WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT TENT PEGS

What you need to know about tent pegs is that they are the anchors of your whole camping setup.

History of tent pegs

A tent peg or stake is a sharp spike used to anchor a tent to the ground. It usually has a hook or hole at the top which is used to tie a rope to and which stops the tent or guy rope from slipping off the peg.

Traditional tent pegs are cut from tree branches with a side branch to form a hook and sharpened on the thinner side. Tent pegs keep the tent in shape and hold it in place against the wind.

Tent pegs were invented in the 4th century BC to anchor tent structures to the ground. Tents were used by armies on the move as temporary shelters that could easily be erected or pitched. Opposing forces often initiated an attack by riding through the enemy’s camp and dislodging their tent pegs. As the tents collapsed on the enemy soldiers a full-scale attack by foot soldiers could be launched while the attacked soldiers were still trying to get out from under their collapsed tents. That is where the sport of tent-pegging originated.

Types of tent pegs

Tent pegs come in a variety of shapes, sizes, and materials.

Modern tent pegs are mainly made from steel, aluminium, or plastic. It comes in different shapes and sizes according to the purpose of the peg.

The type of tent peg to be used depends on the weight of the tent and the type of soil it must be anchored to. Tent peg length is important depending on the type of ground where you camp. Longer tent pegs are used for sandy soil while shorter tent pegs are used in solid or hard ground.

The weight of the tent, often dictated by its size, also indicates the required tent peg to be used. Heavy tents will need stronger and heavier tent pegs while smaller, lighter tents require lighter pegs.

Weather conditions are important because light tent pegs will not be able to withstand strong winds with heavy wind loads on the tent.

While modern tent pegs are mainly made from hardened plastic or aluminium, the best affordable material for tent pegs that must last long and have a low failure rate, is steel. Maxcon tent pegs are made from hardened spring steel which gives them much more strength than other tent peg materials.

Tent pegs could also be manufactured from pressed flat steel, aluminium, titanium alloy, angle iron, polypropylene and ABS plastic. (Wikipedia) Some modern tent pegs have carbon fibre tips. Wooden tent pegs are rarely seen and are usually only used in emergencies such as when campers forget them at home.

V-shaped tent pegs use the flatness of the peg to create anchor reliability. Plastic pegs are usually flat and used in sandy soil and aluminium pegs for use in snow or sand are often buried to create resistance and fight dislodging from the soil or snow.

Tent pegs are anchored at around 45° leaning away from the tent. Maxcon tent pegs are prescribed to be used at 45°. Anchoring them at any other angle increases the risk of dislodging in unexpected weather. That is why Maxcon pegs remain lodged in the ground even if the hole becomes worn out and the peg starts moving in the hole.

Heavy duty and storm tent pegs are usually made longer and from thicker steel, but the invention of the Max-Peg changed that to a large extent. Max pegs are used as part of a whole setup, but the peg in itself need to be accompanied by at least a compression spring and must be driven into the ground deep enough to ensure that the guy rope does not dislodge. With this, Maxcon pegs must be arranged in the correct way to ensure maximum effectivity.

Tent pegs are available in a range of designs:

• Straight tent pegs.
• Groundsheet pegs.
• Anchor pegs also know as the V-anchor or 7-peg.
• Screw pegs are screwed into the soil and are mostly made from hardened plastic.

The future of tent pegs

Tent pegs will continue to become more scientifically designed (as will other camping accessories) as the demands posed by global warming will increase as the weather becomes more unstable and unpredictable.

Pegs can’t just keep getting longer to withstand stronger winds. It will have to be more scientifically designed and more responsibly used to be effective. One aspect of an effective tent peg is the cut of the point or tip which directs the entry of the peg into the ground. To make it affordable most tent pegs are cut from one side which means it has a 45° degree point from one side. That leads to the tent peg going into the ground skew because the 45° cut is made from only one side.

The quality of tent pegs will in future be calculated upon the science on which it is based, and that will in return affect the price.

Maxcon pegs are cut from two sides and form a 45° tip. This ensures that the peg keeps going straight into the ground regardless of how hard the soil is. It creates a stable peg at the required angle for maximum effectivity.

Tent pegs are indispensable if you want to erect stable and weather-resisting tents. It makes sense to get yourself good quality tent pegs that will do what you need to be done and won’t let you down in the midst of a crisis.