A canopy tent isn’t a necessity, but it is a useful tailgating product. A canopy tent can give you a good place to relax in the shade. It can also help you establish your area of the tailgate. It is important to know how to weigh down your canopy tent because wind could knock over the canopy and cause a lot of damage to not only your tailgate area, but it could injure people too.
So how much weight is needed to weigh down a canopy tent? A good rule of thumb is 10’x10’ canopies should have AT LEAST 20 pounds of weight on each leg. On a 10’x15’ canopy, 50 pounds of weight on each leg is recommended.
It is a good idea to put the weights on as the canopy is being set up. It’s possible that the canopy will be blown over before you have a chance to get the weight on. Finding large rocks or other miscellaneous objects usually is not enough to weigh down your canopy, especially if you have a 10’x15’ canopy. I think it is better to plan ahead and have the canopy weights ready to go. This will make setting up easier. It is also more reliable because you can guarantee you will have something to weigh down the canopy with.
Types of Canopy Weights
Sandbag Weights (Amazon Link)
Sandbag weights are a great option for weighing down your canopy because they are cheap and reusable. You can buy packs of four for around $15 a pack. They can easily hold 20+ pounds of sand or rock. Something to note — with sandbags you will have to fill it with your own sand or rocks. You can also keep the sandbag weights in your car or truck bed so you can conveniently set them up whenever needed. A lot of the sandbag weight bags are also easy to transport because they are made with a handle so you can easily carry them. I think that sandbag weights are the best option to weigh down your canopy tent. They are reusable, easy to use, and easy to transport.
PVC Pipes Filled With Cement
If you want to opt-in for a homemade approach, you can fill PVC pipes with cement. This is a fairly basic and easy-to-make canopy weight. You just need to fill and cover a PVC pipe with up to 50 pounds of cement and then use them to weigh down your canopy tent. To make for easier transport, you can use eight smaller PVC filled with about 20 pounds of cement. You might find it easier to fill more pipes if you are transporting them for a tailgate. If this is a canopy you are setting up in your backyard or somewhere you won’t have to transport them, it might be easier to just weigh down your canopy tent using four heavy cement-filled PVC pipes.
Cast Iron Canopy Weights (Amazon Link)
Iron weights are a convenient way to weigh down your canopy tent because they do not weigh a lot individually and are small. This makes them easy to transport and place down on the legs of the tent. The weights are also stackable so you can use as much weight as needed. They typically come in either 10 pounds or 20 pounds per weight. They can be found online or at an outdoor store. The one downside to the iron weights is that they are going to be a little more expensive than the options mentioned above. However, they are definitely going to be the easiest to transport. If you are going to get a lot of use out of them, it may be worth the investment.
Bad Canopy Weights
Cinder Blocks
I would recommend using a cinder block to weigh down a canopy tent for a few reasons. A cinder block only weighs 22 pounds so it’s probably not enough weight to be sure that the canopy will stay in place. It would be a good idea to get something heavier. Also cinder blocks just look bad because they are clunky and are definitely a tripping hazard. I would stay away from using cinder blocks because there are plenty of better options that will do a better job at keeping your canopy in place. They will also be more visually appealing. In fact, it is against policy at some places to use cinder blocks as a weight because they do a bad job at weighing down canopy tents.
Gallon Water Jug
This one seems almost obvious, but I think it is still worth mentioning because it has happened before. Using a gallon of water to weigh down your canopy tent is an awful idea because it is not enough weight. A gallon of water only weighs eight pounds, so you would need three gallons of water per leg. Even if you were able to do that it would be tough to get secured to the canopy. It is also not realistic to carry around 12 gallons of water with you. It would just look ridiculous having that much water trying to hold down your tent. Just like cinder blocks, this would also be against policy at some places. There are many better options out there so just stay away from trying to use a gallon of water.
Wrap Up
I hope this helped you pick out the correct weight for your canopy tent. Check ahead of time if the place you are going to has any special policies in place. They may provide more guidance on what is acceptable and what is not.
If you enjoyed this article, be sure to check out some of our other tips on the tailgating page!