Best Tent Pegs 2024 | The Strongest, Lightest And Best Value Stakes For A Secure Tent Pitch - Outdoors Magic

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Best Tent Pegs 2024 | The Strongest, Lightest And Best Value Stakes For A Secure Tent Pitch

Behind every good tent is a reliable tent peg. Here are 8 of the best.

The humble tent peg is the unsung hero of camping. After all, it doesn’t matter how expensive and fully-featured your tent is – if the stakes used to peg it down are flimsy, weak and bend all-too-easily, the stability of your shelter will be compromised. A high-quality, strong, lightweight and robust tent peg is essential, therefore, to a positive camping experience. It’ll keep your tent taut, well-shaped and secure, and contribute to a restful night’s sleep. Here’s what to look out for when shopping for a new set of tent pegs.

Tent Peg Materials 

Modern tents pegs are commonly made from metal, usually aluminium or titanium. Both are light and strong – the perfect combo for a high-performing stake, particularly for long-distance trekking and wild camping. They are however the most expensive option.

Cheaper and heavier stakes are sometimes made from steel, which may provide additional strength and durability for campsite camping, but they’re generally considered too heavy for wild camping. Plastic pegs exist for use on softer ground such as sand or grass, but can be brittle – they may crack, snap or shatter if put under too much pressure.

For the purposes of this round-up, we’re focusing mostly on titanium and aluminium tent pegs, which strike the best balance between weight and strength, and are well-suited to all types of camping. 

Tent Peg Designs 

Tents pegs come in a myriad of different shapes and sizes, with almost innumerable design tweaks and modifications from brand to brand. But there are three main design types: 

  • Wire pegs – the most basic design, with a straight and long shaft topped with a hook
  • Shaped pegs – these pegs often have a V-shaped or Y-shaped design, created to provide a greater surface area for gripping into the ground, as well as easier penetration into soil
  • Specialist pegs – niche products for camping on particular types of ground, such as rock pegs (super-strong, nail-like pegs for hammering into very rocky ground), screw pegs (pegs with a screw-like swirly thread for twisting into hard ground) and snow pegs (very wide, long pegs for anchoring in snow)

Tent Peg Length, Weight and Packability

Longer tent pegs can be driven deeper into the ground for a more stable hold, but this will increase your chance of hitting rocks. Longer tent pegs are, of course, heavier and less packable, and therefore better suited to campsite camping where weight and size are not big considerations.

Related: Best Two Person Tents For Backpacking

But holding power is, perhaps, more linked to surface area and design, rather than overall peg length. This is where shaped pegs, such as those with a V-shaped, chevron-like orientation or a tri-angled Y-shape design, come into their own. They grip the ground better with their two or three faces, and deliver a good compromise between weight and strength – making them ideal for backpackers and wild campers.

MSR pegs from the FreeLite 2 Tent, chosen for our Outdoor 100.
Vango F10 pegs.

There are many different types of shaped pegs from different brands. They vary slightly in length and girth, with different design features too, but mostly they are pretty comparable – with just a few grams or millimetres difference between them.

Tent Peg Features

Key features to look out for include: ‘pull loops’ of cord atop the peg, enabling easier extraction of the stake from the ground by hand; and the number, location and angle of notches (attachment points) in the peg for attaching the tent’s guylines and toggles to.

Tent Peg Buying Strategy

If you’ve bought a high quality tent, the chances are the pegs included with your purchase will suffice – particularly as they will have been designed to work well with your tent’s specific quirks and features. But, in some cases, you might fancy a stake upgrade if you want particularly lightweight or strong pegs or pegs for specific types of ground. Common wisdom suggests you pick one peg model and use that for your entire tent, but there is logic to carrying a set of pegs with a few different shapes, lengths and designs. This will ensure you’ve got a stake suitable for any ground depth or space limitations you may encounter.  

Best Tent Pegs 2023

From ultralight titanium pegs to super-strong aluminium stakes, here are the best tent pegs for your camping adventures.

  • MSR Groundhog – Best Tent Pegs
  • Sea to Summit Ground Control 
  • Sierra Designs V Stake – Best Value Tent Pegs
  • Vargo Titanium Fluorescent 
  • NEMO Airpin
  • Swiss Piranha RT120
  • Outwell Tarzan Rock Pegs
  • Hilleberg Snow and Sand Peg Set

MSR Groundhog – Best In Test

Weight: 10g per peg
Price: £21 for a pack of 6 (£3.50 per peg)

This 19cm-long peg ticks all of the boxes. The tri-star shape, which MSR call the ‘Y-beam’, penetrates and holds excellently, and has been specifically designed for a wide range of soil conditions. Made from 7000-series aluminium, all-round strength and durability is first-rate despite weighing only 10g per peg. You also get a pull loop for easy removal and a well-designed, multi-angled notch at the top of the stake for securing your tent’s guylines or toggles. If you need a slightly more compact peg, the MSR Mini-Groundhog is 4cm shorter at 15cm and marginally lighter, or for specific conditions MSR have some specialist pegs too: the spiralled Cyclone peg is designed for softer ground while the chunky Blizzard peg delivers holding power in snow and sand.   

BUY FROM  

 

Sea to Summit Ground Control

Weight: 14g per peg
Price: £20 for a pack of 8 (£2.50 per peg)

Billed as ‘strong, lightweight and well designed’, the Ground Control is a great all-rounder from the design pros at Australian brand Sea to Summit. Made from an anodised 6061-T6 aluminium alloy, each peg weighs 14g and delivers good all-round durability and tent stability thanks to a clever design. The three-sided, Y-shaped construction is strong and secure, providing good penetration and solid holding power. You get three attachment point notches (compared to only one on the MSR Groundhog) – they aren’t the deepest but still grip well and provide good flexibility. In harder ground, where you might not be able to get complete peg penetration, you can utilise the multi-height guypoint notches to minimise leverage on the peg. Each peg also features a luminescent pull cord for easy removal and improved visibility at night, and the sets comes in a handy storage bag. If you want something lighter, the new Ground Control Light peg is a bit of a revelation too. Made from a premium aircraft grade 7075-T6 aluminium alloy, each 15cm peg weighs only 7g (about as light as tent pegs come) and is described as ‘ultralight yet super strong’ by Sea to Summit.

BUY NOW: SEATOSUMMIT.CO.UK

 

Sierra Designs V Stake – Best Value

Weight: 6g per peg
Price: £12.49 for a pack of 6 (£2.08 per peg)

Featuring a classic V-shaped design, this ultralight peg from Californian brand Sierra Designs is made from high-strength aluminium, providing a strong anchor in a variety of ground conditions. Each stake is 15.5cm long, weighs only 6g, and features both a tapered point for easier penetration into soil and a pre-attached pull loop for simple extraction when you’re de-camping. Sierra Designs describe the peg as ‘rugged yet sleek’, with the toughness to ensure you’re tent stays taut all night. At only £2.08 per peg, the V Stake provides excellent value for money too.

BUY NOW: WILDBOUNDS.COM

Vargo Titanium Fluorescent 

Weight: 8g per peg
Price: £26.99 for a pack of 6 (£4.50 per peg)

Featuring a classic wire peg design, with a distinctive hooked shepherd’s crook shape, the Vargo Titanium Fluorescent stake is designed for the ultralight backpacker. Each 16.5cm peg is very light (only 8g per peg) and packs away compactly, as you’d expect. Vargo – a US thru-hiking brand set up by long-distance hiker Brian Vargo – describe the stake’s titanium construction as delivering ‘unparalleled strength and shape retention while weighing just a third of an ounce’. It’s worth remembering that lighter, minimalist pegs are always likely to be more prone to bending than heavier ones, and for many these will be too flimsy, but for the gram-counting ultralight enthusiast they might be tempting. You also get a fluorescent orange head to each stake, making it more visible at night. Vargo also make an ultralight version (7g per peg) and a version without the fluorescent coating. 

BUY NOW: VARGOOUTDOORS.COM

 

NEMO Airpin

Weight: 10g per peg
Price: £18.79 for a pack of 4 (£4.70 per peg)

This peg is a bit of a maverick. NEMO have attempted to reinvent the humble tent peg with the Airpin’s innovative and clever design – and the US brand have won awards for their efforts. The Airpin’s three-point locking system holds cord tight and eliminates the need for knots, cord locks, or guyline tensioners, while the so-called ‘tapered geometry’ and ‘striking point’ make driving the peg into the ground far easier. The 15cm-long Airpin is made from 7075 aluminium for a fine balance between minimal weight and superior strength.

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Swiss Piranha RT120

Weight: 6g per peg
Price: £15.99 for a pack of 10 (£1.60 per peg)

The only plastic peg in our round-up, this stake from Swiss Piranha offers something totally different from the rest of the metal-centric market. Described as ‘ultralight, shock-resistant and super-safe’, the RT120 has several advantages over aluminium or titanium stakes, according to the brand. These include the eco credentials of the product – up to 13 times less energy is used in production compared to aluminium pegs, and each peg is 100% recyclable – as well as the way the stake is completely sunk into the ground up to the flat head, thus improving the stability and strength of the anchor and minimising the risk of you accidentally tripping over a protruding peg (we’ve all done it!). The RT120 is 12cm-long, made from a very hard and strong plastic, and features a cross-shaped structure with a pointed, screw-like end. The head of each peg has notches for attaching a tent guyline or toggle, and insertion into the ground can usually be carried out with your foot or a rock (although a hammer may be required in some circumstances). Other options include Swiss Piranha’s BF range, which is made from 100% recycled plastic, and different lengths of the RT including RT90 (9cm), RT150 (15cm) and RT220 (22cm). 

BUY NOW: SWISSPIRANHA.COM

 

Outwell Tarzan Rock

Weight: 55g per peg
Price: £4.99 for a pack of 6 (83p per peg)

These specialist pegs are designed to be hammered into hard, stony ground. At 23cm long and with a nail-like design, they provide deep penetration into soil, and their steel construction is muscular and robust. A thicker shaft helps to minimise bending and the T section at the top grips pegging points securely. Outwell’s Tarzan Rock pegs are certainly not designed for backpacking or wild camping, but for campsite camping on rocky ground they are well-suited – and the price is attractive too.  

BUY NOW: OUTWELL.COM

 

Hilleberg Snow and Sand Peg Set

Weight: 61g per peg
Price: £87.99 for a pack of 6 (£14.67 per peg)

These pegs are not for your average wild camp or campsite visit. Instead they are hardcore pegs for the toughest of camping conditions, including deep snow or sand. Described by Scandi-brand Hilleberg as a ‘unique’ peg with a ‘lightweight, tough and remarkably versatile’ design, this stake is made from a hardened aluminium and has been ‘built to withstand both very hard usage, including the inevitable contact with shovels, crampons and other winter gear, and very hard snow’. The integrated line and hook provides flexibility, ensuring the peg can be buried sideways in snow or sand where required, or can be used in the traditional upright fashion too. Each peg is 31cm-long, 3cm-wide (easily the widest peg on test), and weighs 61g. 

BUY NOW: HILLEBERG.COM

 

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