tent stakes/pegs

Hi Fred

Hum – your orange tent seems a bit unconventional in shape. Was there by any chance a little wind? Or is it a cover over half an igloo?

Cheers

> Anyone tried tight carbon tent pegs?

Yes, several have tried.
First, you need a point on them, otherwise the end shatters or splits when shoved into the ground. Second, you need a cap on them otherwise you can lose the guy rope. After all that has been added, the weight difference is minimal, but the stake is more fragile.

Cheers

I was thinking about these tigoat premade ones. Seem pretty light at 0.3 oz for a 9 inch nail and .25 for a 6?

anybody tried them?

here's the link:

http://www.titaniumgoat.com/stakes.html

I forgot about one of my favorites, from the same school as the Kmart grease pot and Heineken cans: the 7" aluminum gutter spike. $4.59 for a pack of 10 at my local Ace Hardware, 0.4oz/11g each and really tough.

That stake is the most bendable there is in my experience.

Well her's my story. went hiking the GR10 last year about 1000 kilometers with my new Tarptent Rainbow. which came with these pegs http://media.rei.com/media/g/1103716.jpg
broke almost all of them within a month of use. I than had to buy generic no brand heavy duty metal pegs in a small shops in one of the villages along the Pyranees.

Now i am stuck with 4 pegs weiging 60g/2.1oz each.

i am looking for lighter option for pegs which will be used in a high alpine routes with sometimes hard soil.
from what i read in this thread the MSR groundhogs are the thoughest pegs around.
suggestions?

edited: no became no brand

Sometimes it helps to step outside the hardware store aisle.

Stakes: Lawson ti hook. Lawson claims that curve does not twist, and, having seen no twist whatsoever so far anywhere on any ground type, I have to say he’s probably right. These have been modified by sharpening them slightly, or making the tips more conical to be more accurate. The better to penetrate very tightly packed rocky soil. By the way, filing these tips down showed me how seriously hard the titanium he uses is. My files could barely get the material off, took a long time per stake.

Wandering around flea market, saw someone selling bright fluorescent nail polish, $1 a bottle, thought, hmm, that should work.

To prep, I sanded the tops, then applied two coats, let dry over warm heat source 24 hours, applied two more, cured more time. Can’t remember if I did two more ontop of that, but you can basically see when you have enough coats because the color is not showing the ti coloration underneath.

That color showed up like a spotlight on the forest floor, but so would any fluorescent color I suspect.

As for what stakes, if you go to an impacted campsite, say, Point Reyes or some at Big sur, you know the type, hard ground, somewhat rocky, you will probably never get in an aluminum Y stake, you need a narrow one that can slip between the rocks. I’ve never seen any circumstance so far where stakes like the above were not totally fine (barring of course uncompacted sand or snow), but I’ve only backpacked in certain types of terrain.

The Lawson stakes were great on recent trip to Cascades, camping on forest duff each night, deep, plenty long, and easy to push in, easy to get around rocks in ground too, or tight roots.

Obviously not good for sand or snow, but that’s self evident. Of course you have to use them right, angled in towards tent body, and all that.

Of the above styles of stakes, the ones I would be least likely to take are the bonded easton tubes, the kind tarptent for example ships, not into a head coming off, want a one piece stake.

I paint the tops of my titanium stakes with luminous paint so that I can see them in the night and not stumble over them.

–B.G.–

If the ground isnt good enough for the Ti stakes, put rocks on them. No big deal.
Or, use sticks, and put rocks on them.

In rocky soil, it may take a thin ti stake just to be able to push it in between rocks in the soil. I often have to try several times before getting one to go in.

The trick to making a *functional* ti knife is to chisel grind it and carbidize the flat side. The soft titanium wears away making it pseudo self sharpening. I have a Mitchell Knives "The Drone" made in this manner. 1.5 ounces in the kydex sheath and gutted paracord chain.

I've got two titanium knives, a cheap paring Spanish knife from Arcos, and the cheapest mission ti knive, the mpu-ti. Both are very sharp and hold the egde better than vg-10, but worse than r-2 or ou-31. The alloy is not 6AL4V, and there is not a trace of carbide in them.

Regardind neddle stakes (the square ones), Never broke one, can get them really cheap, and they aren't heavy enough to get worried.