Make an awning peg removal tool
No more struggles to remove previous pitch owners’ pegs. says Sam Coles
There have been any number of times when I’ve arrived at a pitch, only to be confronted by awning pegs still embedded in the ground, abandoned there by the previous occupants.
Having hammered in their pegs, they find that they can’t get them out when they are ready to depart, so they just give up and leave them behind.
The pegs are invariably in the way for the next occupants of the pitch, and the main option has been to hammer them right into the ground until they are completely flush.
However, I have also been forced to abandon pegs that have locked themselves solid in the ground and won’t come out, for love nor money.
Nail-style pegs
So, what to do? Usually, the main culprits are the widely used (because they are good and work well) 25cm nail-style pegs, which have a plastic collar on top.
Made from hardened steel, these are the only type that perform well in hard ground conditions – the bent-wire ones just curl up and die.
You can, of course, purchase ready-made tent-peg pullers, but these only seem to cater for the curly wire or plastic variety of peg.
The nail type do not seem to be catered for (or if they are, I have yet to find one).
Bearing that in mind, this project details what I consider to be a very practical solution to the problem. This tent-peg puller is of very robust design (rather bordering on being over-engineered, for which I make no apologies!) and will help you to extract a nail-style peg with ease, irrespective of the type of ground it’s been hammered into.
This tool also provides three fulcrum points, allowing it to deal with pegs that put up a fight until the very last inch.
Although it has been designed mainly for extracting nail-style pegs, it could be adapted for use with other pegs by profiling the lever end accordingly, or by having multiple levers if an assortment of different pegs is being used.
Materials
n 0.5m of 20mm x 20mm x 2.5mm wall thickness box-section mild steel
n 1m of 25mm x 25mm x 3mm mild steel angle section
n Three M8 x 55 steel bolts
n Nine M8 steel nuts
n Two M6 x 12 steel bolts
n Two M6 nuts
n Two M4 x 6 cap-head screws
n One 22mm bicycle handgrip
n Spray primer and matte black paint
Tools
n Hacksaw
n Square with
45-degree facility
n Marker pen
n Cordless drill and metal bits
n Centre punch
n Hammer
n Two mole-style grips
n Round and flat files
n M4 tap and tap wrench
n Two 13mm spanners
n Two 10mm spanners
n 3mm AF hex key
n Thread lock
n Masking tape
Skills
Basic metalwork
Time and cost
Three hours and approximately £20
What I learnt
How to craft metal and tap threads