), but those who did not have issues could pitch the Coleman Mosedale 5 within 10-15 minutes.

Not too big and not too heavy the Coleman Mosedale 5 carrybag

Not too big and not too heavy the Coleman Mosedale 5 carrybag

As always, packing up is always a bit more struggle than pitching. If you manage to put it away, you’ll end up with a 63 x 32 x 32 cm carry bag – quite compact – and it weighs 17 kilograms. This is just about in the manageable category for one person, it does not take up a lot of boot space, or, if you have a roof box, you can still lift it and close the lid on it.

Fabrics and weather protection

Coleman are historically strong on this front, the Coleman Mosedale 5 is no exception. The groundsheet is sewn in, the seems are taped, and there is a polyester flysheet to protect you from rain.

The flysheet has a 4500 mm HH waterproof rating which is quite good in this category – the average is around 2500-3000mm HH. Basically, this tells how thick the waterproof layer is on the polyester flysheet.

Related post: Tent materials, fabrics, specifications and all the acronyms. FAQ.

It also has 50+ UV protection, however, it is only SPF 50+ , and SPF rating does not take UVA rays into account (while UPF rating does).

Coleman Mosedale 5 with one side door and one front door. Be careful how you pitch it at a campsite prone to strong wind. Oh, and don't open it when it is raining.

Coleman Mosedale 5 with one side door and one front door. Be careful how you pitch it at a campsite prone to strong wind. Oh, and don’t open it when it is raining. Image via eBay

As for wind resistance, there are reports of snapped poles in windy weather, but in general the Coleman Mosedale 5 does not seem to be worse than any other poled tent. There is one large side door and one main door, so be mindful of the wind direction when pitching the tent.

Coleman Mosedale 5 Issues

While the Coleman Mosedale 5 is a spacious, family-friendly tent with a lot of ‘upper-market’ feature especially in weather protection, there are reports of quality issues of the fabric of the blackout bedrooms.

There have been a few instances where there were holes in the fabric, and quite a few instances where the black fabric stained the flysheet, and those black marks proved to be unmovable.

These are not those black spots, it’s just mould.

As with all poled tents, poles can snap. Fortunately, the Coleman Mosedale 5 has a pole repair kit that you can get on Amazon.

The next one to bear in mind is the fact that there’s no porch or any other canopy to protect the doors when it’s raining. Although the zippers are covered so in theory, water would not come through there, but if you wanted to go in and out the tent when it’s pouring down, the rain would fall straight into the tent.

The next one on the list is the toggled divider. Again, it is the same on every tent up to £700 inflatable tents, but the toggled divider provides very little privacy.

Verdict

The Coleman Mosedale 5 is great tent: spacious, family-friendly, light-flooded living area and full black-out bedrooms, in addition to an above-average all-round weather protection. If you can get it at the right price it is definitely worth-buying and it’s massively in the recommended category.

Where to buy the Coleman Mosedale 5 and its accessories

If you have a GoOutdoors card, you’re best bet is GoOutdoors for £299 (£380 without a clubcard).

|| Coleman Mosedale 5 on GoOutdoors ||

Secret tip: thanks to GO’s best price guarantee, you can save an extra 10% even on this. The Coleman Mosedale 5 is on Amazon UK for £303 pounds at the time of writing this, so even without a GO Clubcard, they will beat this by 10%.

|| Coleman Mosedale 5 on Amazon ||

I strongly recommend to get hold of the bespoke footprint and the carpet. The front extension would greatly improve the living space, so if you have the budget, go for it. Don’t forget about the pole repair kit.

Alternatives

There are cheaper and more expensive alternatives to the Coleman Mosedale 5. Depending on your budget, and how often you’d use the tent, I can recommend the Eurohike Rydal 500 for example that I reviewed previously, or the Vango Icarus 500 DLX – reviewed here.

Although the Vango Icarus 500 DLX has a slightly smaller living room, it also has an optional front porch which would eliminate the difference in size, and you’d still be better off with the Vango than with a Coleman Mosedale 5 + front extension setup.

There are, of course, poled tents with built in porch, such as the Vango Lomond II 500. It may be better value for money if you buy a tent that does not need any extension.

Alternatives, that are 5-berth and are more expensive, well there aren’t many, if at all. Tents that are more expensive are usually bigger (6-berth) than the Coleman Mosedale 5, such as the Vango Icarus 600 DLX.

If you are a bit worried about wind resistance and snapping poles, an entry-level airbeam tent of the same size costs about the same as the Coleman Mosedale 5: the Vango Odyssey 500 for example.

2 thoughts on “Coleman Mosedale 5 Review & Buying Guide”

  1. Bought a Coleman modedale tent from go outdoor s used it for 10 days on isle of Scillies last September was good but was surprised when it rained once that water didn’t seem to run straight of it and the green colouring looked duller than the picture of it . The black out area was very good and dark but one or two scratch marks were showing . This July I used it in Scotland it was quite warm first night and there appeared more scratch markings in the black out area ? By third night the black was hanging down of roof and was pealing ? Fourth night it rained and water poured in from the peeled area in fact we filled 5 bowls water up . We ended up putting the extension up and moved in to middle compartment to sleep which was also leaking water but not as much more drips . The extension was excellent but looking at tent outside it was far greener than tent which looked old and faded . It was bought from go outdoors of which almost 80% of items I’ve bought have been faulty most made by Coleman including expensive gas stove and lamp .

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