UL Carbon Fiber Stakes. 3grams each! myog- 1,000 sold. 10% off for BPL Members

Welcome to BPL and congratulations on your first post!  A couple of things about this:

• There’s a lot of garbage at the top from where you cut and pasted your information
• To post in “Gear Deals” you need to offer something to BPL members that they can’t get elsewhere (i.e. 10% discount or “buy 5 get 1 free”)
• A photo of your different stakes would help sales considerably, as would…
• Some instructions on where to go to order them!

Sorry about my post – when I first went in I couldn’t see anything that is now very clear.  I don’t know if I had cache issues or what, but you covered all of my bullets.

Oh, nice!  I’ll have to get into a set or two of these!

We’re happy to make you as many sets as you want, Bonzo!

Mike and Shelby,

How do these do with rocky ground? Can they be pounded in like titanium shepherd hooks?

How long before the rubberized tips start to peel off?

Thanks, and good luck with your venture!

It would be good to get some holding power data on these using Will Reitveld’s protocol (which has been used by others since Will left BPL, most recently in the BPL Nemo Airpin reiview), to quantify holding power. These should be better than Ti shepherd’s, given their diameter, but you never know.

Weight, durability, holding power seem to be the variables that matter with stakes.

I noticed that my use of “Nemo Airpin,” above, generated a link to that product at REI. What would be really cool is if those words generated a link to the BPL review of that product!

Hello!

Thanks for your interest!

The stakes do great in rocky terrain, we personally use them all over the SouthEast and Mid-Atlantic. We also have them being used on the CDT, AT, and PCT, also in the Tundra and internationally. They are all holding up amazing in the various rocky and hard terrains. You can hammer these in because of the reinforced aluminum tops, but we recommend using something to soften the blow. We use a piece of bark if necessary.

As for the rubberized ends, we have been using a set for over a year with no damage to the tops so far. They get 2-3 layers so its very durable.

Thank you for your questions and I hope the answers are helpful!

Reddit user who bought from us

Another in depth analysis from At Stake user 

-Shelby & Mike

Super excited to check these out!

We’re super excited for you to as well, Sam!!!! Thanks for your order.

How do I order a set? Not seeing instructions. Thx

Sent you a pm, Paul

I found these folks on the UL Reddit and ordered 6 of the 8 inchers. In fact I liked them so much I ordered another batch. I haven’t used them except practice pitching a tent, but I’m sitting in a plane on my way to Isle Royale.  I’ll be sure to report back, but the look and feel of these are great. Skinnier than Zpacks or Ruta Locura offerings, I think they’ll hold up better. Wouldn’t try to pound through rocks but pragmatically used I think they will do well. And, these folks are super responsive.

Thanks Russ!

So I used these new stakes for a total of 7 nights at Isle Royal National Park and they worked beautifully but I would add a few caviots:

1.  I used these with a TarpTent Protrail Li and they held the ground extremely well in hard clay, with plenty of roots and rocks to navigate. I did break 1 stake however but it was due to my own stupidity when I accidentally stepped on the stake that was 3/4 inserted in hard ground at a 45 degree angle and so of course carbon fiber does not bend and it snapped in half.  My recommendation would be to just be careful and don’t be stupid like me!
2. I used a rock to directly pound lightly instead of inserting something to buffer between the stake and the rock (specifically not recommended by Mike and Shelby). In the process I cut the loops and damaged the very top portion of  the coating on the heads of the stakes. The integrity of the stakes was just fine. If you plan to abuse them in this way get the ones without the loops.

Bottom line in my experience is that these stakes worked well and you should treat them as you do other UL equipment and they should hold up well.

Happy Trails – Russ

I recently bought a set of 4 6 inchers and 4 8 inchers. Mike kindly made them up in stealthy black with no loops.

I immediately went out and stress-tested them by pounding into some submerged gravel alongside my driveway. I used a hammer. Mike and Shelby expressly stated that pounding these stakes in is not recommended, but I wanted to see how they would do. I also underestimated how compact the gravel is in that area – I actually expected the 6″ stake I used to make it. And I thought it had – with a couple whacks it was submerged. However, upon extraction I realized that the stake had not driven into the ground but rather had ruptured in compression and compacted in on itself. Here is a photo of the broken stake alongside another 6″ stake from the same set:

I had assumed, based on the diameter of the carbon tube, that these were solid carbon rods. I guess not. I subsequently used the same hammer to drive in a 6″ Lawson ti shepherd, which bent but went all the way in, and also an aluminum V-stake, which didn’t have a problem.

I’ve since used the remainder of my set in packed earth with a little bit of rock and have not had any issues. They held easily in 30 mph gusts.

I apologize to Mike and Shelby for posting this here – again, the stress test was clearly abusive and expressly not recommended by the makers of the stakes. However, it was valuable to me in figuring out what type of ground these will not work in. On the Canadian Shield, ti shepherds are the most useful to me, as they can slither in between rocks, but I bring a variety of other stakes with greater holding power for softer soils that are sometimes present as well. At Stakes are now part of my stake kit and several will be coming with me on most trips in this type of terrain. They are so light that I see them as luxury/safety stakes in rocky terrain. In softer soils, I could see taking only this set and saving a lot of weight.

Thank you Stumphges for the through write-up!

As you now know they are not solid..haha. This is an incredibly informative review and we appreciate you putting At Stakes to the test. Although they broke, we now know limitations and where they excel, outside of ours and other reported experiences.

We are mailing you new stakes to replace the two you tested. Again thank you, and we are happy to here you will be adding some of our stakes to your regular supply list!

The very best,

Mike&Shelby.

at Stakes