MozzDefense magnetic base strong enough for tent pole?

Mine held on a horizontal bar fine but slid down the slanted pole in my tent. If your frame is vertical you’re probably okay, otherwise the carabiner is the safer bet.

I picked one up for my dad last month since he’s always messing with his little camping setup, and he’s the type who’ll try sticking everything to metal just to see if it holds. He told me the magnet grabbed onto the frame of his canopy tent alright, but when he bumped it while getting up in the night, it swung a bit and he ended up just clipping it to the loop instead. So it stuck, but it wasn’t rock solid once anything touched it.

That said, he still uses the thing, just not as a magnet mount anymore. He hangs it now and it’s been fine for the couple of trips he’s taken it on. I don’t think the magnet is garbage, it’s just one of those features that sounds better on the box than it works in real life.

If I were you I’d test it at home first before trusting it over your head. Stick it on something metal, give it a nudge, see how it behaves. Ten seconds of that beats waking up to a light on your face at 2am.

Mine slid down a painted pole but held on bare metal.

Magnet held mine fine on a flat steel plate in my garage for a couple months. But the rounded bars on my old tent, no chance. If your frame is flat, you’re good.

Mine holds fine on the flat part of my tent frame.

Mine actually stayed put on the angled bar near the top of my tent, which surprised me since I figured it would creep down overnight. I knocked it once while getting up in the dark and it just tilted a bit and held. That said, I did notice it sticks way better to the frame than to the little metal plate on my cooler, so surface matters more than I expected. I still clip the carabiner as a backup when I remember, mostly out of habit. If your frame is thin or coated it might be a different story, but on the bare section of mine it’s been solid for maybe three weekend trips so far.

I mostly use the carabiner myself, just feels more secure to me. The magnet is handy for quick stuff but I’d rather not have the light drop in the middle of the night.