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View Full Version : Cheap ultralight tent pegs..



Newb
01-15-2005, 20:29
hey, I don't know about you guys but I can't afford titanium tent spikes. (Well, let's say I could never afford to have my wife find out what they cost if I did buy them, and since we don't lie in our relationship....)

Anyways, I was building a hobo stove with an old soup can and a Dremel tonight and I have my tent out letting the seam-sealer dry and I was decrying the weight of the metal pegs that came with the tent...(a Knollwood Texsport bivy shelter). It struck me that wire coat-hangar would make great replacements (except in HARD ground). So I cut a few lengths, bent the ends to hold rope and voila! I made them a little longer to compensate for the lack of tensile strength, but they are still much lighter.

Next, I will construct a tent out of coathangars and trash bags. (or maybe not.)

ocourse
01-15-2005, 21:49
Coat hangers come in different types of metal and you can strengthen certains ones. You can take a length of wire, chuck one end in a drill and chuck the other end in a vise and slowly power the drill. You might want to bend a 180 degree leg in the ends of the wire in order to have something to grip. The wire will twist, and, up to a point, it will be much stronger and less apt to bend. Pass that point and the metal will wring in two. This trick also makes wire very straight. Other types of wire will work much better than coat hanger wire. blah blah wear safety glasses, be careful because you don't know how much twisting the wire can take.. I mention this tip because it is good for tinkerers to know for a lot applications. Hey, please post pics of the coat hanger/trash bag shelter!

David S.
01-16-2005, 00:08
I was thinking of trying sharpened bamboo chop sticks as ultra light tent stakes. Then I talked my self out of it. Anybody wanna give it a shot and report back?

Newb
01-16-2005, 00:10
That bamboo idea is interesting. Thank god for Dremels.

Tripod
01-16-2005, 00:21
You can also use aluminum guttering nails. Cut off the head with a hack saw and bend a 90 using a vice. Very light, very strong. They can be found at most home repair stores like Home Depot or Lowe's.

Peaks
01-16-2005, 10:43
You can also use aluminum guttering nails. Cut off the head with a hack saw and bend a 90 using a vice. Very light, very strong. They can be found at most home repair stores like Home Depot or Lowe's.

Along the AT, I used the metal tent stakes that came with the tent. To reduce weight, I only brought the number of stakes really needed to set up the tent (5 for a zoid).

However, the ground at Philmont in New Mexico is hard and rocky. You need a tent stake that can take a pounding. So, we switched over to aluminum gutter nails. And they still bent, but did the trick for our 2 week trek.

The gutter nails sold at Home Depot come with ferrules (like plastic sleeves). That drives the price up. You can probably find them cheaper, and without ferrules at a local lumber yard.