Of all the different bits of kit out there for backpacking and wild camping, the humble tent peg is one of the most important. However, we reckon they’re also one of the most frequently overlooked.
After all, tent pegs (or stakes, as they’re usually known in the US) are a vital element of most shelter systems. For one thing, apart from your own body weight, they’re the only thing anchoring your tent to the ground. Along with the tent frame, they also create tension, stopping your shelter from flapping incessantly or, worse, collapsing around you. Either of those calamities will ruin a night in the great outdoors, especially in wet and windy weather. And it’s also worth remembering that no matter how stormproof your shelter, if the pegs securing it to the ground are weak and flimsy, you’re running the risk of a restless and discomfiting night.
When you buy a tent, it is generally already supplied with a set of pegs or stakes. This is one reason why pegs tend to be treated as an afterthought when it comes to camping gear. The problem is that tent makers rarely seem to provide enough pegs to fully stake out your tent, especially if it has multiple guy-out points (sometimes they won’t supply all the guy lines either). From a manufacturer’s perspective, this saves weight and cost. But it’s pretty frustrating for first-time users. So, it’s worth checking you have all the pegs you need before you head out.
Then there’s the fact that the pegs which come with budget or lower-end tents aren’t generally the best quality – again, a cheeky cost-cutting exercise. Premium tents do tend to come with decent hardware, but even then, they might not be best suited to your needs or style of camping. After all, the manufacturer has no idea where you’ll be pitching up, what sort of ground you’ll be pitching on or how windy it might get.
Unfortunately, there is no one ‘best tent peg’. Rain, wind and different soils all pose different challenges when it comes to holding power. This means that a particular design will work better than others, depending on the conditions. So, upgrading or expanding the pegs in your kit stash can give you a range of different designs to suit specific types of ground, as well as providing you with plenty of spares. This is useful in itself, since pegs – even decent ones – are easily lost, bent or broken.
In short, it’s essential to understand which stakes to choose, when, and why. Experienced backpackers and wild campers often end up owning several different types, which they select according to the conditions they expect to encounter. You may even want to carry a few different types of tent peg with you on your next adventure. This will allow you to pitch up almost anywhere and be confident that your tent will hold.
Tents pegs come in a myriad of different shapes, sizes and materials, with almost innumerable design tweaks and modifications from brand to brand. But there are a few basic types:
This is the classic tent peg design, consisting of a straight shaft topped with a hook. Most have a circular cross-section, being made from bent metal wire – usually steel or aluminium, though some ultralight versions are made from titanium wire. These are exceptionally light (as little as 5g each) but need to be treated with care.
In general, shepherd’s hooks are best for firm or hard ground, as the straight shafts have a relatively small surface area, which means they don’t hold well in loose soil. They can sometimes spin in the ground too, allowing guy lines to slip off. Inserting the stake deep enough to embed the end of the hook in the turf helps prevent spinning.
Shepherd’s hooks remain popular because they are cheap and widely available. For backpacking or wild camping, it’s worth looking for high-quality 7000-series aluminium alloy versions, which don’t bend as easily as cheaper grades. Kelty Nobendium stakes are a good example (these also have a hexagonal profile to help resist spinning and bending).
A lighter, backpacker-friendly version of the heavy-duty steel ‘rock pegs’ often used to anchor big family tents and awnings, nails and pins are suitable for extremely hard and rocky ground. They’re usually made from titanium to minimise weight – the lightest versions on the market weigh as little as 8g each.
The minimalist design is simple but effective, typically consisting of a straight shaft with a sharp point at one end and a broader, flattened head at the other. They’re normally threaded with cord loops to make it easier to pull the peg back out. Despite being fairly thin they are very strong and highly resistant to bending, which means they can even be hammered into the ground. If you're camping up high in rocky, mountainous terrain, they’re very useful.
Care must be taken to angle them sufficiently so that the guy line doesn’t slip off, which can happen if the line becomes slack. Looping the guyline twice around the shaft can help.
These types of stakes are usually made from square-profile aluminium or titanium. They tend to be relatively short, since they’re designed for hard ground, when it’s difficult to drive in longer pegs. They also work well in stony ground, as their thin diameter can work its way between buried stones. As long as the soil is firm enough, they rarely work loose and don’t bend easily.
However, they can be tricky to extract, because most designs have only a small lip or hook at the top. If you’re struggling, use another peg or the loop of a guy line to pull them out. As with nails and pins, be careful that the guy line doesn’t slacken and slip off. Looping the guyline twice around the shaft can help – alternatively, Nemo Airpins use a clever wraparound design that solves this problem.
These pegs are popular with backpackers as they are light and compact yet very versatile, offering decent holding power in multiple different types of soils, ranging from soft to firm. The V-shaped profile is designed to increase their overall surface area without adding too much weight.
The original versions were made by DAC, an aluminium manufacturer, and designed by company founder Jake Lah (in fact, some people call them J-stakes after him). However, many brands make similar types, including Kelty Feather Stakes and Sierra Designs V-stakes (both of which come pre-fitted with handy pull loops).
The main disadvantage of V-stakes is that they bend easily if you try to push or hammer them into ground that is too rocky or stony. Failures are especially common at the head, which is the weakest point.
As their name suggests, Y stakes or Y-beams have a Y-shaped cross-section, offering even greater surface area (and therefore holding power) than V-stakes with only minimal extra weight. This makes them great all-rounders, and they’re probably now the most popular type of tent peg for backpacking and wild camping. You can get by with these in most parts of the UK.
They work well in both soft and firm ground and are pretty robust – though aluminium Y-beams will bend or break if repeatedly hammered in with rocks. As with V-stakes, the head tends to be the weakest point. They can be difficult to get into rocky soil though, as they are often too thick to find their way between buried stones.
Y-beams come in multiple different lengths, and the basic design is offered by most of the big tent brands, though they’re not quite identical. For example, the highly regarded MSR Groundhog (and the shorter, lighter Mini Groundhog) have slightly curved and tapered flanges to improve overall holding power. They are thicker, stiffer, and stronger than cheaper alternatives too.
Sea to Summit’s Ground Control stakes are another good example of the Y-beam design. These have three handy notches for guy lines, which are useful to reduce leverage in firm soils where you can’t push them all the way in. They’re only notched on one of the three flanges though, so make sure you orient them correctly before driving them into the soil.
The Sierra Designs FL-stake is a simpler version of the same basic design. They’re good value but are made from high-grade 7001-series aluminium alloy and have integrated pull loops.
An evolution of the Y-beam design, these pegs have an extra flange to create an X or cross shape in profile. They have similar characteristics to Y-beam stakes with an even greater surface area. In turn, this means they can be made shorter and lighter while delivering equivalent holding power. However, one drawback is that the chunky X-shape seems to disturb more soil on insertion than less complex shapes, which potentially reduces holding power, especially in soft, sandy, and loose substrates.
This is perhaps why the design hasn’t yet caught on among many of the big outdoor brands, although Vaude makes an aluminium version (15cm long, 10g each), while Swiss Piranha makes innovative plastic versions in varying lengths, weights, and diameters. They’re very lightweight and a lot stronger than they look, but we wouldn’t rely on them in all conditions/locations.
US backpacking brand Big Agnes has built a stellar reputation in recent years for its forward-thinking, innovative approach to lightweight outdoor gear. Its patent-pending I-beam Dirt Daggers are no exception, offering a unique take on tent stakes. The aim, just like the V-, Y-, and X-beam designs that came before them, is to maximise each peg’s overall strength-to-weight ratio.
The I-beam profile is inspired by the cross-section of a steel girder. As that suggests, they’re very strong and extremely resistant to bending, while providing a large, wide surface area for excellent holding power in mixed terrain, from hard rock to soft mud. The end is tapered to sink more easily into the ground. It’s an intriguing concept – particularly since they only weigh 9g each.
Tube stakes are made of either hollow aluminium, carbon fibre, or composite material with a flattened head cap and a pointed tip. They’re not so common in the UK but are popular with thru-hikers in the US, where they were first developed by the brand Easton (hence their alternative name).
As they have quite a thick cross-section, they are very resistant to bending, though better suited to soft or firm rather than hard ground. Carbon-fibre versions are extremely stiff and strong but also brittle (as well as expensive), so don’t try to hammer them into hard ground! Still, aluminium tube stakes can handle tougher soils than most shepherd’s hooks. They also offer similar holding power to V-stakes of comparable length.
Since they lack a hook at the top, tube stakes should be angled sufficiently so that the guy line doesn’t slip off, which can happen if the line becomes slack. Looping the guyline twice around the shaft can help.
Designed in Britain, the patented Delta Ground Anchor is another unique type of peg that merits mention. The unusual offset shape increases overall surface area for resistance yet also adds a remote point of attachment to minimise the risk of the peg levering out of the soil. The basic principle is similar to that of a deadman anchor as used in climbing.
The lightest versions are made from engineered thermoplastic, though they still weigh a comparatively hefty 49g each. However, they’re particularly effective in soft, shallow turf over hard bedrock – exactly the sort of ground you often find in UK uplands. This stuff is often problematic, as pegs long enough to hold well in the spongy turf typically hit solid rock before you can get them all the way in. This makes secure placement tricky, especially when wild camping or backpacking along Britain’s more remote and challenging long-distance trails.
It's perhaps no surprise that Delta pegs have thus become popular with many UK backpackers, though due to their weight and bulk, they tend to carry no more than three or four, for use at critical pegging points.
Very much a specialist type of tent peg, these stakes are designed for use in snow, sand, and other very loose substrates. They have a long, wide shape with a large concave surface area; most also have punched holes to reduce weight and enable attachment of guy lines below the surface to further increase overall holding power. In extreme cases, it’s even possible to completely bury these stakes, just like a deadman anchor. You won’t generally need them unless you do a lot of winter camping in deep snow (e.g. somewhere like the Cairngorms) or perhaps if you’re planning to beach camp on a multi-day coastal walk or sea kayaking trip.
An alternative to traditional sand/snow stakes are Kelty Sand Bags, which secure and stabilise your tent. These zippered triangular bags are made from high-denier polyester and can be filled with up to 20lbs (9kg) of weight in the form of ballast such as sand, rocks, or snow. They work particularly well for beach camping or when you need to pitch on hard-standing or a wooden tent platform.
It’s important to insert tent pegs correctly to maximise their holding power.
When pegging out your footprint, tent inner, or flysheet, position each peg diagonally away from corners or in line with the seams of the fabric.
When pegging out guy lines, most tent manufacturers recommend making your lines as long as practicable. The flatter the angle of the guy line to the ground, the more force is being transferred to soil-to-soil friction (which is what keeps the peg in the ground).
General advice is to angle pegs about 45 degrees away from the direction of pull – though in our experience, different types tend to work better at different angles. Tent pegs that lack a guy line notch or hook (e.g. nails, pins, and tube stakes) all need to be angled sufficiently to prevent the guy line from slipping off, which can happen if the line slackens over time (as can happen in gusty conditions).
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