Aluminum Nail Stakes…problems?

Sounds like you need to use a smaller rock!?!

I haven't had any problems personally, although I've only begun using them recently. However, I am considering odering more and noticed on REI's website that the "user reviews" are awful!

…when I was on a real budget I used 10" aluminum gutter spikes for stakes. They were THE cheapest stakes I ever used but worked fine in most soil.

Now that I'm a wealthy retiree I use only MSR Grounghog stakes. Nothing else I've used comes close to their combination of strength, light weight,and holding ability in soft ground. If ya haven't tried them give 'em a whirl and see what you think.

Eric

I had a failure with one of the easton aluminum nail stakes just last week on a bike tour. The ground at the hiker biker site had a lot of gravel beneath the soil and made it really hard to get the stakes in. when it came time to pull them out, I used the string pull and the cap popped off. I had to dig the stake out of the ground. I wasn't too happy about that.

I have had several of the Easton tubular stakes bend and then break. I have also had one loose its head. At the price of these things, using them can become an expensive hobby. The breakage was always at campsites in the Grand Canyon where the soil is both rocky and densely compacted and the stakes were hammered hard. I don't take Easton stakes to the Grand Canyon any more. I still use them in the mountains but try to avoid rocks.

Never had one bend until …

The top 2 to 3 inches was soft and then it was a little harder. I was surprised that it was bent the next morning when I removed it.

I will continue to use these stakes, but will bring a titanium nail for hard ground.

I have been using the Blue 6" ones for around 3 1/2 years and have had only one or two start to show damage at the base with a fissure (small split) type cracking. Mostly rocky soil in the Sierra's and sandy soil and clay here on Maui…but…just got a few of the Gold ones and they really seem to hold better in high winds.

My favorite I is still the MSR Grounghog Stakes!
They seem to work in any soil and really hold, never had one of them rip out like my Easton Blue ones will at times.

I've used the 6 and 9 inch Eastons for years without problems.

I do carry two titanium nail stakes to use for starter holes or actual stakes where the ground is extremely hard and/or rocky – like in developed campsites and in the Sierras.

I too haven't ever bent an Easton stake. But I am *very* careful when placing stakes.

As for "expensive" stakes: I thought the Titaniumgoat Carbon Fiber stakes @ 12$ for 5 stakes where pretty expensive. But since they were represented as being able to be driven into "… frozen ground with a sledgehammer" I purchased fifteen.

Here are the results of driving them gently into compacted (but not hard) soil the first time I used 6 of them …. one broke and the other shows cracking:

How's that for expensive?

Edit; I left the dirt on them to illustrate that it wasn't hard/rocky soil.

Peace,

Richard.

Used the blue ones for a season with my Seedhouse 1 tent after my friend got a surplus Marine Expeditionary Tent that included some. They held well through some extremely windy nights and I never had any failures, but that was in the soft soil of the Midwest. Liked them enough that I bought the gold ones for my SMD LSe. I have also used the MSR Grounhog stakes for car camping and backpacking and I woud say they hold much better, and are quite a tougher, but at a slight weight penalty. My LSe is the kind of tent that I would really like to use the MSRs with (for the extra hold with the single pole setup) but the stake loops are too small!!!

Tim, a dumb question: Why not add a small but larger loop to your stake loops?

Peace,

Richard.

I have not cracked or bent the easton stakes… but I have had the tops come unglued around 1/30 times when I had to hammer the stakes into hard ground and then pull the stakes out.

Richard,

I tried that but didn't like the uneven stress it seemed to put on the stitching that closes the loop in the webbing. I have a family member that is willing to add a piece of webbing with a larger loop. The way I'm going to have her do it will not only give me the choice of using a larger stake, but also increase the overall length of the webbing which I think will help the pitch. Alas, I still haven't gotten it to her yet. Guess I don't want to use different stakes that badly. I really emphasized the size of the loops in my first post because I conder it a design flaw- and it really annoyed me!

Tim

Would it weaken the stakes too much to drill a small hole just BELOW the glued on head… put a loop of spectra through that… and pull the stakes out that way? Then your heads won't pop off. But it might weaken the stakes too much. You'd think they would have been smart enough to design these things so that the hole in the head goes thru that head AND the stake. They know these things have to be pulled out of hard ground sometimes. They thought that GLUE would be enough to hold under that kind of tension? Stupid.

Or maybe you could just drill a new hold lower down in the head. Then your hole would probably go through the head AND the easton pole.

The problem of the heads pulling off the Easton nail stakes I've read about from various sources around the web seems to be that they only use a small dab of glue used during assembly. I have the same problems with archery target points coming off the arrow shafts. Using a slow setting (24hr) epoxy if you can find some (usually only at larger archery suppliers) and coating the entire inner surface of the head will definitely fix the problem of heads pulling off. I've also never had a head pull off after using the "2-ton" epoxy available at Walmart, but the 24-hr slow set epoxy holds against something like 6 tons of force, so it would be better for tent stakes if you can find some.

ps: Aluminum arrow shafts bend. Even thick ones that Easton makes for "school / camp archery programs". Carbon ones don't bend with light-to-medium pressure, but they crack with medium-plus pressure.

Gutter nails are 10 for 6.00 and I have beaten them pretty hard into frozen ground. They bend, but I just straighten them out and keep using them. I bought one bag of them – drilled a hole just under the head and put a wire keychain thingy through the hole. It works very well, but it limits the amount of hammering that you can do a little. I would like to get some titanium stakes, but have not found any that get a clean review.

I think over the years i've used every kind of stake there is. Including gutter nails (which do work very well) and DYI stakes. Unless I know that i'll be able to use LTW stakes, my "go to" choice remains the MSR Groundhogs (after the rest of the titaniumgoat cf stakes break/crack i think i'll stick to the BPL Lazr stakes mostly).

For sand and snow: A LuxuryLite Big Stik broken down and the sections used as stakes (finest stakes ever! and i carry two stiks anyway).

Another dumb(?) suggestion …. whenever possible move your shelter (or find alternative staking methods, e.g. a tree branch) so that you don't have to "pound" stakes in. I know it's a PITA but it's well worth it IMHO.

Peace,

Richard.

I use MSR needle stakes lately and love them. When I was searching for other solutions in Wally World I ran across some large crochet needles that look eerily similar to the Easton stakes. Has anyone given them a shot?

LMAO …. ok, i'm busted! Crochet needles …. nope haven't used them. Does Rosie Greer hike? If so maybe we can get his input. ;-)

Seriously … might work. Let us know.

Peace,

Richard.

BTW… I just got "The One" from GG and looking at the manual… saw a neat method that I can't believe I've never seen before… the cord/stick/rock method. Check out the manual if you don't know what I mean… but basically… you just tie some cord (GG recommends shockcord) to your pullout point, tie a stick to the other end… and then put the stick on the ground with a rock in front of it. I guess the idea with the shockcord is to make it a little more adjustable / reslient?

Also works well if one digs a "T" style, angled trench. Although that might not be in keeping w/LNT?

As for shock cord; i've always used it (ie; bungie cord) to allow for wind. Keeps low strength guy outs from popping. Never used it on critical guylines.

Threadjack Alert: The One looks interesting. If it were bigger i'd probably buy it for grinsNgiggles. How well does it set up? Is it limited to certain kind of trekking poles or will any pole do (e.g. a simple tube of proper length)?

Peace,

Richard.