Noob Tent Peg Question

[Rich3rd]

Might be a silly question, but how do you bash your tent pegs in, especially in hard/stony ground, in the Chilterns, there's very little stone (apart from bits of flint) and fallen wood is often to soft? (I've got some alloy V shaped pegs). Ta.

[Zippy]

Ensure you maintain axial load when bashing no matter what

[Moder-dye]

Rightly or wrongly I wiggle in with my hands then push home with my foot. If the grounds very soft or location exposed I'll hunt for some decent rocks to put over the pegs.

No fancy pegs just a random selection of plain, v and y pegs from over the years.

[Bearbonesnorm]

You really shouldn't be banging them in - they will bend, break and snap.

Rather than searching for a rock, you might be better looking for a peg that's better suited to your general conditions. As you've discovered, V shaped pegs are often difficult to get into hard ground, you'd probably be much better with a thinner, round peg.

If you don't want to change pegs, you could carry a single, round nail peg and use that to 'pilot' the holes for the V pegs.

[Ben98]

The cleat on the sole of my shoe, either with it on my foot, or if it's really hard ground then take it off and use it as a hammer.

[HaYWiRe]

I usually just push in by hand so far then use my foot for the rest, no stomping, just steadily putting my weight down till it sinks in.

Having a selection of pegs help too for different terrain. I mostly use TI DAC V shape pegs (that's a mouthful) for general points, with alloy Y shape for more weight bearing points like tarp poles as they hold better.

If it's colder (frozen ground) or very wet (soft muddy ground) I use steel V pegs, military issue no less. Heavy as S**t but will hold in anything and can take a beating, don't get much use but never failed me.

I find if you need to hammer in a peg, the ground is hard enough to break the peg.

[PaulE]

As haywire said, use body weight but gently.

Don't do what I caught one of my Duke of Edinburgh groups about to do which was trying to use (a borrowed) trangia pan as a mallet!!

[Rich3rd]

Cheers for the tips, I think carrying a mix of peg types sounds like a good plan.

[duncdan]

they bend a bit sometimes even pushing in by hand but i like the cheap alloy nail pegs on ebay:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/4Pcs-Aluminiu ... rkt%3D1%26