Frequently Asked Questions

Why are these tents so expensive?

Murphy Ultralight Backpacking Tents are made with only the lightest and strongest materials on the market.  The materials, alone, cost much more than your average ultralight backpacking tent.  We spare no expense when sourcing top-of-the-line materials for our products.  Each tent is also handmade in the USA.  The construction process is very time consuming because of the shape of the tent.  Since these are dome tents and the material doesn't stretch at all, there has to be much more precision in the build than with other tents.  We chose the hard route with the design, but have also created the lightest truly freestanding tent on the market, as a result.  Compare our price to the leading ultralight tent manufacturer that makes a freestanding tent, and notice that ours comes in over 9oz lighter!

What about condensation in a single-wall tent made of this material?

Condensation is always a concern with single-wall tents.  We mitigate the condensation by adding 2 large mesh vents on the lower sidewalls of the tent and 2 smaller vents up top.  Using convection, the idea is that the cool dry air enters through the lower vents and rises to the top of the tent as the air heats up, where the warm moist air can escape through the upper vents.  The door also unzips from the top, allowing for extra airflow if needed.  In certain moist conditions, you'll find condensation in any tent, but we feel the Carbon Dome design does a good job with mitigating that condensation. 

Why is there no vestibule?

We designed our tent with one goal... to create the lightest truly freestanding tent on the market.  We don't have vestibules on our tents because extra material comes at a cost in extra weight.  We also skip out on inner pockets and other bells and whistles because we believe in having a minimalist design.  There is still enough room inside each tent for one person and a bunch of gear or two people and a small amount of gear.  If you would like to add mesh pockets inside the tent, we recommend looking at the mesh tent pockets sold by Zpacks.

Why is there only one door?

For the same reason as the lack of having a vestibule, we only design our tents with one door.  Extra zippers come at a cost of extra weight and extra time for the construction process.  We save a ton of weight by only having one door.  Don't worry, the door is very wide and tall, so it is easy enough to access, even when there are two people in the tent. 

Why should we choose the Murphy Ultralight Carbon Dome Tent over other similar tents?

There are a few really good ultralight gear cottage manufacturers out there who all have great products.  Any of these companies make great tents, so it just depends on what you're looking for in an ultralight backpacking tent.  The biggest thing that differentiates our tents from the others is the fact that it is the lightest truly freestanding tent out there.  Designed in California, where PCT hikers will face hard surfaces in the granite-filled Sierra Nevada Mountains, our tents don't require any stakes to set up and can be easily moved around once they are pitched.  Since we don't require use of guy lines and stakes, our tents also have a small footprint for those smaller campsites.  Of course, we still recommend using at least 2 stakes to guy out the ventilation flaps for the best breathability, and to ensure that your tent doesn't turn into a really expensive kite when the wind picks up!