Alpkit Tipins

[Quixoticgeek]

Has anyone used the Alpkit TiPins?

How durable are they? I'm not one for banging pegs in with rocks and mallets, opting instead for easing them in with my foot, but I don't want to fork out on titanium pegs that bend on first use.

Cheers

Julia

 

[MonsterBeetle]

They're fine if the ground isn't too wet, muddy or rocky. Otherwise they just don't cut it IMO. Conditions have to be just right for them to work well. So much so I ditched using them.

 

[caorach]

I'm currently experimenting with some titanium tent pegs (I'm very much a beginner at the camping thing so this is worth what you paid for it) but have reached the conclusion that there seems to be no reason to pay the extra cash for them as the ones I have, while very nice and all that, simply don't seem to give any advantage in terms of weight or strength over other materials. I appreciate that you are going to the extreme end of thin and lightweight and so there might be a tiny advantage in weight there but, again, my money said that it was countered by the limitations in the field.

What I'm doing is soaking my pegs in water to get the mud off them and then I will weigh them and compare what I've got as that might prove me wrong but will be interesting no matter the outcome.

 

[caorach]

Right, I did a little experiment. The truth is that it is of little value as I was comparing apples to oranges to pears, but some might find it interesting. I have 3 types of tent peg: the Vango ones that came with my tent, Alpkit extra long Y beams and Alpkit extra long titanium tikes. I have the Alpkit ones as most of my time is spent on very soft ground so they are to give me a bit more grip under certain conditions.

I took the pegs and washed all the dirt off 6 of each type:

Vango standard aluminium (I think) come with tent:



Alpkit titanium extra long tikes:



Alpkit extra long Y beams which are aluminium I think:



This is the 3 of them together, just to give some idea of scale and differences:



As most of the reasoning behind going to titanium is for weight reduction I then stuck 6 of each on the scales. Now the scales are just a set of baking scales and they only read to a resolution of 5g but this gives a good picture of the relative weights even if it isn't rocket science:

The Y beams:





The Vango pegs:





And the titanium tikes:





My impression with pegs (and also cooking stuff) is that titanium offers a very small or even zero weight saving over more traditional materials and a very tiny potential increase in utility at, in many cases, extreme financial cost. My personal view is that for most practical use the money would be better spend elsewhere and that the average person might get more comfort, weight saving and pleasure by spending the cash on, say, a Thermarest NeoAir which will be fundamental to their camping experience rather than on titanium pots or tent pegs.

Of course we all like shiny stuff, which is why I've got some titanium pegs and cooking pots, and also we like stuff that is nice to have so I'm not saying that titanium things don't have a place or that people shouldn't buy them, just that my personal view is that while they might be nice to have they really will not offer the average person much advantage over even the cheap pegs that come with my Vango tent. If you are on a budget then titanium stuff should be waaaayyyy down your list of stuff to get and you are missing little or nothing by not having it.

 

[nic a char]

Haha well done! It's the same with SLR titanium cameras lol - bit tougher though.

 

[petrochemicals]

The titanium stakes coming out of China and rebranded seem ok. A lot more resiliant than steel to bending, and very noticably springer. As for weight saving the same strength pegs in steel may weigh 3 times as much. The ti spikes go into stony ground as they are ultra thin , but like all thin pegs they are a weak point in soft ground. Contrarily pegs don't weigh that much anyway and you will probably have to take 2 sorts anyway, and unless you are taking a lot of pegs ie 30 or 40 the weight saving is going to be minimal at something like 50g. If I where going to buy anymore titanium pegs it would be sand pegs as you seem to get the best use out of the titanium and it's lightness making a thin wide long peg.

 

[Quixoticgeek]

Weight savings... It's all relative and proportionate. I'm looking at pegs to go with a 198g tarp. As such, taking 8 15g pegs 120g, taking 8 6.5g pegs 52g. It's a 58g saving. But it also means the pegs aren't over 50% the weight of the tarp...

My current plan is a pair of Alpkit Y beams, a pair of ali C pegs, 4 Aplkit TiPins. This gives me 4 substantial pegs for the main guying points, and then some light pegs for the subordinate pegging points. All for a total weight of 70g...

J

 

[caorach]

Weight savings... It's all relative and proportionate.

You are, of course, correct and are doing this a lot more seriously than most people. My rucksack will probably come in around 2 - 2.5 stone, it doesn't look like yours will make 2.5lbs Even if I saved 58g off every single thing the rucksack would still come in around 2 - 2.5 stone!

 

[petrochemicals]

The titanium stakes coming out of China and rebranded seem ok. A lot more resiliant than steel to bending, and very noticably springer. As for weight saving the same strength pegs in steel may weigh 3 times as much. The ti spikes go into stony ground as they are ultra thin , but like all thin pegs they are a weak point in soft ground. Contrarily pegs don't weigh that much anyway and you will probably have to take 2 sorts anyway, and unless you are taking a lot of pegs ie 30 or 40 the weight saving is going to be minimal at something like 50g. If I where going to buy anymore titanium pegs it would be sand pegs as you seem to get the best use out of the titanium and it's lightness making a thin wide long peg.

I half change my mind on my earlier post quitoxgeek, ti scewers are brilliant at being thin and springy, but for wider I would go for aluminium as of this point in time.

These are steel pegs, brilliantly thin, and in the right ground you manage to embed all 8 inches. They weigh 25 grams there abouts I think( roughly 40% heavier than ti ones), trouble is like any long peg you have to have them all the way in to get best use, half way in and they bend.


A ti skewer anchored by a aluminium 3 inch peg, unless your going somewhere with really soft soil unlikely you will get anything longer in. Ti for the squers as they are very springy. Steel is ok, but the aluminium skewer pegs are very thick.