When doing any type of self-supported outdoor trips you are generally looking for the most compact and lightest solution. Unfortunately packing size and weight are among the things that let the price for sleeping systems skyrocket. Since I already have a number of tents for various conditions I was not ready to buy another one. That is why, two years ago, I decided to build my own one.

Design

My requirements to the tent:

• as small as possible in packed state
• as light as possible
• fully rain proof and somewhat weather robust
• good ventilation (I hate bivi-bags)
• flexible and adaptive so I can pitch it in forests, on hard rocks, and various levels of weather protection (Ideally also usable to set up a quick lunch break protection)

These are the features I ended up deciding on:

• flysheet should be just a tarp. That way I'm super flexible in how to set it up and where to mount it to.
• One pole, so I'm not reliant on trees etc. This can also be replaced with a tracking pole in case it's already brought along.
• fully closed inner liner with insect mesh
• some form of vestibule to store stuff

So I came up with this design which is inspired by a famous tarp setup:

Specs

Here are the dimensions I used for me to have just enough space to be able to sit somewhat upright (useful for changing shirts/jackets etc.):

The loops for guy lines or pegs are always halving the side length they are on. I only added 3 loops per side on one side per opposite pair, you only need the loops at 25% position for the ground end of the tarp. This way I'm saving loops, sewing and structural weakness points.

All lops are doubled sewed and around them I also used double the fabric to distribute the load better. Since couldn't buy the silnylon in these dimensions there is a seem going across the tarp. I waterproofed that one with special silnylon seem glue and never had any problems with it so far.

Including the packaging these are the weights:

• Tent: 290g
• Tarp: 300g
• Pole: 79g

Total the sleeping system weights 669g which is very respectable. For a tent that is not even using dyneema and costs a fraction of the typical price for tents in that weight class, I think this is a very good weight.

The whole setup in packed state looks like this:

The material can be ordered from shops like Ripstop-by-the-roll or Extremtextil. For materials I decided on:

• Silicone-Coated Ripstop Nylon for the flysheet, and some parts of the inner liner

  • 20den, 36g/qm

• Heavy-Duty PU-Coated Ripstop Nylon for the floor

  • 10.000mm hydrostatic head, 90g/qm

• Ultra-Light Polyamide Mesh for most part of the inner liner

  • 155 meshes/qcm, 25g/qm

• EASTON Aluminium 7075

  • 40.6cm and 23g per segment, outer diameter 9mm
  • (As the poles Is so short, using ligher material is not really economic yet)

• and these clamps to tighten guy-lines

Conclusion

After 2 years of bringing it to various trips I can say that I am super happy. For the price and effort I put into this, the tent holds up really well and I can reliably trust it also in bad conditions. The only thing I would change is the type of fabric for the feet part of the inner liner. On very humid nights this is too rain proof and it traps condensation at the end of the sleeping bag. A different more breathable fabric would have been good here. The tent pole construction is a bit fiddly, but I got used to it and now setting it up is super fast. Since there is just one vertically standing pole it is not the most stable construction but so far it in it held up very well (used it in quite strong winds, snow, rain,...). The stability is very dependent of the pole having a god contact with the floor. If the floor is very hard (angled rocks) or slippery, the downwards pressure on the pole can lead to it sliding a way (never happened to me so far though).

All of these are compromises I'm willing to take for the ultra light and ultra compact setup that it is.

Example Setups

Using a more open V-shape:

A fully closed down rain proof setup:

Only fixed in place by rocks: