I’ve gone through several tent’s worth of the nylon sack they give you for storing the tent pegs. I’d like to get a sack that is beefier.
I back-packer would never have this problem. But on paddling campers, I bring a variety of stakes and frequently use 10" galvanized spikes in lieu of wire pegs. Can you imagine the heart-attack the go-light, back-packers would have over that? Those guys are weighing their gear in fractions of grams. One spike would probably double the weight of their whole kit! Get me portaging and I’ll be right there with them, but for a normal camper, I don’t skimp on stakes. Been out in too many gales.
Back to the issue, which is I started looking for a sack to carry the stakes in, and it needs to be something tougher than nylon. I was thinking leather or some kind of plyable poly, like the stuff crocs are made of. I haven’t found one yet, but I did run across a material called Cuben.
Cuben is supposed to remain plyable, not wear out, and be tougher than kevlar. I don’t need the sack to be waterproof, but Cuben is. They (questoutfitters) also sell Cuben tape (2-sided) and Mylar tape (one-sided) and say you can just tape the material vice sewing. Oh, forgot to add, this material weighs almost nothing. Backpackers should love it.
Anybody have any experience with Cuben? Can it be as easy as cutting and taping? Is it as tough as advertised?
Or you could save me the trouble and just tell me where to get a tough sack for tent pegs. Anybody?
~~Chip
Heavy Plastic
If you ever buy ready made Army meals (MREs), the plastic pouches they come in are very useful. I have used these to hold tent pegs and they last for years. Very durable and protect the other camping gear from the sharp points on the pegs.
Here ya go:
http://www.humboldtmfg.com/c-8-p-532-id-8.html
(the first one in the list)
Here's another:
http://tinyurl.com/yd2syx7
It will take a long time to wear out one of these bags. Larger bags made from the same and similar cloth get used multiple times for carrying 70-pound samples of sharp-edged gravel.
Forget the stakes…
This will drive the ultra light people nuts, but what you need you need is lots and lots of p-cord. At least 7 feet per tie down point. Then you can use rocks, logs, dead men as tie downs…
http://i659.photobucket.com/albums/uu314/JuanDulce/IMGP0016_4.jpg
http://i659.photobucket.com/albums/uu314/JuanDulce/IMGP0001_13.jpg
REI has got these
http://www.rei.com/product/729369
$5.50 is kind of expensive, but they’re out of a heavier material
Sounds like interesting stuff
If I read the web correctly, Cuben uses Dyneema fibers as the base material, possibly with some other stuff laminated to achieve the waterproofness.
It’s owned by North Sails, and targeted at sail makers - so you can be sure it will be expensive.
For you stake bag, I bet puncture resistance is more important than abrasion resistance.
Have you thought about a nice heavy reinforced vinyl?
http://www.seattlefabrics.com/vinyl.html#18%20oz.%20Vinyl%20Coated%20Polyester
The 18 oz would probably do - that’s about equivalent to most vinyl dry bags. The 42 oz is some seriously tough stuff.
I could shoot you a few square inches of each in the mail if you want.
Have you thought about your pants?
cut a leg off some jeans, turn it inside out, and stitch one end shut. Turn it right side out, hem the top or seal it with glue to keep it from fraying.
Throw your stakes inside and tie it shut.
Small tool bag
Space and weight aren’t a big issue - right?
If you catch one on sale they aren’t too expensive and are generally made of sturdy nylon oxford cloth. You’ll get a lot of use out of it before you need another one.
Another Idea
Get 2 PVC plumbing end caps whose diameter suits your need. Drill a small hole(s) in the end of each one of them. Take some shock cord and connect the 2 PVC end caps so they will encapsulate your nail/stakes. You could then put them into a flimsy nylon bag and they won’t puncture it.
Really good idea
I probably will still go for a sack because I carry different size stakes. But I think that is a heck of a good idea!
For almost no money, I think I will try some sacks from the supplier guideboatguy ID’d above. For the price, I’m willing to take a gamble they might do the job!
~~Chip
I got a few you can have Chip …
Leather gloves, modded tubes, more
That oughtta slay the ultralight fanatics.
Seriously, if you have some old leather work gloves (the kind you can string barbed wire with), put the stakes in those with the pointy side into the fingers. Then rubber-band or tie the gloves together. Two gloves make 10 stake-holders…perfect number for the tents I’ve used.
I’m saving my beat-up/worked-hard cowhide gloves for just this purpose. Meanwhile, I’ve been wrapping a piece of cardboard (not corrugated cardboard) around the stakes, then lashing it tightly so that the points are well up from being exposed.
OR (just had this idea) a shortened paper-towel tube could fit around a bundle of stakes, with the stake heads sitting on top of one end. Fold over the other end and duct-tape it shut to keep the pointies from sticking out.
OR grab a scrap chunk of minicell foam and jab the pointies into that. Then insert the whole thing into those flimsy nylon bags. This is what I did with the screwdrivers I keep in the truck. The sharp ends each go into individual tiny chunks of minicell that I shoved into the bottoms of the tool wrap’s compartments. Been doing this for years, and so far even driving on dirt roads hasn’t caused the screwdrivers to wear through the nylon tool bag.
inspired by your thread
I started poking around to see what I could find at home. The best I could do was a Trader Joes zip-lock “dried prune” package, much like the package on the right, only thinner:
http://trackingtj.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/quesadillaingredients.jpg
.2 of an ounce, .2 of an ounce lighter than the REI tent stake bag they came in–not bad (‘gram weenies’ of the world, unite!). It’s made out of a heavier (but light) see-through plastic, so the stakes won’t poke through. Will give it a try and get back to you.
Duct Tape
What works for me is to use the regular nylon stake bags but to build a protective “cup” around the business end using Gorilla tape (duct tape). I do the same with my tent pole bag. I store these items all the way back behind my skeg box and an unprotected nylon bag would be holed within days on a long trip simply from abrasion against the weave of the hull. Using some minicel inside sounds like a good idea too.
Greg Stamer
cuben
I’ve got an ultralight bivy sack that came in a cuben-fiber stuff sack. That’s the perfect application for the fabric: nothing hard, nothing sharp inside. I haven’t tried it with a 10" spike, but I don’t believe that the fabric (in the thickness I have) would hold up long at all.
If you’re a member of BackpackingLight.com, you can post a question on their gear board and get all the data you want, probably including lots of numerical specs.
Mark
denim
save your old jeans and recycle them into bags.
I do the same!
No sewing and it reinforces the tent peg bag. Still on same one 5 years and still going.
Good solutions from all posters. It’s interesting what one can come up with to not spend money.