How to Use Tent Stakes

Check the ground, then clear the loose top

Slower Hiking says it is worth “brushing aside very loose material from the surface immediately around where you are going to place your stake”. If the stake stops dead on a rock, do not force it. Slower Hiking says in rocky soil you may only find the rock when a V-stake folds under your boot, and that “you can try different spots and luck upon a rock-free one”. If you pitch in a yard, a Pennsylvania township fire marshal’s handout on staking yard tents says “Dial 811 as early in advance as you can” so utilities can mark buried lines, and warns: “Driving a tent stake into a utility line can cause costly damage and a whole lot worse … serious injury.”

Stake one corner, then the diagonal corner

Advnture, an outdoor publication, gives this order. It says: “Starting with one corner, pull the buckle out and stake it so it stays in line with the seam.” Then “go around and do the diagonally opposite corner”, the remaining corners, the rainfly loops and last the guy lines.

Set the angle

Use the angle your tent’s manual gives. None of the maker pages cited here (MSR, Hilleberg) states one. If the manual gives none, drive a camping stake upright or with its top leaning away from the tent, never toward it (our reading of the camping sources). The next section gives the basis and how the sources differ on how far to lean.

Drive the stake

Push by hand or foot where the soil allows. BetterTrail says delicate stakes need “steady, controlled pressure, either by pushing them in with your foot or carefully pressing them into the soil”. Slower Hiking says a foot “applies sideways as well as downwards forces that are more likely to bend them than when using your hand”. Slower Hiking says a trowel “works to protect your hands when inserting stakes” and that “a small dent in the trowel helps prevent stakes from slipping while pushing them in”; reading that as pushing the stake in with the trowel is our inference. In firm ground, Advnture says “Use a camping mallet or a rock”. SilverAnt’s guide says both: a Y-stake’s flat end is good for “a mallet, the sole of your foot, or a flat rock”, yet later “Never use rocks or other heavy objects to drive tent stakes into the ground”, giving damage to the stakes and tent as the reason. Slower Hiking says to “hit the stake square on, using multiple light taps rather than a few hefty bashes”. Roger Caffin says the rock he used as a hammer “disintegrated after a few blows”, which suggests picking a solid one. Check your stake maker’s page before hammering. Follow the tool’s own instructions for a mallet or hammer.

Drive it to depth and hook the line on

InfinityTents, an installer guide for commercial pole tents, says “Stake pullout strength is directly related to stake depth” and that the guy rope should be kept “not higher than two or three inches” up the stake. For camping stakes: BetterTrail says “fully driven into the ground for maximum security”, and Advnture says “Drive each stake as far down into the ground as it will go” and to turn the hook “so it faces away from the tent”. The township handout’s “six inches of your stake exposed above ground” is for long yard and event-tent stakes, not 6 to 7.5 inch camping stakes. Put the corner loop or line over the stake’s notch or hook. For nail-type stakes with a small lip, Slower Hiking says to angle them or “loop the guyline twice”. Tripping hazard: the AMC calls guy lines “a significant and all-but-invisible hazard underfoot”.

Stake the rest and check the count

Advnture warns not to “pull so hard that you pull the other stakes out of alignment with their seams”. Slower Hiking suggests: “Count your stakes before putting them back into your bag”.

Reinforce any stake that is moving or sits in loose ground

Advnture says to place “a large, heavy rock on top”. Slower Hiking prefers a rock on a line extension in front of the stake, because a line touching a rock can abrade. Slower Hiking, citing the Advanced Textiles Association, says a second stake inline adds only 1.22 times the pull-out resistance, and that side by side “is more effective than staking inline”. Leave No Trace says “Moving rocks can promote erosion and alter habitats for aquatic species and insects.”

Re-check after wind or rain

Slower Hiking says “These repeated tugs loosen soil around the stake”, and InfinityTents says wetter soil holds less. Slower Hiking says pushing a moving stake “all the way in, so the guyline is right at ground level, can be enough to stabilise the stake”.

Pull the stakes out

Unhook the line first. A string loop helps: Hilleberg’s Y-Peg has an “attached string loop” that “provides for easy removal”; Slower Hiking suggests keeping cords on “one or two” stakes “to assist in removing other stakes”. For a stuck stake, Klika suggests digging gently around it with a trowel, pouring water if the ground is very firm, then hooking a claw hammer or stake puller under the head. Klika’s safety points: “Wear gloves”, “Avoid sudden jerks” and “Make sure others stand clear to avoid accidental injury if the stake comes loose suddenly.” Leave No Trace says “Leave areas as you find them.”

Choose the object

A stick, a spare stake, a rock, or a stuff sack or bag filled with sand or earth. Field & Stream, an outdoor magazine, suggests a log or large stick buried perpendicular to the line in snow, which makes a stronger anchor than a bag. Lay it across the line of pull.

Dig a T-shaped trench

Slower Hiking describes “a horizontal slot or trench for the stick, plus a perpendicular channel for the guyline”. SectionHiker, for sand, says to dig a hole 12 inches (30 cm) deep. Slower Hiking says depth matters: “Failures are usually because of insufficient depth or, for very loose substrates, an anchor that has too little surface area.” Leave No Trace says “Do not dig trenches for tents”, and a deadman means digging, so check the area’s rules first and leave the ground as found: “Leave areas as you find them.”

Set the line around the middle

Sources differ on knots. Field & Stream says “Never tie the guyline to the anchor before burying it, as this will compromise tension.” Slower Hiking says to loop, not tie: “If you loop around a stick rather than tying, you can simply slip the guyline free rather than having to disinter the stick” MSR says its Blizzard can be girth-hitched. Leave a long running end above ground.

Backfill and pack it down

Field & Stream says to “pack the anchor with snow or earth”. In snow, SectionHiker says to compact the filled hole with your boots, and Roger Caffin says that after stomping snow, “Give them 10 minutes and they all lock together into a solid mass”. In sand, SectionHiker says combining a deadman with stacked rocks “often results in very secure anchors”.

Tension the line, and plan the morning

To get a buried object out of snow, SectionHiker says “just use an ice axe to chop a hole”. Caffin warns that buried stuff sacks can be “extremely difficult to get them out in the morning” if the snow freezes overnight and that aluminium stakes bond to ice.