No one wants their pop-up canopy tent to blow away at an event, which is why one of the first questions TentCraft customers ask is, “How much weight do I need to ballast this tent?”
It’s a good question because important things like wind ratings and warranty claims are dependent on properly ballasting your canopy tent. So, let’s get to it.
A 10x10 MONARCHTENT — our heavy-duty pop-up tent — is wind rated by an actual engineering firm at 40 mph when properly staked to the ground using the included staking kit. You can see the official designation here.
It’s important to note that the wind rating is only applicable to a tent with no walls or peak flags.
“Adding walls reduces the wind rating because there’s a greater surface area that’s perpendicular to the wind,” said Ryan Gemmell, a TentCraft design engineer.
What happens, though, when you need to secure your canopy tent on concrete and can’t stake it? Our first recommendation — per our engineering firm — is to use four weighted footplates with your tent that are specifically designed for your tent’s leg profile.
So, how much weight to hold down a 10x10 canopy? At least 200 pounds is needed to properly anchor a tent of that size to concrete and other hard surfaces.
A 10x15 canopy tent requires about the same weight, but has a lower wind rating when only using footplates. A 10x20 requires more weight to achieve a 35 mph wind rating. And a 13x26 canopy tent requires even more.
Our footplates each weigh 24 kilograms (about 52 pounds), for a total of 208 pounds when all used together.
According to our engineering firm, the heavy-duty MONARCHTENT, which weighs about 72 pounds, is officially wind rated at 35 mph when all four footplates are properly installed.
Our aluminum frames can certainly handle heavy winds since the legs are significantly thicker than steel frames of roughly the same weight.
While the footplates are easy to transport and effective at ballasting your tent, there are several other ways to anchor your canopy tent. For our larger frames tents, for instance, we recommend water barrels that, when filled, weigh a total of 2,600 pounds. Concrete blocks are also commonly used, but tend to weigh under 30 pounds, which isn’t enough to securely anchor your pop-up tent to concrete on a windy day.
Now, just because your pop-up tent is wind-rated between 35-40 mph, doesn’t mean you should leave it up if you don’t need to. Those are dangerously high winds and it’s safer to keep your tent down until the winds subside. TentCraft also doesn’t recommend ever using your tent in winds above 40 mph.
More Questions About Pop-Up Tent Weights?
The experts at TentCraft know the ins and outs of properly ballasting a tent. Whether you have more questions about canopy pop-up tent weight plates or want to make sure you’re staking your tent correctly, we’re here to help. Drop us a line!
