Spent 5 years setting up my tent wrong before a guy at a campground pointed it out

Was at a site in the Smokies last October and some older fella walked over and asked if I always had so much sag in my rainfly. I told him that's just how it is. He showed me you're supposed to stake the corners out at a 45 degree angle, not straight down like I was doing. Took him 30 seconds to fix it and the whole thing was tight. Made me wonder what else I've been doing wrong for years. Anyone else have one of those moments where a random stranger fixed your whole setup?

3 comments

3 Comments

leelewis1mo ago

Wait are you sure about the 45 degree thing? I always heard you want your stakes at a 90 degree angle to the pull of the cord, not a specific 45 degrees from the ground. Like if the cord is pulling up and out, you angle the stake so it's straight into that pull line. If you're just jamming them in at 45 degrees no matter what, you're probably still getting some sag because the angle's wrong for how your fly is set up. I think the old guy meant 45 degrees from the ground, yeah, but that's only right if the cord is pulling perfectly horizontal.

barbara_baker571mo ago

Oh yeah that makes total sense what you are saying about the angle matching the pull. I think a lot of people just jam stakes in at some random angle and hope for the best. The trick I learned the hard way after a windy night in the Boundary Waters is to look at the cord first. If it's pulling straight out from the tent, you want the stake going in at a right angle to that cord, so basically straight down if the cord is horizontal. But if your fly is pulling at more of an upward angle, which it usually is, you need to angle the stake back into the ground a bit so it gets solid hold. The old guy probably just meant the 45 degree thing as a general rule because most folks stake straight down and that's almost always wrong. I usually just eyeball it and stick the stake in so it's kinda pointing towards the tent and the cord is straight in line with it.

victorb176d ago

@barbara_baker57 I get what you're saying about eyeballing it, but I see it different. That old guy's 45 degree trick works because most people drive stakes straight down, which is useless for any kind of cord angle. If you angle them toward the tent at roughly 45 degrees, you get a solid bite in the dirt no matter if the fly cord is horizontal or pulling up a bit. Been doing it that way for two years now and my tarps stay tight even in heavy rain.