Stakes - opinions from veteran Burners and Earth Rangers?

[ranchofiasco]

The Burningman site has a whole page about securing your structure at http://www.burningman.com/preparation/e ... uring.html

It talks more about rebar than heavy-duty tent stakes. I am considering buying stakes from this guy: http://www.jpjennings.com/stakes/ . Veteran Burners - do they look sturdy enough? 80mph winds blowing against a tent or awning can pull a DAMN STURDY spike out of the ground and turn it into a leathal weapon. This spike is smooth; rebar has texture. Does it make a difference?

Sorry if this broaches on commercialism - that's not my intent. I don't have an opinion in these stakes - I'm looking for opinion about this type of stake from Burningman veterans.

Thanks Much!

Rancho Fiasco
Cult of the Beaded Flower
Credo: "Play Nice"

[PurpleKoosh]

My boyfriend bought iron tent stakes at the Arizona Renaissance Festival a few years ago; they're smooth and square, like railway spikes, but longer and thinner. They work like a dream. The spikes you've linked to should be fine. Get the longer ones, and see if they can't custom order you a different color topper (yellow doesn't strike me as being overly high-contrast against the playa...).

[ranchofiasco]

I can always re-paint them - purple.

[PurpleKoosh]

You are my new best friend.

[Dork]

Those should work fine as long as you have some sort of a wind break, like a car. The top layer of playa is losely packed dust, which is why we use long pieces of rebar when we need lots of holding power.

It's popular because it's cheap and it works. It is pretty cumbersome, though, so if you just have a small-medium sized tent that will be near other firmly attached large objects the long tent stakes should be ok. The ones holding ropes down may come loose from time to time but if the winds get to 80MPH you're going to be hiding your head already. The main danger is tents actually becoming uprooted and flying away, knocking things over, or from seams ripping under stress.

[Bob]

The specs say their stakes are made using 10" long, 3/8" dia spikes. If pounded flush with the ground or a couple inches deeper, they'd be fine for anything up to a family-sized tent or small awning, but not for anything bigger, IMO. Figure the top 4 to 6 inches of the playa is pretty much useless due to desiccation cracking.