Groundsheet peg

Screw-in peg

This is a popular tent peg among campers who love gadgets – the Aussies, for example. The peg is made of hard polypropylene and you use a cordless drill to screw it into the ground. If the ground is rock solid, and your drill is powerful, you may end up shearing off the peg’s head, but it works well in soft ground.

A groundsheet peg prevents your groundsheet from being flipped up by the wind, and keeps it down when teenagers drag their feet. Just like a nail peg, you hammer a groundsheet peg straight down so its head won’t trip you. You can also use ordinary roofing screws, which are cheaper.

Pole steady pins

Strong winds will often lift the roof of your tent, causing its poles to shift sideways and eventually drop out, causing your tent to collapse and you having to jump out of bed to salvage the situation. A pole steady needs to extend a few centimetres above the ground to hold a tent pole in place.

Snow pegs

The average South African won’t need this peg, but perhaps you know of a campsite where the snow is more than a metre deep. A snow peg is a flattened paddle with a loop close to its lower end so that a guy rope doesn’t exert torque on the top of the peg, but rather the tip buried deepest in the snow.