In March of 2008 two of my 2 children, aged 11 and 13 each received a coleman tasman X32 mummy sleeping bag as a gift. The sleeping bag was suppose to help prepare them for an upcoming cool weather camping trip. The point of the trip was to expose the kids to cool weather, but not really cold “below freezing” weather. The over night temps were supposed to get into the upper 30s. And since we had sleeping bags with a comfort rating of 32 degrees and liner, I thought we would be well prepared.
On the morning of March 9th, my daughter Kristian who was 11 at the time, and my son Korey who was 13 at the time headed out to a region of Piney woods in east Texas. “Piney woods” is a term used to describe an area with a lot of pine trees. After parking my Toyota 4-wheel drive truck at the end of an old logging road the kids and I hiked for about 20 – 30 minutes to a small stream. The camping spot had been picked months ahead of time due to its location close to moving water.
The stream was not too wide or deep, at the most it was about 2 feet across and about 4 inches deep. The stream was to be used as a source of water for cooking or drinking, just in case we used all of the water in our bottles.
The kids and I set up camp, set up our hammocks ate lunch and gathered firewood. Good oak limbs were not in abundance, mostly half rotten pine tree limbs littered the ground with a few magnolia limbs mixed in. For those of you that do not know, pine burns fast, as does magnolia. Neither type of wood is good for camp fires you want to last all night.
As the sun started to set, we had a lunch of MREs warmed up over a single burner propane stove. It was one of those magical evenings, as the sun set against a picture perfect sky.
During the course of the night, temperatures (temps) dropped into the lower 40s and finally into the upper 30s. Before long my daughter started to complain that she was cold. This was unexpected as the tasman sleeping bag had a comfort rating of 32 degrees. The temperature of the night time air was about 6 degrees above the comfort rating, and my daughter had an extra liner, so how was she cold? Eventually, at around 2am I gave my daughter my poncho liner, which I was using inside my own sleeping bag. For some reason my daughter was still cold. So I had her put her jacket on and get back into her sleeping bag.
Besides the comfort rating being misleading, the bag has a good design and the inside liner is very comfortable. It looks like the engineers at coleman spent some time making sure who ever was sleeping inside the bag was going to be comfortable, as long as the night time temps stay above 40 degrees that is.
The stuff sack is poorly designed. On the very first camping trip I almost tore some seams while getting the sleeping bag back into its stuff sack. Instead of the straps going all the way across the end of the sack, they are stitched into a seam. Would an extra 8 – 10 inches of strap have broke the coleman company? The carry handle does go all the way over the end, but it is not stitched into the straps. The carry handle strap is instead stitched into a seam. If the designer would have rotated the carry strap just 3 or 4 inches, and made the cinch straps one piece with the carry handle – the stuff sack would be a lot stronger. Sooner or later the stuff sack on this pack will need to be replaced.
For being made in china, the price is a little high. Why do companies close their plants in the USA, move production over seas, use cheap labor and continue to charge “Made in the USA” prices? Some of the products made by Coleman are made in the USA, but not the Coleman Exponent Tasman X32.
The zipper has a flap to keep it away from your skin – this is a nice touch.
The hood has a drawn string that can be pulled to cover the persons face. Exposure to the cold night air can be reduced to just a few inches.
This picture was taken the next morning after our cold night.
Over all the bag is a good product. The stuff sack might have to be replaced after making a few camping trips. Make sure the night time temps are above 40 degrees, because the 32 degree comfort rating might be misleading.
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