Author Topic: Ultra lightweight tent pegs (Read 12440 times)

TimO · « **on:** 22 June, 2008, 05:34:28 pm »

I recently got a Terra Nova Laser Photon tent to use when I want something a bit lighter than my Wild Country Ultra Quaser (ie bike camping vs car camping). The Laser Photon is definitely lighter, almost unbelievably so, but the tent pegs worry me. They are 1g titanium pegs, which look to all intents and purposes like a bit of bent wire.

Are these things practical? Even the instructions supplied with the tent imply that they should only be used in light conditions, and frankly it seems like a good idea to replace them with something a little more hardy, since you can certainly get reasonably chunkier normal pegs (albeit made from titanium) for less than 10g per peg. Now this is going to add 50g to 100g to the weight of the tent, but I just can't believe that a 1g peg is going to work for anything other than the lightest of light winds. Has anyone used these sort of pegs, successfully ?

alves · « **Reply #1 on:** 22 June, 2008, 05:47:14 pm »

I tend to take a selection of pegs so I can cover all eventualities. The wider plastic peg shaped like mini-trowels are really the only kind that will hold in sand and I take 3 or 4 of these as well as the thin wire type and the triangular pegs.
I don't think one type of peg will do for every kind of ground really.

TimO · « **Reply #2 on:** 22 June, 2008, 05:49:59 pm »

Fair comment to an extent, although lightweight camping discourages carrying too much just-in-case stuff. These 1g pegs seem silly though, they are about 0.5mm in diameter, and it would be pretty easy to bend them pushing them in.

andygates · « **Reply #3 on:** 22 June, 2008, 05:55:28 pm »

Stick a rock on top of 'em and they're good to go. But cheap light sturdy plastic pegs are available from most decent outdoor shops - they're light and cheap but bulky.

αdαmsκι · « **Reply #4 on:** 22 June, 2008, 06:02:53 pm »

My Terra Nova Ultra Quaser came with Ti pegs, tho not the 1 g a piece ones but (I think) these ones. When I first saw them I didnt think they would be any good, but I've yet to bend a single peg despite a lot of use and I'm convince they would keep the tent standing, too. Depends if you are happy to pay 15 quid for six pegs, tho.

Wowbagger · « **Reply #5 on:** 22 June, 2008, 06:06:03 pm »

Quote from: andygates on 22 June, 2008, 05:55:28 pm

Stick a rock on top of 'em and they're good to go. But cheap light sturdy plastic pegs are available from most decent outdoor shops - they're light and cheap but bulky.

But carrying a pannier full of rocks around with you seems to defeat the object of buying a lightweight tent!

TimO · « **Reply #6 on:** 22 June, 2008, 06:20:53 pm »

This is an image of a 1g peg, and a more normal, but quite small, aluminium peg. The aluminium peg is very light, but when you pick up the titanium one, it's not how light it is, it's whether you can feel it or not! (The coin is a modern 5p).

Depending on the camp site, rocks may or may not be common. Where they are common, I normally find that they are common a few inches below the surface, exactly where you are trying to get a peg in!

hellymedic · « **Reply #7 on:** 22 June, 2008, 07:40:12 pm »

I would not feel secure with those 1g jobs. There's only about a centimetre of hook to retain the cords in a gust, gale or if someone trips on them.
I was neurotic enough to use 7" aluminium pegs for most of my tent, but 10" pegs in the corners.
Nothing ever went adrift.
The total weight of the pegs isn't much anyway and I prefer to rely on something sturdy to separate me from the elements.

CathH · « **Reply #8 on:** 22 June, 2008, 08:58:33 pm »

If you angle them enough against the guy-rope pull they look like they should be OK, they're a decent length. How bendy are they?

TimO · « **Reply #9 on:** 22 June, 2008, 09:39:10 pm »

They do flex, although I'm loathe to see how far they'll bend before permanently deforming ! They are a lot more bendy than any steel or ally pegs I've ever used, including the ally one I've got in the picture, which generally don't bend significantly at all. Having said that, since they are titanium, they are a lot stiffer than any other material would be if formed into a peg that small.

I thing they'd maybe be OK for the groundsheet, but I'd be less inclined to use it for the guys or fly, which are under much more tension. They are quite short (5") so I think they may work in fairly solid soil if put in at 45°, but they could be hard work to get in since there isn't much to push on. If the upper soil was anything other than very firm, they could easily pull out.

As HM said, the weight of the pegs is a small fraction, so a heavier but still pretty light peg on the guys at a minimum is probably a good idea, if only for a greater sense of confidence.

I'd be worried trying to use these pegs with the tent in the 60mph+ conditions that some of the country is experiencing at the moment, it's a bit gusty in London at the moment, but not excessively so, a lot less than appears to be happening up north.

TimO · « **Reply #10 on:** 30 June, 2008, 07:27:47 pm »

As a follow up to all this, I got some Vargo Titanium tent pegs, this image shows all three pegs:

I weighed these pegs on the scales we use at work to weigh spacecraft bits, so they're reasonably accurate, although only have a resolution of 1g. I weighed twelve of the ultralightweight pegs, and six of each of the others, and then divided down to get their individual weight.

North Face Ultralightweight Titanium		1¹/₃g
No name Aluminium		8²/₃g
Vargo Titanium Florescent		8g

I'm guessing that the Vargo ones are possibly stronger than the random Aluminium ones which I found in my spares box, they are manufactured a bit more nicely, rather than a simple angled cut at the end they have a neatly finished end. They are also a bit longer.

Pricewise the Vargo's are £2 each, whereas having a quick look around suggests random aluminium ones are about 40p each, so I've paid five times as much for ²/₃g per peg weight saving! The flourescent bit should make them easier to find, tent pegs are always a pig to find if you don't pack them away as you take them out, but a bit of coating wouldn't be that difficult to apply to some aluminium ones.

Rapples · « **Reply #11 on:** 30 June, 2008, 07:33:04 pm »

Quote from: wowbagger on 22 June, 2008, 06:06:03 pm

Quote from: andygates on 22 June, 2008, 05:55:28 pm
Stick a rock on top of 'em and they're good to go. But cheap light sturdy plastic pegs are available from most decent outdoor shops - they're light and cheap but bulky.

But carrying a pannier full of rocks around with you seems to defeat the object of buying a lightweight tent!

LOL

andygates · « **Reply #12 on:** 30 June, 2008, 09:46:10 pm »

I have a foolproof method of finding rocks: stick a tent peg into the ground. Voila! You have just found a rock!

bobb · « **Reply #13 on:** 30 June, 2008, 11:26:07 pm »

Bloody hell! You're getting into fractions of grams for tent pegs!!

I just grab a handfull of the most least bent pegs I've got!

Do you measure the amount of water in your bottles to the millilitre to conserve weight too?

Proper tourists use heavy bikes loaded up with food and beer. If it gets too much you just eat the food and drink the beer

Quisling · « **Reply #14 on:** 30 June, 2008, 11:33:44 pm »

Quote from: Rapples on 30 June, 2008, 07:33:04 pm

Quote from: wowbagger on 22 June, 2008, 06:06:03 pm
Quote from: andygates on 22 June, 2008, 05:55:28 pm
Stick a rock on top of 'em and they're good to go. But cheap light sturdy plastic pegs are available from most decent outdoor shops - they're light and cheap but bulky.

But carrying a pannier full of rocks around with you seems to defeat the object of buying a lightweight tent!

LOL

Captain Scott found the rocks a problem too...

TimO · « **Reply #15 on:** 30 June, 2008, 11:57:59 pm »

Quote from: bobb on 30 June, 2008, 11:26:07 pm

Bloody hell! You're getting into fractions of grams for tent pegs!!

If I'd known the relative weights to start with, I don't think I'd have bothered! Since I've got the bigger titanium ones now, I'll use these in preference to the ali ones, they are likely to be slightly stiffer, are lighter, longer, and more visible.

Chris N · « **Reply #16 on:** 01 July, 2008, 08:50:41 am »

Why do tent pegs need to be more visible? If they're not at the end of the bit of string, they're in the bag. Job done.

rr · « **Reply #17 on:** 01 July, 2008, 11:14:49 am »

Quote from: TimO on 30 June, 2008, 07:27:47 pm

North Face Ultralightweight Titanium 1¹/₃g
No name Aluminium 8²/₃g
Vargo Titanium Florescent 8g

Pricewise the Vargo's are £2 each, whereas having a quick look around suggests random aluminium ones are about 40p each, so I've paid five times as much for ²/₃g per peg weight saving! The flourescent bit should make them easier to find, tent pegs are always a pig to find ihttp://www.alpkit.com/shop/cart.php?target=product&product_id=16259&category_id=253f you don't pack them away as you take them out, but a bit of coating wouldn't be that difficult to apply to some aluminium ones.

For the ultimate titanium pegs try these: Aipkit Tikes cheaper that the vangos although meatier.

tatanab · « **Reply #18 on:** 01 July, 2008, 12:26:32 pm »

Quote from: rr on 01 July, 2008, 11:14:49 am

[For the ultimate titanium pegs try these: Aipkit Tikes cheaper that the vangos although meatier

I bought some of those at the York Rally. I don't care too much about the weight (within reason), what matters to me is the bulk. Throw away the red strings and they nest together very nicely. Are they any good? I'll find out next wek on my way down to see the T de F.

TimO · « **Reply #19 on:** 01 July, 2008, 02:45:06 pm »

Does anyone have a working link? Just putting AipKit Tikes into an URL doesn't actually qualify as a valid hyperlink!

(...and no, I tried Just Googling it, and it returned zero matches).

Deano · « **Reply #20 on:** 01 July, 2008, 02:59:14 pm »

I'm pretty sure it's Alpkit, as they sell some nice gear. Which gives you these:

Alpkit

I shouldn't look at such things, since I'm trying to save money. They are pretty.

TimO · « **Reply #21 on:** 01 July, 2008, 03:09:46 pm »

Ah that would explain why Google didn't return any matches.

I did look at those before, but decided that those pegs whilst possibly quite strong for guys, wouldn't always work for things like groundsheets, since they may be too big, depending on the tent construction.

rr · « **Reply #22 on:** 01 July, 2008, 03:18:26 pm »

Whoops sorry about the link, thanks deano, Alpkit also do some nice alloy spikes that would be more suitable for ground sheets etc

TimO · « **Reply #23 on:** 01 July, 2008, 03:25:52 pm »

Quote from: rr on 01 July, 2008, 03:18:26 pm

...Alpkit also do some nice alloy spikes that would be more suitable for ground sheets etc

Yes... but... they are 33g each.

rr · « **Reply #24 on:** 01 July, 2008, 03:28:52 pm »

And 220 mm long, For big tents I think

Author Topic: Ultra lightweight tent pegs (Read 12440 times)

CathH

Rapples

Chris N