There is a running joke within our group of friends that one of our mates couldn’t put a tent up even if his life depended on it. I kid you not, this year all he had to do was peg down the outer layer (someone else had already done the rest) and instead he opted for sleeping in his van all weekend, as the prospect of reaching for the mallet was just too much.

So, with that in mind we decided to put him to the test with Coleman’s FastPitch Drake 4 - the key word there being “FAST pitch”. The magic here is that all the poles are pre-attached to the fly sheet, so there is no hassle trying to slide them through the sleeves whilst getting them caught on every seam along the way. I thought watching him try to complete this task would be like watching a monkey try to set up a surround sound system, but in fact I was pleasantly surprised – the pre-attached poles clip together slot put them in the relevant colour-coded holes, leaving you to just attach the inner, peg down the tent and you’re done.

I must admit we were a little cruel by giving our friend the tent without any instructions, just for the entertainment factor, but even so he set it up in less than ten minutes (yes, we timed him for added pressure!) On his second go he managed it in less than six minutes.

This is a great tent; you can fit up to four people inside, but if you don’t want to lay cheek to cheek with your tent mates we recommend two people with lots of creature comforts. For a small tent, it has a nice height - don’t get me wrong, you can’t stand up, but your face isn’t pressed against the flysheet if you decide to use a large airbed.

The Drake 4 has all the usual handy features of a Coleman tent, including SPF 50 coating, ventilation, a strong PE ground sheet and a hydrostatic head of 3000mm with waterproof taped seams to keep out the nastiest of British weather.

Sadly, what goes up must come down, and this is where things slowed a bit. As the poles are attached to the flysheet, you need to get things in a specific order before you can roll it up and put it away. Like most tents, trying to cram it back into the bag was no easy task, but after about 30 minutes of head scratching and some rather colourful language our friend managed it.

The Drake 4 is a great weekend or festival tent. With its fast pitch system, you can spend less time putting your tent up and more time enjoying the great outdoors. RRP £169.99

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4 out of 5

Pros

FastPitch Technology-attached poles and colour coded attachments

Hydrostatic head of 3000mm

UV Guard of SPF 50

PE attached groundsheet

Cons

Heavy (6.9kg)

As awkward as all tents to put away