Coleman Fast Pitch Swagger 3 Pop-Up Tent | Tested and reviewed

You can't buy the Coleman Fast Pitch Swagger 3 Pop-Up yet. It's not out until February 2025. But when it is available, should you be spending your hard-earned cash on it?

We tested this tent as part of a group test of the best pop-up tents, though it isn't technically one of those.

You don't just release it and watch it pop, but it's still designated as a fast-pitch tent, and it's one for campsites and festivals rather than multiday hikes (see our list of the best wild camping tents if you want something of that type).

The pole and pitching system is quite a novel approach, which we'll go into in detail below, but the question is, does it work? And is this tent better than its competition? Gear tester James Forrest spends time under canvas to find out...

Pitching and packing away

Coleman says this tent can be pitched in “two minutes or less”. I found that to be a bit ambitious. It’s a tad slower and more laborious than that, but it still just about fits into the fast-pitch category.

It works like this. A rather humongous hub-connected pole system is pre-attached to the tent inner, so you don’t have to fiddle around with any poles.

Simply lay this system on the ground and then begin to expand the poles. They slide out in a telescopic style, in the same way some trekking poles work, and then securely ping into place when a rivet clips into a hole. It all works very well.

Once all of the poles have been extended, you’re left with a superbly taut and tall structure, featuring two triangular pole shapes at each end, a long ridge pole across the spine of the roof and two transverse poles at each end extending the width of the roof.

Once all of this is done, you need to peg out the groundsheet and throw the flysheet over the tent’s exoskeleton. At all four corners, a toggle clips the flysheet into place, ensuring a good sync between the outer and inner.

Next you can place the porch footprint into place (it’s a little annoying that it’s separate rather than integrated), then stake out all remaining guylines and pegging points. And finally, you’re done.

Packing away takes a little time, but isn’t too tricky. The poles slide down pretty easily (it’s far simpler than having to contort and wrestle with a pop-up tent), and sliding everything back into the carry case is easy enough thanks to the large zipper down the bag’s length.

Internal space and tent shape

The Coleman Fast Pitch Swagger 3 feels very palatial inside – it's super roomy and very comfortable. All of this is courtesy of the excellent hub-connected, exoskeleton pole structure, which creates a box-like cube of liveable camping space.

The walls are near-vertical, the roof is wide and high (a whopping 130cm at its peak) and all-round head and elbow room are superb. For three campers, you get good width and length for comfortable sleeping, or for two it’s even more spacious.

The official dimensions are 240cm long, 210cm wide and 130cm high, which are superior stats than many other tents in this category.

You get a reasonably-sized porch with a footprint (groundsheet) in front of the main door, although it’s not the best design. The tapered walls mean you don’t get much vertical room in the porch and it’s quite narrow too, although there should be enough space to stuff some backpacks and walking boots without too much trouble.

Waterproofing, wind resistance and breathability

This tent is pretty solid when it comes to weather protection and it easily outperforms any bog-standard pop-up tent. It can cope with a reasonable amount of nasty weather and it holds up pretty well in heavy downpours and strong-ish winds. But, at the same time, it’s not a four-season tent and it isn’t designed for hardcore conditions or extreme environments.

Rather, it’s made for campsite camping in the fairer weather of spring and summer, and possibly some of autumn. More testing time is needed to truly judge its long-term weatherproofing performance, but in my opinion it should be protective enough to deal with any unseasonably poor weather in spring and summer.

There are several features help to keep the elements out. The flysheet is made from a super-strong and durable 150-denier polyester PU-coated fabric, with an impressive 3,000mm hydrostatic head rating. The groundsheet is similarly sturdy, with a bathtub-style, meaning the waterproof material stretches up the side of the walls to create a 'tub' of protection.

You also get a two-skin design, unlike the usual single-skin approach of pop-up tents, so you get double the layers of protection. All of the tent’s flysheet seams are also sealed with tape and the hub-connected pole structure ensures a good gap between the flysheet and inner.

In terms of wind resistance, you get numerous pegging-out points and six guylines to batten down the hatches in stronger gusts. However, the high walls and tall shape of the tent aren’t particularly aerodynamic and they do have a tendency to catch the wind like a sail. So wind resistance isn’t a particularly strong point of this tent.

Condensation is effectively combated via several large vents. The main D-shaped door has a mesh covering and at the rear there is a crescent-shaped vent window at the base of the wall. On both sides you get two large triangular mesh windows.

On the flysheet you get large flaps of material and multiple zippers over these vents, which can be opened, closed or pegged out in several orientations to fine-tune your breathability options.

Weight and pack size

This tent is massive and heavy, so it’s not public transport friendly at all. Instead, it’s only really suitable for transporting around by car or van, and ideally you’ll want a campsite pitch quite close to your vehicle. The tent weighs 10kg in total, which is far heavier than classic pop-up tents (the Eurohike Pop 200 weighs 1,620g, for example).

Once packed away in the large, rectangular carry-bag – which has two shoulder straps and a long zipper for easier access – the tent is sized 120cm by 25cm. The large carry holdall works quite well, but the overall size and shape is rather bulky and awkward.

Features

Internally you get one hanging loop on the roof, and one mesh pocket – which is split into two compartments – for storing small personal items like a phone, wallet or head torch.

But the main feature of note is the tent’s awning. Using the two large poles provided, which have a hook for clipping onto the tent door’s fabric and guylines for securing the structure to the ground, you can prop up the door to create an awning-like roof over the porch.

This is a lovely touch, which adds to a sense of all-round comfort. It’s nice to place a camping chair under the roof and sip on a hot chocolate, cook dinner or simply soak up the views.

Verdict

The Coleman Fast Pitch Swagger 3 Pop-Up is a large campsite tent with superb liveability and first-rate spaciousness – but it’s expensive.

See some of our favourite tents in our list of the best camping tents.

About the author

James Forrest writes regular features and route guides for Trail magazine and has been one of our main gear testers for the last few years. James is based on the edge of the Lake District so when he isn’t off on his latest crazy adventure or challenge, he’s walking in his local fells.

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