Sand Pegs

[Stew]

I heading off to fraser island in a couple of weeks and went to the local camp shop on the weekend to get some sand pegs for the tent.

After looking at the selection available I walked out not knowing what to get. They had everything from 2 foot long monster pegs to smaller pegs around 25 cm long. They were all different sizes and shapes.

My question is, what do you use and how good are they. I will be using mine to hold down a tent similar to the tent shown below.

http://www.kangarootentcity.com.au/welcome/images/SportivaOdysseyDome.jpg

[01Rod]

The ones about 25cm long will be fine.

you only need the big ones if your trying to hold a tarp and camping directly in the wind on the beach.

Rod

[Stew]

I am planning to do beach camping while on the island so do you think I will need the bigger ones. Never been to fraser before so don't know how much, if any, wind protect there is and I have heard that the wind can get very strong.

[BEU77Y]

I made some out of 25mm angle iron, with a bit of 10mm bar welded to the top to hit. 400mm long.
Only used them a few times but on the beach at the Cape they kept my 9' canvas tent solid for a week.

[Walt]

Yeh i use bits of star picket cut up into about 12inches long and sharpened on one end, with a bit of rod bent into a bow for the ropes weled onto the top. However i use them to hold down my canvas tarp, so they are probably overkill for a tent, as sometimes they can be a buggar to get out.

[Big Boots]

The ones about 25cm long will be fine.

you only need the big ones if your trying to hold a tarp and camping directly in the wind on the beach.

Rod

X 2 Its all I've ever used, and that includes storms

Have fun and take some pics for us :thumb:

[Chester]

Go the shorter ones Stew as you have to go back a bit to camp and the ground is pretty solid we actually only used the plastic ones did the job but glad i took extras as the ground was hard and snapped a few

[Jeeps]

On Fraser, i use the normal steel pegs that come with the tent for my dome tent. It's usually placed on a grassy area, even on the beach camping spots. I use largish black sand pegs for my tarp setup, with springs and ridge poles as it catches the wind.

[Muckinhell]

I have a couple of the bigger ones, enoupgh for one length of one side, just incase it does blow up you can always replace the smaller ones with the bigger ones along the side into the wind. and in future if you get a tarp or something you are half way there with the appropriate pegs for it too.

[Sea-Dog]

I bought a couple of the shorter pegs and they are useless for the camping I do..

Basically if I am in sand the pegs that are around 400mm are a must.. if you are on dirt then it really doesn't matter that much.

You may only have the dome tent at the moment but as with most of us the collection of camping gear grows and evolves so before too long you will see a nice tarp setup and want to do the same.. no point buying the pegs twice!

I have found that the shorter pegs work their way loose pretty easily and the only thing that I really use them for now is pegging down the pop up toilet tent.

As a bit of a side note: if you do get the longer pegs don't try to pull them out with a hammer or by hand as you are going to hurt your back.. use a shovel and dig in behind the peg and simply lever them out.. easy as!

My 2 cents worth anyway, I am sure you will get plenty of advice to the contrary!

Cheers

[cruiserx2]

At the beach we use screw in pegs in the soft sand. Take along the cordless drill to put them in and take them out. In strong winds they will stay. During a storm once even had the tarp rip but the pegs stayed in the ground.

[Tough GQ]

We use 300mm plastic sand pegs on fraser, never had a problem (been is some decent winds too. I find the best place to get them is Super Cheap, they have packs of 6 for about 8 bucks from memory.
We also keep long steel pegs for when we encounted harder ground, but you wont find much on fraser, unless you stay a central station.

[rumpig]

hey stew,
here's a collection of the sand pegs i use on fraser. the black plastic one is about 225mm long and i used it on my old dome tent without a problem. my old tent and fly had about 36 pegs to hold it down so they add up when you need a few.
the steel pegs we use for bigger things like tarps and the carport we take with us. these are the best pegs we have ever used in sand and work even at over 30 knott winds on fraser, trust us on this one as we had 30 knott winds for a week once on the beach there. the skinny ones are about 300mm long and 20 mm wide and the bigger ones are about 350mm long and 40mm wide, both are about 2mm thick roughly and stack flat hard against each other.
make sure you have something under your tent poles to stop them sinking in the sand, a flat piece of timber / ply works fine about 100mm x 100mm sqaure.

[Tojo_Patto]

G'day Stew,
Mate try those new Wombat screw in pegs they are supposed to be very good, you'd probably be able to get away with just one on each corner. They are supposed to be good enough to anchor a boat so they'd hold down the old tent.

[Bumpy]

Hey STEW, I've been going there for the last 20+ years. For the last 5 we have had a 24'x18' marqee. I use normal round pegs (10mm diameter x 300 long) for all of the poles except the 4 corners which are triangular plastic about 400 long (look at the photos posted above). For your tent I would go just the round pegs. No problems. Make yourself a "MEATHOOK" to pull them out with. Much easier. Have fun.

[chikoroll]

if the wind is strong enough to need the large pegs, then your tent better have cost more than $400 or you can guarantee the anchor points will tear off, or the structural rods will snap... (victim of tightwad tents at easter)
...the tent was holding up fine, everyone elses were falling over... then the rods snapped and down she went...

[pure_evil]

the best and simplest is to get steel angel drill a hole in it put a ring in it like the ones on your keys then cabel ty it to the tent easy

[wishnIwozfishn]

We take heavy duty plastic bags and cable ties to some beach locations in the south west as our normal long plastic sand pegs don't cut it. We just 2/3 fill the bags with sand (about 10-15kg), cable tie them closed and place them in the inside corners of the tent. Works a treat. Also use them on the outside with additional cable tie to from a loop for the guy ropes to attach to.

[Big_Waity]

Because Sand pegs are rediculously expensive for what they are, I went to bunnind and bought some really small star pickets. They are about 25cm long and were pretty cheap(bought a pack of 20 for about 20 bucks from memory). They work great!