Tarp stake alternatives

**pgustaf249** · 10-08-2010, 21:14

Originally Posted by Yosef

I went years without tent stakes, I just tied off to another tree or found a rock. I broke down this year and bought 2 stakes though just to save the time of having to find rocks or deal with a less than ideal set up to save what was really just a few ounces.

So what kind of stakes did you get? I saw some metal ones at Walmart, but they sure felt heavy. They had some plastic ones, but I wondered if they would break easily.

**KerMegan** · 10-10-2010, 07:10

plastic stakes are best for sand- their strength to weight ratio is not worth the energy to carry; and in any setting other than beach need a hammer to drive them in- more weight..YMMV of course...but all my exp with the yellow plastic stakes had been bad. KM
PS- Yes the plastic ones break a lot.

**NickJ** · 10-10-2010, 11:42

if the ground is so hard you cant get a stake in, you can tie the cord to the middle of it, place it on teh ground and just stick a big rock on top of the cord right on the tarp side of the rock. works well.

I use stakes from alpkit here in england an they have several different types - some very hard, sharp ones which are excellent for hard ground. I just whack them in with the back of the axe head.

for snow, same principle as the first paragraphy, but use a big stick and bury it.

**Yosef** · 10-25-2010, 12:16

Originally Posted by pgustaf249

So what kind of stakes did you get? I saw some metal ones at Walmart, but they sure felt heavy. They had some plastic ones, but I wondered if they would break easily.

Sorry for the late reply, I went with MSR ground hog tent stakes, they weigh less than an ounce and were 1.95 each.

http://www.rei.com/product/682543

They work well for me.

**Lonely Raven** · 10-25-2010, 12:17

Originally Posted by Yosef

Sorry for the late reply, I went with MSR ground hog tent stakes, they weigh less than an ounce and were 1.95 each.

http://www.rei.com/product/682543

They work well for me.

Backwoods Daydreamer has some blue groundhog clones on sale, buy 4 get 1 free. I like blue - so I bought 8 and got 10!