Reviews > Shelters > Shelter Accessories > Stakes > Bozeman Lazr Hi-Vis Titanium Tent Stakes > Owner Review by Roger Caffin

Owner Review - Lightweight Orange Lazr Hi-Vis Titanium tent pegs/stakes
Roger Caffin

Product Information

Getting information about these pegs

As far as I can see, the Bozeman website only lists major items such as packs, sleeping bags and tarps, and with not a lot of product information anyhow. It does not even list these pegs or stakes per se, nor give any information about them. Instead, the reader is referred to a retailer for information about all such products and accessories. The Bozeman website lists Backpacking Light (BPL) as their US & international wholesale distributor, so I have quoted the information from the BPL website instead. By way of added information, BPL lists these pegs at US$19.99 for 6: not very cheap, but possible.

Product description

These are lightweight titanium wire pegs with a shape as shown as shown above. Very similar titanium wire pegs are available from other sources such as Simon Metals Company, but these Bozeman ones are coated a bright orange colour. The Simon Metals ones are plain (grey) titanium wire. The claim is made that the coating is far more durable than ordinary paint. In fact, the BPL website has the following:

"This coating is durable enough that it will not passively chip, flake, or wear thin if subjected to normal forest soil abrasion. Pounding on the head of the tent stake, of course, will cause the coating on that part of the stake to wear down to the titanium surface. Likewise, as the shaft of the tent stake is subjected to abrasion against objects which have a hardness greater than H/HB (rocks, consolidated sand and gravel, etc.), the coating of the shaft will wear. However, the amount of field use required to wear the coating to the point that it no longer functions (that is, provides the visibility you need to find your tent stakes) probably exceeds the useful lifetime of either your tent stake or the shelter which you are staking down! Our goal in this design is simply to provide a long-lasting coating that retains the hi-vis nature of the tent stake during normal field use - while adding less than 1/100th of an ounce to the tent stake weight."

I have titanium pegs from both Bozeman and Simon Metals. Mechanically they are almost identical.

Speculation on sources

Given the difficulty of machining and bending titanium wire - or even of buying it (I tried), it would be within the bounds of reason to speculate that Simon Metals supplies the basic pegs and that Bozeman applies the orange coating.

I discuss below my experiences with the coating: it is rugged. I will record here that I have managed to create a coating of similar toughness on a Simon Metals titanium peg by using a yellow epoxy paint obtained at my local hardware store. This is illustrated to the right: the effect looks rather similar I think, even if the color is different. The bottom end of the yellow peg is unpainted because that's where I held it, but as shown below the paint does wear away at the tip anyhow..

None of this detracts from these Lazr pegs of course. It is just of interest to gear freaks. The end result is great.

Field Experience - the toughness

In my Owner Review of home-made tubular pegs I explained why I had made them:

"For a tent peg to hold in the ground it needs enough length to get down into the more compacted soil, and enough width that it won't slide through the soil. It also needs to be strong enough that it would not bend under load - not that a guy rope from a small lightweight tent puts that much load on a peg. Wire pegs work in some soils, but I was looking for something wider."

However, I have also run into situations where those 8 - 9 mm diameter tubular pegs just didn't work. On some nights in rocky country around Sydney I have found that the ground is just too hard to even think about getting those tubular pegs in. After having this problem a few times I started taking a few titanium pegs with me. Now when I run into this rocky ground I can usually hammer these wire pegs in.

I said 'hammer'. Yes, I mean I have had to pick up a rock and pound the top of the titanium wire peg to get it into the ground. Well, to force it in between the rocks would probably be a more accurate description of what was happening. This wasn't happening in your typical soft forest understorey type of soil: it was often on a small (hopefully) flat spot on the side of a rocky mountain, with a thin layer of soil over rock. But the point is, these wire pegs will take that sort of treatment, without flinching or bending. I found it a bit unreal the first time I tried it: I was sure the peg would crumple or at least the top end would bend over. I knew from experience that ordinary steel wire pegs would fail that way. Nope: the titanium peg stayed straight, the hook stayed the same, and in it went.

Occasionally one of the pegs will get a little bent somewhere down the main length. Trying to hammer a bent peg into rock is not as effective as when the peg is straight, so I do periodically check the pegs for straightness. I have found that some gentle 'panel beating' with a medium-weight hammer and a large vise will straighten small bends in these pegs. I have not had to work on the hook section at all: that seems to be even more resistant to distortion. Maybe the metal there has 'work-hardened' a little.

The Paint

While hammering away that first time I was sure the paint would come off quickly. Nope: apart from chipping where the rock hit, it stayed on. This is illustrated to the right. I have to say I was very impressed the first time I used them like this, and I have continued to be impressed as I have continued to use them. I am guessing it is an epoxy paint to get that adhesion and toughness: it isn't any sort of anodising. It does come off eventually like a paint, but whatever they used is pretty good stuff.

So I started taking a couple of titanium pegs in my peg bag in place of some of the tubular ones and using them regularly. At first this was out of curiosity, to see just how well the pegs and the paint would survive and whether they were that much worse at holding in the ground compared with my tubular pegs. After all, they are even lighter than my tubular ones, and at a weight of only 6.5 g (0.23 oz) each, who's complaining? At first I was using plain ones from Simon Metals, but as mentioned below they had their own problems. I switched to the Lazr pegs and began using them all the time. Well, after much use the coating or paint on the tips of the pegs has worn away, but only at the tip. This is shown on two of them to the right. That just might be because they have been given a very hard life, being jammed into narrow cracks between rocks so often. But I can hardly complain!

Do they hold as well as my wider tubular ones?

No, they do not, but the difference is only significant in really soft soil and at very high loads. If the soil has any sort of hardness at all, they do seem to hold well enough for side guys. OK, I usually push them right in so the top is flush with the ground, but this has worked well enough even in soft alpine soil. It helps when I can get the peg into a tuft of grass or behind some plants as the roots spread the load out. However, I do not normally use these wire pegs in soft soils for the end anchors on my tunnel tent. The end pegs on a tunnel tent really hold the whole thing up, and the load on those end pegs is higher than on ordinary guy ropes. In general the load there is a bit too high for wire pegs. Under difficult conditions I have resorted to jamming the pegs in and then putting rocks on the pegs, as shown to the right (purple arrows). More bad weather? More rocks! There wasn't a lot of room on that rocky little saddle in the photo, and it was almost dark when I finished pitching the tent. Sometimes you have to just grab what there is and hope the pegs hold. But I have happily used them for the end anchors in really hard rocky soil when the tubular pegs would not go in. I just make sure the peg goes right in. For many conditions they really are a nearly perfect solution.

Is the paint of any value?

In a word, yes. Before getting these I was using some plain titanium ones, but I quickly found they had one serious defect. If I dropped one of them on the ground it would take me five to ten minutes of searching to find it - in good light. The rather plain grey colour of the unpolished titanium metal seemed to blend in with dead grass, old sticks and mulch extremely well, at least in our Australian bushlands. This came home to me on one trip when I had taken a couple of plain titanium pegs in place of some tubular ones, and had started with only just enough pegs to pitch the tent. I lost two plain titanium ones on the ground one evening and realised that I could be in some trouble. After much searching in the dim evening light I eventually found them, but I resolved that henceforth I would only take brightly coloured pegs of any sort. I painted the two plain ones I had, but shortly after that I was given these Lazr pegs. The orange paint isn't fluorescent or metallic, but it is much more visible than the drab titanium grey when I drop them on the ground (it happens!), in both good daylight and poor evening light. Actually, the yellow paint is brighter than the orange, but the yellow is getting a bit close to the color of some dead native grass stalks. The orange stands out well and is a better choice over all.

Summary

Would I keep using them? Would I buy more?

I certainly will keep using them. For trips in our alpine regions I might take only two Lazr pegs and ten tubular ones, but for trips in areas where I know the ground may be difficult I'll take six of each. And if I lost them all I would have to buy more.

Biographical information

Backpacking Background

I started bushwalking (the Australian term) at 14, then took up rock climbing at University with the girl who became my wife and is my walking partner. Later on we took up ski touring and canyoning. Winter and summer, we prefer long hard trips by ourselves: about a week in Australia, up to two months in Europe/UK. We prefer fast and light in unfrequented trackless country. We would be out for at least three months a year. Over the last four years we have reduced our pack weights from 18 - 20 kg (40 - 45 lb) each to about 12 kg (26 lb), including food, for week-long trips. I designed and made much of our lightweight gear myself.

I am also the maintainer of the Australian aus.bushwalking FAQ web site www.bushwalking.org.au/FAQ/.

Reviews > Shelters > Shelter Accessories > Stakes > Bozeman Lazr Hi-Vis Titanium Tent Stakes > Owner Review by Roger Caffin