Marmot Superalloy 2-Person Tent Review

The standard for a viable lightweight tent has come a long way in recent years, and the Marmot Superalloy Two-Person Tent is part of that movement. It’s a semi-freestanding tent at just over two pounds, so I was surprised it took me as long as it did to hear of it. After all, two pounds without the use of trekking poles seems to be about as good as it gets these days. I typically stick with one-person tents to keep the ever-important base weight low, but the allure of a simpler and roomier is shelter is always tempting. I’ve now spent about half the year vying for this cozy option and am ready to dish.

Marmot Superalloy 2-Person Tent At-a-Glance

• MSRP: $399
• Weight: 2 pounds, 4 ounces
• Semi Freestanding
• Peak Height: 39 inches
• Floor Area: 27.8 square feet

Circumstance of Review

I got my hands on this tent in June of this year and have been able to spend nights in it across roughly three seasons leading up to the current month of December. All my camping nights have been in my local Southeast region. This tent has seen spring, summer, and fall nights in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama. I’ve mostly had favorable weather, but have slept through a few light rains. The temperature range it’s seen has been from probably about 35-80 degrees Fahrenheit at night. And of course, it’s seen its fair share of humidity. Most of my nights spent in this tent were with a partner.

Marmot Superalloy Features

• Semi-Freestanding – This tent can easily be slept in by one person without the use of stakes, and 2 with a little creativity. The tent pole inserts into both corners at the foot of the tent, but only into one central point at the head. There are two permanent stays in the head corners to keep maximum headroom and reduce the amount of pole needed. This space is meant to be used with stakes, but the tent will still work OK without them in a pinch.

• Vertical Walls – The walls are designed with maximum verticality. The single cross pole at the top helps spread out the headspace, making the living space positively roomy.
• 2 Doors and Vestibules – As with many current tents, the Superalloy 2P is symmetrical. Tenters can enter from a door on either side, each with ample vestibule space for a pack and shoes.
• Overhead Lampshade Pocket – A central overhead pocket is built to maximize any light source. Stick any headlamp, flashlight, or even a phone light into the white shade pocket and the entire tent lights up.
• 2 Side pockets – There is a pocket on each side of the tent on the head side of each door. These are plenty big to stash electronics, clothes, and/or anything else a hiker needs out of the way.

Livability

THE standout feature of this tent is its living space versus weight. I’ve snuggled up to hiker friends in close to a dozen of the most popular tents on the market. This typically results in particularly cramped nights of limited flexibility. They’ll get the job done, but often just meet the space requirement to put a “two” in the title next to “person.” At least in the sub-three-pound semi-freestanding tent category, this is the roomiest tent I can recall sleeping in.

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I am 6′ tall and typically run somewhere in the ballpark of 190 pounds. I have shared this tent with another male hiking partner at about 5’10”. I’ve shared multiple tents with this buddy, and we both quickly remarked on the space we both had to work with in this one. I also shared this tent with a 5’4″ female partner I was much happier to cuddle up to, and to us the tent was downright spacious.

Nitty Gritty Thoughts

Clearly, I was a fan of the living space of this tent, but how did it stand up otherwise?

Setup

I found the Superalloy pretty easy to set up. It uses one long forged pole and one small crossbar pole to form the body. The tent is at its best when fully staked out, which provides a ton of headroom. The basic setup has seven points to stake out, and the tent comes with seven stakes. It also comes with some extra cordage the user would need in order to further stake out central points at the head and foot.

Doors

I’ve never had much to say about the doors of a tent before, but I found these to actually be a bit of a nuisance. The “hinge” of the door of this tent is set on the head side, which is different from any other tent I’ve used. In my experience, the door flap is connected at either the floor or foot side of the wall.

The head side hinge makes for some fairly awkward interactions. For one, I had trouble accessing things in my vestibule. I have to fully open the door and pin it out of the way in order to put my shoes on or easily just grab my water bottle in the middle of the night. The door is also prone to draping over the user’s face and hands when trying to put on shoes. This design move just didn’t work well for me.

Pockets

Another feature I had a surprising amount of trouble with was the pocket setup. The overhead lampshade pocket is actually pretty awesome. I used a variety of light sources and was always pleased with the result. It’s also a great place to stash a phone or electronics to keep off the tent floor and within easy reach.

The side pockets are another story. Instead of a standard top-loading pocket, these instead both load from essentially the side. They are also both sloped slightly downward. This typically resulted in the contents easily spilling out onto the tent floor. Clothing would sometimes stay bunched up in there, but about half the time my phone would fall out. This seemed to me like a pretty clear flaw, but one that would be easy to fix in future iterations.

Marmot Superalloy Pros & Cons

Pros

• Pretty lightweight for a semi freestanding tent.
• Excellent livability space inside.
• Plenty long for taller(ish) hikers.
• Unique color combination for standout factor.

Cons

• Door functionality
• Pocket design
• Price point

Final Thoughts

Overall, I think this is an excellent backpacking tent that I’m surprised I haven’t heard more about. It’s weight puts it not far behind forces like NEMO or Big Agnes while being more even more spacious. There are a couple of glaring design flaws, but they honestly don’t make all that much of a difference. The user would only interact with the doors once or twice a day, and the overhead pocket helps make up for the weird side pockets, especially for a single user. Unfortunately, the Superalloy is sold out on Marmot’s website at the time of this posting, but this is definitely one to keep an eye out for, especially if some upgrades are made.

Shop the Marmot Superalloy 2P Tent

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The Marmot Superalloy was donated for purpose of review.