Removing Easton’s from hard ground.

oreocereus

oreocereus

Thru Hiker
Stayed at a barren hard ground campsite for a few nights where I had to really work to get the stakes in. It rained a lot overnight and the next day was quite hot cementing the stakes in.

I lost not one, but two Easton heads (out of six Easton stakes) getting them out of the ground.
It hasn’t happened to me before, but the fear was one of the reasons I was hesitant to switch from mini groundhogs.

In any case, any tips on removing Easton’s from hard ground without losing the tips?
 
Shewie

Shewie

Chief Slackpacker
Staff member
I’ve poured a pan of hot water over stuck Easton’s in frozen ground
 
William.K

William.K

Ultralighter
You can use something like a Vargo ti nail peg to make holes around the Easton shaft. It gives you some side to side play which helps to work them up/out.
 
craige

craige

Thru Hiker
Yeah, I'd really hammered the stake into the ground, it was pretty rocky. Took Arne and I a lot of work both digging around it and wiggling it to eventually get the shaft out. I have been using eastons a good while now and it's my first failure.
 
H

Hd8ekownio24ugh5

Thru Hiker
Keep tapping it from all sides with a light rock heavy stick branch perhaps. As a small hole appears pour some water in. Let it sit a while pull on it in a circular motion and hope for the best.
 
Odd Man

Odd Man

Thru Hiker
Piiber Teravhammas said:
I have lost a few mini groundhogs in cold weather. They just broke in half. Yet to find a perfect tent stake for cold weather.
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When I lived in Finland and the car locks would freeze occasionally, you'd use a little gadget that had a slide out metal spike which was heated by a battery. The metal would heat up and melt the ice inside the lock. Maybe just use a gas stove like a blow torch to heat up the pegs, or run couple of wires from power bank to heat it up. :D
 
Piiber Teravhammas

Piiber Teravhammas

Trail Blazer
For car locks there is silicone oil. All those ideas are not really ultralight :)
I have made dead man's anchors when the ground is too hard. And here is another problem/question - the best freestanding tent for winter?? My Khafra and Smd Lunar Solo are too dependent on initial 2-3 stakes, later on it gets easier but it is still troublesome. My friend with Hubba NX always beats me to set up a tent when the ground is solid...
 
oreocereus

oreocereus

Thru Hiker
Water In the hole and more patient wiggling sounds like the go.

I’d heard of the heads coming off issue, but largely gathered it was pretty rare. Didn’t expect it to happen twice in a couple of minutes!

Yes the big sky stakes appeal to me too, but, until I have run out of other stakes there’s no good reason to buy more new *stuff*
 
Odd Man

Odd Man

Thru Hiker
Well, I have no specialist pegs and while I'm waiting for my X-mid, I just pulled the trigger on Big Sky Tube 8" ones. It'll be about 2-3 weeks till they get here.
 
H

Hd8ekownio24ugh5

Thru Hiker
oreocereus said:
Water In the hole and more patient wiggling sounds like the go.

I’d heard of the heads coming off issue, but largely gathered it was pretty rare. Didn’t expect it to happen twice in a couple of minutes!

Yes the big sky stakes appeal to me too, but, until I have run out of other stakes there’s no good reason to buy more new *stuff*
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Did you have the newer model? Apparently ones made a few years back were more prone to breaking-head coming off. Locus Gear sells the latest model and post is cheap, should you decide to bust out the wallet.
 
oreocereus

oreocereus

Thru Hiker
Possibly older set? One set from a second hand tent purchase (likely the old version) mixed with a few I purchased in the Pyrenees last year after apparently only packing half my groundhogs up one morning :banghead: unsure if they’re the newer ones? 6”, silver with orange heads.
 
H

Hd8ekownio24ugh5

Thru Hiker
oreocereus said:
Possibly older set? One set from a second hand tent purchase (likely the old version) mixed with a few I purchased in the Pyrenees last year after apparently only packing half my groundhogs up one morning :banghead: unsure if they’re the newer ones? 6”, silver with orange heads.
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I think they are now blue? I bought 3 golds from LG. Cheapest with postage to Oz I found. Break one of theirs and I reckon they'd reimburse you if it was genuine.Not sure why the golds are black there -would be far easier to lose? Pulled them out of very hard rocky soil etc no issue.
 
Odd Man

Odd Man

Thru Hiker
Came across this from Sectionhiker.com

But there’s a key difference the Big Sky Tube Steaks and the Easton Aluminum Nano Stakes and that is the design of the cord pull. The cord on a Tube Steak runs through a hole in the aluminum tube itself, while the cord on an Easton Nano runs through a metal cap attached to the head of the aluminum tube. That matters, because the heads of the Easton tent stakes have a history of coming off occasionally, making it often impossible to get the rest of the stake out of the ground. This is a real pain in the ass if you get into the habit of only bringing the minimum number of tent stakes that you need. I’ve had it happen to me multiple times, which is why I avoid these Easton stakes or bring a few extras along on multi-day trips.
The heads of the Easton Nano Stakes don’t come off predictably or reliably and no one is sure exactly why some stakes fail and others don’t. But it stands to reason that if you make a two-piece stake with a cap and tube, and run the cord through the cap, it’s going to pop off sooner or later. I’ve never had the same problem with the Tube Steaks that come with Big Sky’s tents (also sold separately) since the cord runs through the tube and not the cap. These are the stakes I carry when I need the extra holding power of a long stake and the reliability of a stake that won’t fail. The long Big Sky stakes (10 g) are also slightly lighter than the Easton Nano Aluminum states (12 g), measured without the cords.

https://sectionhiker.com/big-sky-tube-steak-al-tent-stakes-review/
 
Charlie83

Charlie83

Thru Hiker
Franco Darioli said:
Try tapping the top as when inserting then some gentle kiks on the protruding part . That should do it.
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I use the "just boot it" method (heel usually), never bent any and loosens them enough to get out.

Did have a couple of end caps pull off a few years back, but always managed to get them out and push the cap on again, haven't had any dramas for a couple of years, couldn't even identify what ones the caps came off

Have seen somewhere that folk have added a dod of araldite under the caps to secure them more
 
JKM

JKM

Thru Hiker
I guess every now and then you loose a peg, such is life.

I tend to massively overpack on pegs, packing my fears I guess. I only need 8 pegs but tend to carry 8 x gold eastons, 2 x groundhogs, 2 x hilleberg gold DAC, 4 X 150x5mm Ti nails and possibly a couple more eastons as well. If I knew my camp areas better I would probably cut back on variety but there is no way I would go out without a few spares.
There have been windy nights when I have used every single one of them, usually by attaching them together with a 10cm loop and then putting a rock between them.

Sometimes I think some of the extra cheap AliExpress v pegs would be useful as basically being disposable as they could be hammered flat and jammed an a rocky crack like an old piton, probably overkill though.
 
oreocereus

oreocereus

Thru Hiker
That’s a lot of stakes! There’s been nowhere I’ve not manage to persuade groundhogs into the ground (them being so strong you can really go to town pounding them in) and be Easton’s are easier. I have a couple of thin ti Sheppard hooks which I sometimes use for my bivvy, but can also be used on a point or two that’s difficult to get a bigger peg in.

So I need 6 pegs in total, 8 for a storm pitch. So I carry 6 Easton’s, 2 groundhogs (for windwars guyouts if the weather is rough/generally a spare if I lose another) and a 2 ti Sheppard hooks. So I have 4 more than I strictly need, covers a lot of purposes, and even if I lost any two I’d feel confident of pitch with the others in a storm (load them with rocks either way).
 
H

Hd8ekownio24ugh5

Thru Hiker
Broke a ground hog at the top and had to dig it out. Went back to exactly the same spot with the new Eastons a while later biffed it in splitting the layer of rock directly under about 3 cms dirt, worked well came and out easy with the bump and wiggle. Will pick up a couple of BSs when next in the big horrible city. BPL in Melb. Know it @oreocereus ?
 
oreocereus

oreocereus

Thru Hiker
Wow, I’ve abused my groundhogs far worse than any other stake and they’ve held up fine. Must’ve taken some force to break one?

The only time I went to Aus was when my parents decided we should have at least one family holiday in our lives and wanted to take advantage of child fares on airlines!
 
Taz38

Taz38

Thru Hiker
Hammered one of my msr stakes into a root, was a right b@gger to get out, took ages of "skilful" tapping with a rock to get it out.
Not used the easton type pegs yet, quite happy with my msr nail pegs (and cheap copies) and msr hook stakes (heavier but easier to hook several guy-lines/shockcord over, and you can put your foot on them safely).
The only peg I've broken was a cheap one that came with the ali tent.
 
H

Hd8ekownio24ugh5

Thru Hiker
oreocereus said:
Wow, I’ve abused my groundhogs far worse than any other stake and they’ve held up fine. Must’ve taken some force to break one?

The only time I went to Aus was when my parents decided we should have at least one family holiday in our lives and wanted to take advantage of child fares on airlines!
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I was caressing it with a rock. Pretty firmly mind you. Pretty good shop BPL.
 
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