New ultralight stake

interesting idea to make it square

with a shepard hook type stake, sometimes it rotates and the guyline slips off.  Square would be better

when I want to pull a stake out of the ground, sometimes it’s useful to be able to rotate the stake to get it to release from the soil, then you can pull it out

a round shape can be stronger than a square shape

Adrian, please let us know how they work out for you eventually. Interesting design.

That’s different. Is it solid or hollow? Ide want to cut one and see how much actually has carbon fibers in it. Or torture test them to smithereens hahaha.

They’re solid. Apparently made from sheets laminated together and then laser cut.

Interesting idea, but only 6″ long?
7 or 8″ would have been much better.
I don’t think they would take a hammering the way a Ti wire pegs can. I have hammered them into cracks in mudstone.

Cheers

There’s also a similar 305mm, 12.8g stake. Alas, it’s USD 12.00!

I wonder whether the sharp edges will wear-through, and eventually cut, guylines?

Thanks for the heads up on these stakes. I use 6 inch stakes for the bathtub floor of my GG The One, with longer stakes for the corners and doors. These might work really well for that application.

Are the shorter stakes without cutouts solid “fiberglass” or hollow?

I’m disenchanted with hollow carbon fiber tubes for main load bearing stakes, at least for Rocky Mtn thunderstorm season.

I had a 9″ Rota Locura fracture and sever during a severe storm. Not fun.

I’m sure the stake was not previously damaged. It was quite new and still looked pristine. I used a Vargo Ti peg to make pilot hole, and then the CF stake was pushed in by hand. There was an 8 to 10 lb rock on top of stake.

The snap location was about 1.5″ below top.

There might have been a rock edge in the soil at that depth causing a stress concentrator on the edge of the stake at level where it snapped completely in two.  Hard to be sure, and I didn’t really care too much about post mortem analysis as I scrambled to fix between storm waves. (The Vargo pilot peg was my spare, and I used an even bigger rock.l

Alan, your stake set up in your story is exactly what I use. I haven’t had any issues yet, and I sure hope I don’t experience what you did.

What are you using now?

On the surface, like the idea of squared edges on the stakes to prevent rotation. I would also worry about causing excessive wear on the stake loops in the guy lines.

A few more pictures. The stakes I got, without cutouts, are solid laminate. Dimensions are 5x4mm, made up from 15–20 laminate layers. Thinking about it, I think that the stakes with cutouts as pictured on AliExpress’s website would be very prone to shattering.

The cut edges are not that sharp. I think it would take several trips to get any serious abrasion of guylines. But a wrap of packing tape or heat-shrink tubing might give some protection.

Thanks. I ordered a set. Twenty bucks for six is a good deal. I needed some six inch stakes. Sometimes nine inch stakes are too long or just not needed.

Adrian, thanks for clarifying solid structure on shorter stakes.

JG H, high load stakes for me are now 9″ Al tube’s, different versions/vendors, with big rocks on top when thundrstorms.

Ok, after three trips, 13 nights, here are my impressions.  I’m now using a Packs Pivot Solo, camping in the Sierra, mostly on beds of grainy (1–8mm) decomposed granite.

I’m using the New Inventions (157mm, 5.9g) as my secondary stakes, replacing Dutchware titanium shepherds (165mm, 6.4g). My primary stakes for the 3 or 4 most critical guying points are Tomshu Titanium V-stakes (160mm, 11.2g) from Ali Express.

The New Inventions grip well. The rectangular cross section prevents rotation and seems to resist pullout, at least in gritty soil. They’re way better than the shepherds and not far behind the V-stakes. They also jam well when I lay them horizontally and pile rocks on them. This is needed when I can’t pound them in because there’s a boulder or bedrock only a couple of inches under the DG.

Brittleness is not really an issue in Sierra soils. Stakes either go in with light pounding—beds of DG or duff in a stand of trees—or not at all, where bedrock is near the surface. So there’s no purpose to heavy pounding that could shatter a stake.

My Pivot Solo takes 8 stakes. I started off using 5 titanium V-stakes and 3 New Inventions. Impressed by the gripping power of the New inventions, I cut to 3 titanium V-stakes and 5 New Inventions on my last trip.

A pretty accurate description. I don’t always want to use an 8″ stake. They can be harder to get in. Harder to get out. They bend easier. Why? If you don’t need it. Better than a shepherds hook, on par with tubular stakes. These are good stakes and only 5 grams. I paid 2 bucks a piece and free shipping. I did order one of the others with the cutouts. Basically the same stake. One gram lighter. The differences in length are in the top section. The shafts are equal length. They do have a piece of plastic wrapped them where the line goes. It’s hard to imagine that the cutouts give them more holding power, but I don’t see any other purpose.

Hmm, so the ones with cutouts do exist. I thought I was ordering stakes with cutouts, but what came was the solid ones. I put it down to inaccurate photos. With Temu and AliExpress, you never know if the photo is the vendor’s actual item or whether it’s a stock photo from the manufacturer or even another vendor’s storefront.

It depends on which photo you click on. It was $5 more. I only bought one. Can’t say if it holds better than the others. I don’t think it will break. It seems strong.

I couldn’t find these on Temu or AliExpress… link?

I’m curious about the ones with the cutouts, too. I’ve never once had an issue with any of my Sorex stakes, but I’m always interested in the next best thing.

Search for “carbon fiber tent stakes”.

They often have coupons, but I don’t see them now. The prices have risen. It’s $4.70  for the solid stake.

$9.10 for the other one.

https://a.aliexpress.com/_mtywqUN