How to fold a backpacking tent smaller than a kids football

Trekking pole tents and backpacking gear

At Trekking Pole Tents — a River Country Products store — we write about the shelters that pitch on hiking poles and the backpacking gear that rides with them. Shop trekking pole tents or start with the Trekking Pole Pyramid and Trekking Pole Tent 2V.

“How do you roll your backpacking tent so small it is smaller than a kids football in under 2 minutes”? 

Well, after being asked many times, we finally decided it was time to write a blog on how we fold our trekking pole backpacking tents. After folding thousands of tents we finally came up with what we consider the right way to fold a tent (don’t laugh – many things are obvious in hindsight – but it really did take us weeks of packing tents before we found just the right method that works with almost all backpacking tents). We roll and bag every tent just before we ship it, so we consider ourselves experts in the field. So here it is the backpacking tent packing secrets that your scoutmaster forgot to tell you:
Step 1: Lay your backpacking tent flat with the tent floor on the ground and all cords and fabric laying within the four corners of the tent floor.

Step 2: Fold the edges inward so that all cords and fabric are contained within the tent floor.

Step 3: Fold in one more time.

Step 3 B: This leaves you with a long flat tent with all loose fabric tucked inside the tent.

Step 4: Now fold edges inward again. This further contains all loose parts of the tent so nothing can come out when rolling the tent.

Step 5: Now fold the edges together again creating a square.

Step 6: Finally fold the edges together one more time.

Step 6 B: Forming a small rectangle.

Step 7: Roll or fold the rectangle up and tie with a piece of cloth.

Step 7 B: Tie with a piece of cloth.

Bag the tent.

and compare to a kids football.

There it is, how we roll almost every tent before we bag it and ship it to you.

Laugh all you want, but it took us years to become experts in the tent rolling field. In our experience, if you skip any of the above steps, instead of a neatly rolled backpacking tent that is a pleasure to unroll and use next time you go camping, you will end up with a wadded up ball with strings and fabric sticking out all over the place, that won’t fit back in its bag and is a tangled mess next time you go to use your tent.

Happy Camping

River Country Products

Want help matching a shelter to the rest of your kit? Open any product page for packed weight, floor size, and the backpacking gear that usually rides with that trekking pole tent, or email sales@rivercountryproducts.com.