New Easton Nano Stakes

[Greg Mihalik]

Anyone seen these or used these? Know what they weigh?

Supposedly the 6" is .26 ounces. (The old ones are .34 ounces)

I'm most interested in how the head is attached, and how much of a beating it can take. (The old style heads are prone to coming off when you pound them with a rock, as I frequently do.)

[Eric Blumensaadt]

I need to lose about 2,000.025 oz. before even considering those stakes.

Guess I'll have to stick with my MSR Groundhogs for a while.

[Jay Wilkerson]

The Easton stakes have always failed on me. The top thing comes off over time..

+1 on the MSR Ground Hog–very dependable with no failures.

[Christopher Kuzak]

The 8 stakes for my Kilo 1p weigh less than 3 oz all in. However, assuming 8 stakes weigh 3 oz, you get .375 oz per stake. Since the Kilo 1p stakes look the same as the one you have pictured, it's a fair bet that that stake weighs less than half an ounce.

As for how well they work, so far they haven't failed me, but I have yet to give them a strong test.

[Ken Thompson]

ever since I pushed a brand new one into semi soft soil in my backyard with the palm of my hand and it snapped in two gouging my palm. That really hurt. Almost got blood all over my new tent:(
I'll take a sturdier stake.

[Greg Mihalik]

I have beat the crap out of them (with rocks into hardpan) for the past two years and, aside from loose heads, have never had a problem.

Groundhogs would be my next choice, but I'm trying to shave a couple of ounces.

Hence the search for hands-on experience.

[Brian Hall]

Check out the new msr mini groundhogs. They are 6" long and weigh .35oz on my scale. Seem to work pretty well in my backyard testing, haven't had the chance to take them on a trip yet though.

[J-L]

In the past few months I have bought and tried the Mini Groundhogs, the 8'' Easton Nanos, and the 6'' Easton Nanos.

The heads of 2 out of 4 Mini Groundhogs broke off when knocking them in after just a few uses. I never felt like I was pounding that hard on them nor was the soil extremely hard. I'm also fairly confident that my rock strikes were pretty in-line with the stakes themselves. While their hold is decent, I've deemed them too weak to be reliably used.

The 8'' Easton Nanos I got were junk…I bought a pack of 4 about 3 weeks ago and was able to pull the heads off of 3 of them just by using my hands. I don't think I would trust these not to break in half when it counts.

The 6'' Easton Nanos have performed okay for me, although I've only been able to use them half a dozen times or so. I bought 8 of these and, oddly, none of their heads have popped off yet. I only use these for non-critical, low-stress tie-outs. The weight of these is on par with what Easton specifies.

So maybe the 8'' Easton Nanos I received were defected, but it still doesn't inspire much confidence in my 6'' Nanos. I'll be sticking with my Groundhogs for key tie-outs and probably replacing my 6'' Nanos with something else soon.

[Greg Mihalik]

John,
The Easton Nanos where what style – old or new ? (refer to the leading photo above)

The Mini Groundhogs – the heads broke at the notch? Or somewhere else?

Thanks

[J-L]

The Easton Nanos were the new style.

And the Mini Groundhogs broke at the neck below the head of the stake (where it's thinnest, of course). I think the neck is too thin and the head too big for these stakes to exhibit any real strength.

I some times wonder if the people at these companies actually ever even try to use the products they "design".

[Rakesh Malik]

"I some times wonder if the people at these companies actually ever even try to use the products they "design"."

I'm imagining a marketing doofus saying, "It makes a great arrow shaft, so stick a cap on the leftover bits and they should make great tent stakes, right?"

Never mind that the needs of an arrow shaft aren't the same, they're both cylindrical with points on one end, right? ;)

[Brett Ayer]

I think it’s more of a case that making something ultralight is a compromise between weight and durability. If you buy something that is made to be lighter than everything else, I don't think you can expect it to hold up to the same abuse, as it's heavier counterparts.

Just my take, YMMV.

[Stephen M]

I had the head come off a few of the standard ones, a few drops of glue sorted it out :-)

[Roger Caffin]

6" is barely long enough imho – at least in bad weather.
Ti wires.

Cheers

[Henry Shires / Tarptent]

Hi John,

Are you absolutely sure the heads popped off the NEW style Easton nano stakes? If so, Easton (and I) would love to know. Easton is/was pretty convinced that the redesign solved that problem and I'm sure they would love to hear from you and examine your stakes (and reimburse you).

-H

[J-L]

Hi Henry,

Yes, these are the stakes that I have:

Unfortunately, I recently used some JB Weld to secure the heads of the three stakes who initially failed. I just tried pounding this one into my yard and it seemed to do fine. Not sure how long the head will stay attached though or if I'll even end up using them.

I should have taken pictures of the stakes whose heads popped off, but it didn't appear like any glue was applied to them.

[Colin Krusor]

I use MYOG Ti corkscrew stakes. I won't go into the details here in the gear forum, but I thought I'd mention the option to make your own since they will greatly outperform the Groundhogs or any tubular aluminum stake, and the weight is the same.

The 6" one in the photo below weighs 8 grams (0.25 oz), and the 8" one weighs 13 grams (0.45 oz). I've never found a soil in California, Oregon, or Washington that they won't penetrate. In some soils I can't pull the 8" ones out. I've challenged people to pull them out and it just leads to incredulity and laughing.

[Greg Mihalik]

John,
Do you recall where you bought the new stakes?
And approximately when – days, weeks or months ago?

Edit: BTW, does the cord go through the stake as well as the head?

Thanks.

[Henry Shires / Tarptent]

Thanks John. I've alerted Easton.

-H

[J-L]

Greg,

I bought them from Campmor on 5/5/2012 (so a little over 4 weeks ago).

The cord is my addition as the stakes do not come with any, but the cord only runs through the head. With the cord-loops and JB Weld, the average weight of my 8'' Easton Nanos is 0.45 oz/per stake. Compare this to an average of 0.52 oz/stake for my MSR Groundhogs.

It's possible mine were some early-production duds, but how hard is it to glue a head to a stake? Actually, why doesn't Easton just weld the heads to the tube bodies? EDIT: found out that 7075 is an unweldable alloy.

[Clint Warner]

Thank you Henry for notifying me of this thread. I am the OEM Sales Manager for Easton and want to address this issue. Henry is correct in that we spent significant time looking for ways to improve the stake head fit to help them stay on better. I will say that although some of the old style cap have been problematic, we have had comparatively few complaints actually reported to us so it is hard to know what the actual failure rate of the old style caps were. From everything we can tell, it wasn't a huge problem, but was something that needed to be improved.

What we have been able to determine with the old cap is that if the cap slips ever so slightly between the time the caps are installed and the adhesive is cured (they are heat cured in an oven) it creates a gap between the stake and the end of the cap that lacks the metal on metal contact needed to take the impacts from being hit with a hammer, rock, etc. Fully seated caps can take a massive beating without failure. We have done extensive testing on this, having completed many man weeks of destructive testing in our factory and in the field to learn more about the ins and outs of what causes the caps to fail.

Here is what we did to address this on all new revised cap stake designs:
*Added a press fit feature in addition to the existing adhesive at the back of the cap to hold it in the fully seated position while the adhesive cures.

*Implemented a 100% hand length sort to pull out any that don't meet the fully seated length requirement.

We concluded that by doing all of this we should expect a significant reduction in the number of failures in the field. Due to the abusive nature of how tent stakes are used, you will never eliminate failures 100% but I can attest that the new design is more robust than the old one.

If anyone has any problems, we certainly apologize and want to stand behind our product. Please let us know at 800-800-6686. We certainly will make it right and replace any stakes that lose their caps. Your feedback is crucial to helping us make our products better.

Sincerely,

Clint Warner
Sales Manager, Tubing and OEM Products

[Warren Greer]

Thank you Easton rep for your detailed explanation of the continuing R&D process on these stakes and Eastons customer commitment. Pretty refreshing.

And thanks to Henry for the helpful nudge.

[Greg Mihalik]

I'll place my order, find a rock, and start testing ;-)

In all seriousness, though, thank you Clint for update. And thank you Easton for going the extra mile. It is indeed good to know that something a lowly as a tent stake can command such attention.

I intend to put them to good use through the coming years. And at your invitation, should any fail, I'll save the bits and send them back, just to get a better 3rd generation product.

[Rakesh Malik]

"Thank you Easton rep for your detailed explanation of the continuing R&D process on these stakes and Eastons customer commitment. Pretty refreshing."

That's an understatement.

Henry's customer service is as impressive as his tent designs. :)

[Warren Greer]

And the comment was directed toward the Easton rep. If I were commenting on Henry, it would be only positive. And I've never bought anything from TT. Even so, Henry has just plain been helpful in the past. -And, if the need presents itself later this year, I know exactly what solo tent will work for me. A Notch with half solid inner and four 8" Easton stakes. TT definitely has some very innovative products and the customer service to seal the deal.

-I have no personal connection or motive for gain with TT. Just had excellent interactions with Henry and thought I'd share. Thanks for the reminder Rakesh.

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