Tent stake materials and types: what's your preference?

[stingray4540]

I do as rocket indicated; make my own from sticks. I carry a fiskars 14" hatchet, and bang them in w/ the back.

Fiskars 14" hatchet = 1.28lbs

6 titanium shepherds hooks = 1.68oz. (Lighter, stronger, and easier to get into the ground.)




I just moved to 6 titanium pegs to save weight, but my second choice would be light weight aluminum stakes.
And, I have made a wooden stake when I was short, one stake, during a rainstorm, but my belt knife was more than I needed to fashion it.

 

[Outdoors Fanatic]

I've settled on MSR Groundhog stakes...I've found them the best for most soil conditions. My lightweight Ti Snowpeak tent stakes are pretty thin and if you're in hard, compact soil, they don't do well. The nail design is much more effective but not in soft soil. I like to practice making my own tent/tarp pegs, but for quick set up and simplicity, I'll stick with a handfull of Groundhog stakes.

ROCK6

I like the Ground Hogs, but they are much heavier than these new Vargo Ascent stakes. (they are of very similar size and shape).

 

[paracordist]

Fiskars 14" hatchet = 1.28lbs

6 titanium shepherds hooks = 1.68oz. (Lighter, stronger, and easier to get into the ground.)

LOL, good point, but my hatchet serves much more utilitarian (and fun) bushcraft and survival capabilities than some titanium tent stakes!

 

[OwenM]

The cheapo aluminum ones with a hook on the end, when I use them. Have some of the V shaped metal ones but you'd think they were made of gold the way I "save" them, and use the aluminum instead. I bend them all the time, but they refuse to die.
Sometimes I don't even carry stakes...1/2" oak will take a beating that will ruin a thin aluminum one.

 

[mtwarden]

I've carry a homemade trowel that I've used in a pinch when I came up shy a stake

 

[ohski]

My tent is a MSR Hubba Hubba... I use some of the "needle" stakes it came with and some of the "groundhog" stakes. I aso keep 4-6 groundhogs with my tarp.

I would love some TI ones but have never spent the time to find/buy them. As of right now being ultra light isn't all that high on my list. Getting out this spring and summer is..!

Ski

 

[Joezilla]

I like the triangular red MSR stakes but find myself changing out the colored cord due to not being able to find them.

Joe

 

[HornyToad]

I use a combination of MSR ground hog stakes and Easton aluminum stakes. Half the price of titanium. Maybe 50% heavier than titanium but we are only talking about 1.5 to 2.0 extra ounces per set. (The weight of about 1 fluid ounce of water in a 32 ounce canteen).

That being said I just ordered 8 of the orange top, titanium shepard stakes.

 

[PropThePolecat]

I use the stock MSR aluminum tent pegs that came along my Hubba HP. Id like some titanium ones, but mostly for the cool-factor. The weight savings arent worth the increased cost IMO.

 

[Outdoors Fanatic]

I use the stock MSR aluminum tent pegs that came along my Hubba HP. Id like some titanium ones, but mostly for the cool-factor. The weight savings arent worth the increased cost IMO.

Weight is not the biggest deal, toughness is.

 

[hoopster]

Wood stakes can be hardened in a fire.

 

[OwenM]

Have some of the V shaped metal ones but you'd think they were made of gold the way I "save" them, and use the aluminum instead.

Broke these out for a trip, having not even looked at them in years, and they're 7075-T6 aluminum by TNF. Basically a 2-sided version of the MSR Groundhogs, I guess. Anyway, I don't know if they're getting beat into packed and rocky soil, sand, mud, or all three on different nights, but they're going...