Tent Stake Holding Power: Comparative Evaluation of Various Designs and Lengths

Y stakes are under accessories:

http://bigskyproducts.com/accessories.aspx

pretty good price, too.

Fantastic report! Great research! Thanks!

I have pretty much settled on 6" ti nails and 6" ti V-stakes due to the following: they don't bend and can be pounded in with a rock and they have "pull strings" attached to make removal easy and blood-free. uhum.

I have used both 6" and 9" aluminum nails which I really liked at first but, occasionally the epoxyed heads pop off when pounding or when trying to extract them. So, they lose points for that. And they will bend in extremely hard ground.

I have GoLite Y's and Big Agnes X's both 6" variety but the Golites have significantly larger fins. I've always believed these type stakes would hold as good or better than anything else, but, my hands are a bloody mess after extracting a set of them. Just not worth the pain.

Note however, if I know I going to be camping on beach sand, I will use the 9" aluminum nails.

Were there any tests done with stakes set at different angle
rather than 90 degrees to the pull?

Any old timer who made their own stakes from wood knows that
greater holding power comes when the stakes are more in line
with the pull.

Same for tests Chounard did with ice screws.

Barbs may indeed be a better way.

Exactly what I've been sayin' on this site. My MSR "Groundhog" Y stakes are the best holding stakes I've found.

Yeah, 8 years ago I wuz making my own arrow shaft stakes from the back ends of discarded aluminum arrows. I'd remove the broadhead inserts & re-glue them in the shortened shaft then add an angled aluminum screen door holder tab & screw. Serendipitously the screen door tab's screw was exactly the same thread as the arrow head insert!!
Longer (8") arrow shaft stakes worked best BUT not as well as MSR's "Groundhog" stakes. Plus, as Will R. mentioned, the Y stakes are TOUGH. My homemade stakes, not so much – but they were the lightest at that time.

Eric

Hi Will

> The problem I have is the paint doesn't stay on very well. Does anyone have a technique to paint titanium (and aluminum) stakes so the paint sticks really well?

Yep – epoxy primer. Hardware store.

Cheers

I'm thinking of getting these.

Will said:

Petras, the main reason we are concerned about holding power is WIND. Sorry I didn't mention that in the article. It would be interesting to measure the actual pull on a tent stake from a strong wind gust. The bottom line is no one wants tent stakes to pull out in a severe storm, and we are looking for the lightest stakes that will do the job.

Good point. So you really need to measure the force extered by various tents on the stakes. Can a tent exert 24 pounds of force?

Things would get complex as the force is being applied dynamically, this would substantially weaken the stake. I guess that also needs to be taken into account.

There are a number of scary things about those flamingo tent stakes:
Someone thought of making them
Someone else is willing to sell them
Someone will probably buy them, and worse –
Someone might actually use them!

At least they're heavy….

> Can a tent exert 24 pounds of force?
I suspect that a tightly-pitched tarp tent in bad weather may well exert that sort of force on the main (ridgeline) guy ropes.
Equally, I suspect that the end anchors on my snow tent were exerting that sort of force on my tent in that storm.

Cheers

Will, thanks for a great article! One design that was not reviewed is the aluminum V stake. I have some from Sierra Designs and Montbell. Curiously enough they weigh nominally the same as the Y stake, probably because they're thicker down the center length. However, IMHO they have the same holding power as long as the flat surface faces the direction of pull…I don't see much difference between them and my Y stakes. And as has been noted, since these really grip the soil, don't use your bare hands to pull these bad boys out or you'll hurt yourself, use another stake or your Ti spoon or a piece of cord.
As for bending, I've never ever bent a stake, not a V, not a Y, or even the thin SUL Ti stake. If it won't go in then I simply reposition it a few inches one direction or another. I don't subscribe to the "If it don't fit then force it" school of thought. But a friend of mind does, and the fool hammered one of my stakes into a tree root and it would not release when time came to break camp!

The angle you describe works with ice screws because of the "bite" the threads get in the ice. Tent pegs are smooth and would pull out more easily.

Tent pegs driven in at a 45° angle allow the guy line put the peg in shear. Probably the strongest direction for a small diameter titanium or aluminum "wire"

Kathleen,
The barbs would be a very small surface area compared to the area of the 45° peg being pulled sideways against firm soil.

> So if the ice screw angle theory can transfer to tent stakes, it may be the tent stake would be stronger if we just pounded it in perpendicular to the ground rather than pounding the stake perpendicular to the pull of the guy line, which seems mechanically correct. Has anyone tried this?

YES!

I have tried it (proper test set-up) with snow stakes with very amusing results. The stake just popped straight out of the snow when the load went on. The reason is related to how skates and skis work. The initial tension caused the snow to develop a thin film of water against the surface of the stake – just like with skates, and there was little left to hold the stake in place. Out it slid, pop!

If the stake is angled inwards the same applies of course, except that now the stake is going to dig in.

If the stake is left for a while freeze in, it may stick a bit better – but do you want to risk it?

Cheers