Shelter stakes for hard dirt with rocks?

[BrushyHillGuide]

What light(er) weight stakes would be best for hard packed dirt with lots of rocks? Here in South Texas the soil often has clay in it and there are rocks in ALL of it. I need something that’ll go into soil with old river rock mixed in and is occasionally like concrete. Lol! I’m mainly looking at MSR stakes and I’m definitely going to try some mini Groundhogs. What other ones should I look at? Possibly their Needle stakes? I think the Cyclones are too long - if I drove them in I may never get them back! Lol!


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[Owenst7]

The ground hawgs are the most bend-resistant stakes I've used.

Usually in those conditions, I just tie off to a rock/pile of rocks/stick+rocks/brush.

 

[Napperm4]

I’ve used groundhogs, minis and needle stakes from msr.

In my experience avoid the needles they all bent on the first use. Just by me stepping on them.

I picked up some Vargo Ti nails this winter and have been loving them for frozen/ gravely hard ground.

Another option I’ve used in the past is aluminum gutter stakes from Home Depot. Hard to find up here now for some reason but light, strong, cheap and doesn’t hurt my feelings if I did bend or lose one.


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[jmden]

Sometimes big nails from the hardware store are the best bet for really nasty/rock soil. The steel will handle the poundiing and pulling better that 7075-T6 aluminum. I've used most of the stakes mentioned and don't believe any of them are designed to be used in truly hard/clay/rocky soil. Might be less money and few extra ounces, but less frustration just to use big nails. I have some 8 and 10 inchers I use with a family camping tent and have used them many times where if I tried a high end MSR stake, I would've just broken the MSR stake while the 10" pounds in with no complaints. Just a thought.

 

[BrushyHillGuide]

I’ve used groundhogs, minis and needle stakes from msr.

In my experience avoid the needles they all bent on the first use. Just by me stepping on them.

I picked up some Vargo Ti nails this winter and have been loving them for frozen/ gravely hard ground.

Another option I’ve used in the past is aluminum gutter stakes from Home Depot. Hard to find up here now for some reason but light, strong, cheap and doesn’t hurt my feelings if I did bend or lose one.

Sometimes big nails from the hardware store are the best bet for really nasty/rock soil. The steel will handle the poundiing and pulling better that 7075-T6 aluminum. I've used most of the stakes mentioned and don't believe any of them are designed to be used in truly hard/clay/rocky soil. Might be less money and few extra ounces, but less frustration just to use big nails. I have some 8 and 10 inchers I use with a family camping tent and have used them many times where if I tried a high end MSR stake, I would've just broken the MSR stake while the 10" pounds in with no complaints. Just a thought.

I’m going to order a couple of the Vargo Ti nails and a set of SO Ti stakes and see how they do next to the groundhogs. I’ve got some giant nails around the barn that I can use if worse comes to worse. Thanks for the advice!


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[Beendare]

I have used the Vargos- good, and a bunch of others....

But in really hard rocky ground, I've had trouble with all of them. While backpacking if its hard ground there are usually boulder about you can use as an earth anchor to help hold even the loosest stakes.

For camping on the road where weight isn't a factor, I've taken to using 1/2" rebar cut 16" [I use it a lot at work] and even then there are some spots you just cannot drive a dang stake!

 

[the0thermrt]

If the ground is really rocky I can usually find some bigguns to stack over my stake used like a toggle. Stack those rocks and zen out.

 

[Owenst7]

If the ground is really rocky I can usually find some bigguns to stack over my stake used like a toggle. Stack those rocks and zen out.

That's what we had to do here yesterday. We got a late start and didn't hit the summit until pretty late and were starving and cold. I had my MS Mountain Shelter since we stayed the previous night at 9k', so I threw that up real fast so we would have some shelter from the wind. It was gusting pretty good, but I piled some boulders on my guylines in front of the stakes and it held for the ~30mins or so we needed to make some coffee and rehydrate some stew.

Would've dropped down below the summit for some shelter from the wind, but the snow conditions didn't really offer a flat area that was safe until we were about 30 minutes down from the top.

 

[boom]

all bets are off if i'm car camping.

i have used 40d nails. they are damn near spikes at that point. we use them as survey markers in the field. you can hammer them into almost anything.