User Review: Columbia Cougar Flats

Columbia Cougar Flats
Above: The current Cougar Flats, which may differ slightly from the version reviewed.

Reviewed July 16, 2004 by Ashley T

Rating: rated 3 of 5 stars
Design: Cabin Style Two Room Family Tent
Sleeps: 6+
Ease of Setup: Moderate, two people
Weight: 40 pounds
Price Paid: $350 Canadian

We took the Cougar Flats out for a four-night camping trip. It definitely needed two people to put it up, and was a little difficult to figure out the first time. Now it seems easy and I quite like the design that gives maximum headroom walking through the tent. I'm 6'0" and have no problems with standing tall anywhere in the tent.

On making it to the campground one of the corner ceiling seam joins ripped partially but stayed fine the rest of the time during a heavy rain thunderstorm. We took it back and received a brand new one with some hassle after finishing the trip.

The positives:

- Great height throughout the tent

- Strong floor, no rain inside during the rainstorm anywhere on the floor seams

- Good venting system, would likely give good air flow during hot humid weather

- Lots of windows, plenty of air flow if desired

- Guy ropes tuck away in tent to make it easy to put them out

- Gear lofts, well designed, the roof one held four light coats without any seeming stress on the seam joint

- Great storage bag, though a pain in tight luggage situations, it opened up to put in your folded up tent, then zipped down to store it

- Pegs were steel and very sturdy, I hammered one through a tree root actually and couldn't get it back!

The negatives:

- Rain fly collected water on top of tent

- End windows are big and not covered by fly, thus they collected water and leaked, after putting on seam seal, one seam still leaked again the next night

- Door zippers were constantly getting stuck

- Middle divider is not removable as I had hoped, our king size air mattress just barely got in and into the back room

Overall a nice tent, perhaps a little pricey considering the faults but a nice one nonetheless. I hope to get some good years out of it.

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