Smart vs. Folding Tent
Who will win our experiment?
Sometimes the most exciting moments come from the craziest ideas. At some point, the question came up at our company—more as a joke—whether it would be possible to hang a Smart car from one of our folding tents. Opinions quickly varied on whether the folding tent would hold up. Amid all the speculation, one thing became clear: We needed to know for sure. So we decided to conduct the experiment and are now reporting on the exciting showdown between the Smart and the folding tent.
The Contenders
The challenger in the right-hand corner is a standard Smart Fortwo. As a compact car, it tips the scales at 938 kg. To ensure a fair duel, we sent our sturdiest folding tent into the ring: the Pro-Tent 5000. In its 3 x 3 m version, it offers enough space to secure the car. The folding tent weighs 40 kg—and, by the way, when folded up, it even fits on the passenger seat of our Smart.
Setup
The sturdiest part of the upper folding tent frame is, logically, at the corners—that is, right where the support legs meet the roof profile. This is also where we attach our tensioning straps when we need the folding tent to stand particularly securely in windy conditions. So we secured a sturdy strap to all four corners and suspended a structure made of our omega profiles and two crossbars from them. We then used a forklift to lower the Smart Fortwo onto this structure.
The Showdown
The day of the experiment—and a truly nerve-wracking moment. Because even though our folding tents are regularly tested in load tests, an experiment like this is still an extraordinary challenge. The moment the forklift set the Smart down on the frame, everyone held their breath—and finally breathed a sigh of relief. We finally had confirmation, and the experiment was a success: Our folding tent held up without a problem and emerged victorious from the duel!
