I'm a self confessed pegaholic. It is sad but true! I have about 7 or 8 different types and 3 different types of peg extractor. What is wrong with me?!
Anyway, we see lots and lots on these forums about various pegs and their benefits. I thought I'd put on a list of priorities for anybody who is starting out with bog standard pegs and wants to upgrade.
This is just my opinion, based on over 30 years of camping in all sorts of different tents of different sizes, materials and weights as well as in conditions more varied than Michael Fish would be able to describe!
I believe the 1 to 5 below is a fair suggestion of what order to upgrade in should you so wish.
1) Standard alloy hook or alloy v-peg that comes with the tent. You can bundle the blue Outwell pegs here too.
Contrary to what you will read in some posts, these will not fail as soon as you get them out of the bag and show them your tent. In nice soil (ie not rocky, hard or muddy) they will actually do an ok job provided the wind doesn't pick up too much. You CAN go camping with just these pegs and come back with a tent in one piece. Certainly away from the coast and on low ground they can be adequate for a lifetime.
The first thing that is likely to annoy you about these pegs is not their inability to hold your tent down in a stiff breeze but the fact that they bend and buckle at the first sight of a stone or hard ground. You will throw away plenty of them!
2) Rock pegs
Various types available but the gist is that they are longer, thicker and much more sturdy than a standard peg. They also have a sharpened tip that allows them to pass through hard ground and break up small rocks. They are banged in with a hammer or screwed in. Think 8" nail with a peg top. These pegs are a great workhorse and as well as being great in hard ground are better in soft ground than standard pegs because of their greater cross section area and length.
Speaking of cross section...
3) Nylon Delta Ground Anchor
A fine invention that exploits some nifty mechanics to give an incredibly high strength to weight and size ratio. These are the entry level of their type and what I suspect most people use. There are many, many posts about these pegs on here. Some people will suggest that a tent will blow away in anything over a 10 knot breeze unless you use these- not true! And I'm sure their inventor Rob will back me up on that. I survived for over 25 years without them and never lost a stitch to high winds. You can achieve a lot with double and triple pegging. What these pegs do give you is peace of mind and simplicity. You can use them in soft and reasonably hard ground and they will allow your tent to be battered by wind without the peg failing. The downside is that being plastic they don't like very hard or stoney ground.
4) Steel Delta Rock Pegs
The ultimate peg? Possibly! All the advantages of a rock peg with the mechanical advantage of a Delta. I can't really see a downside to these pegs for guy-lines.
5) Speciality Pegs
This is really to cover specific requirements and conditions. From five-gram carbon fibre pegs for the backpacker, to shovel shaped pegs for snow and sand. You would really only buy these if you had to for conditions you could class as extreme and not what an average family camper would use.
Now I know this list is far from exhausted. I haven't covered Y pegs for example that are fantastic. Hand made wooden pegs aren't covered either, but again they have their uses.
What I've tried to do is help get rid of some of the confusion that surrounds the most common choices.
My conclusions-
Don't feel like you have to replace all of your pegs in one go because of what you read on this forum. Standard pegs can work just fine.
Rock pegs are great all-rounders and prevent swearing when pitching a tent!
Deltas are clever and great in high winds or where high winds could occur without warning. We did survive without them though, it was just more difficult.
A very considered, ballanced and well-expressed article. Well done. Worthy of being pinned to the top of the listings.
Soon after I joined this forum I started a thread asking members' opinions on Y-pegs......and got no replies what-so-ever. What benefits to you consider they have over, say, a good set of V-pegs? My main concern with the ones I have is that the edges around which the guy rope is positioned are a little sharp and may cause abrasion and fraying on the guys over time.
Rossco: Idaho XL - nice tent! For me it is the one that got away. I love the idea of the corridor for each bedroom, but alas the purchase was blocked by DW
The Y peg would just have more strength than a V peg without adding a significant amount of weight. Not much more too it really.
Most V pegs can be bent by hand with the ridge outermost. Unfortunately that is also the orientation they are designed to be used in! Even just by looking at them you can see they are fairly weak. Try doing that to a Y peg and you will just get sore hands.
I don't actually own a tent now where they would really be used, because the benefit is in the weight. I'm either using a 30kg or 40kg tent, so gram saving isn't an issue. I do have a handful in my box, but I can't justify it at all!
The disadvantage of a Y peg (for those who might be interested!) is that they don't have a 'peg top' so can only be used for guys and not pinning down groundsheets etc.
As for being sharp, I'd be worried too. I've not come across that and you are right that it could definitely cause a problem over time. Not sure how you could fix it really. You could try filing them down a bit, but it might just make it worse.
That was a great read....if you asked me the same two years ago I would have laughed at my comment.
As a matter of interest I have rock pegs for all my guy ropes but still use standards for my pin to pole is that the only option as I find rock pegs are a bit heavy for that job.
------------- It's better to ask a silly question than make a silly mistake.
Reggiewac - from someone very new with very little knowledge of camping ( 4 times about 20 years ago), a great article. Makes choosing pegs so much easier now rather than just staring at them with a confused expression stuck on my face!
------------- Jewelsm - a fair weather camper
August 2013, 14, 15, 16 & 17-Trevornick for two and a half weeks of sea and surf (and ever optimistic -lots of sun). Some other weekends if I can persuade DH
youlbury - That's a very topical question as it happens! I've been using standard pegs that I've collected over the years for the pin-ring and chucking them in the recycling as and when they bent. I agree that rock pegs are a bit OTT for that job and they are also a right pain to get out when vertical.
Today I ordered some traditional hook pegs from the same guy who makes the Deltas.
Quote: Originally posted by reggiewac on 21/6/2011
youlbury - That's a very topical question as it happens! I've been using standard pegs that I've collected over the years for the pin-ring and chucking them in the recycling as and when they bent. I agree that rock pegs are a bit OTT for that job and they are also a right pain to get out when vertical.
Today I ordered some traditional hook pegs from the same guy who makes the Deltas.
I would like to add that the stainless steel traditional hook pegs from Delta pegs are much stronger than those that are supplied with tents/canopies/windbreaks. I have not lost one of those yet.
I use them to secure the tent in position, e.g. at the ring and pin joint, sides of the tent etc. where there is no guy ropes.
In addition, I favour angle steel pegs, mainly the 9in ones (6in version is also available, more difficult to get hold of via the web), available from the likes of Ronnie Sunshies):
I use these for all non-main guys, all the additional storm guys when needed (8 in all), and 4 out of 8 of the guys for the 4-pole windbreak.
These can still bend against really hard grounds though.
DK
------------- Apple The Campervan - A Van For Work, Rest & Play!
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* Ex-tenter
* Treat life events like a dog: if you can't eat it, play with it or hump it, p1$$ on it and walk away!
reggiwac - Idaho XL - agreed, great tent! If only they could make it in polycotton, it would be the biz.
Thought we'd buy some spare poles this year - just in case - and managed to get a complete set on fleabay for £5.55 from only 18 miles away so no postage!!!!!
Maybe I could afford to buy a dozen or so Deltas with the money I saved...........
1 Going back to the what I call skewer type bent metal bar tent pegs supplied as standard by lots of tents these should be driven fully into the ground so the bent over is in the ground to prevent them turning in windy conditions and releasing the guy rope. Ive seen this happen quite a few times. These are not ideal for soft ground as they are thin and can pull through the ground quite easily.
2 Plastic and V pegs I find better for soft ground as they are wider and dont pull through the ground so easily.
3 We were always taught to drive the peg into the ground at a 45 degree angle away from the tent to help prevent it either lifting out or pulling forward and releasing the guy ropes.
4 Guy ropes this is also a factor in how well a peg performs. We were always taught to have the angle of the guy rope from the peg to the tent at a 45 degree angle or less as this offer the strongest anchor and reduced the chances of the peg lifting. The shorter the guy rope the steeper the angle the more chance the peg has of pulling out
------------- Experience enables you to recognize a mistake when you make it again.
Everything has been said before, but since nobody ever listens we have to keep going back and saying it all over again and again and again
Just to add a peg to the collection (apologies if I've missed it in someone else's reply): T bar rock pegs.
Just added some of these for the ring and pin pegging points as increasingly adding large heavy duty washers as replacement tops for the traditional rock pegs, which do all the tent base pegging points. The washers won't work with the poles and the T bar has better leverage for getting the rock pegs out when there are poles in the way. No one is going to stand on the pegs here either so the protuding top isn't an issue. Its nylon deltas (or washer topped rock pegs if the ground is too hard) for the guyropes.
Tend to use the traditional hook pegs only if run out of others (always keep the pegs the tent came with in the tent bag just in case we ever forgot the peg bags), to help pull pegs out and with the hook compressed a bit to help feed guyropes through our Glow worms - which go on every guyrope (wouldn't be without these now!).
------------- Love our set-up and need no more tents or gear, so trying to stop looking!
Re pegs ...
When camping in the Picos de Europa four years ago ... very rocky ground ... found most of my stock of pegs were buckling (or worse! ... the plastic jobs supplied with the pennine outfit were useless) ... went to a local hardware shop and they sold me some traditional looking pegs, about eight inches long, steel, and the thickness of an eight in nail, with a very sharp point ... home made .... but have done hard ground perfectly since.
If you're in an area that supports a lot of camping (or campsites) and has particularly challenging conditions, you can bet that some local business has spotted the gap in the market and will provide an adequate solution ... and often very cheaply!
A day of all things motorhome and campervan. The show is held both in the main indoor arena and across the grounds. Catering, hot drinks and food options are available. Easy access to the site and free parking included. Win one of five pairs of day tickets
Topic: Peg Priorities
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