Wurmi Tent Pegs Review
At Campinglinks we're always interested in new developments and tent technology.
Recently we were asked if we wanted to test out a new design in tent pegs. They're made by a German company are are called Wurmi. Basically they are plastic pegs that screw into the ground, instead of being hammered in with a mallet like normal tent pegs. You can use an ordinary spanner or the specially designed lightweight Wurmi spanner. If you like your power tools, you can screw them in with an electric/battery operated drill.
There are several sizes of Wurmi, we tried out a small one that is 11 cm long and a medium sized one that is 18 cm long. There are also massive marquee sizes available too.
To make sure that we gave the pegs the full treatment, we went camping on an exposed hill top when there was quite a strong wind. The ground was quite muddy, but firm.
To be honest, we we're really impressed with the small pegs. They slid straight into soil and were easily pulled out again.
The medium pegs were a different story altogether. They have a much deeper screw thread and screwed into the ground very tightly. Despite the tent being blown for over 6 hours by strong North Westerly winds the pegs didn't budge. The plastic that they are made of flexes a little in the wind, they are no brittle and did not snap.
Being a bit forgetful, we didn't remember the spanner and had to screw the pegs in with our fingers. This was not a problem in soft ground, but in hard, dry ground you would be in trouble without the spanner. This is a disadvantage of the Wurmi system, the spanner is lighter than a mallet, but if you don't have a mallet you can use a rock to hammer in a non-screw thread stake.
Another tip, when extracting the pegs make sure you unscrew them, otherwise the thread stays full of soil.
For you weight conscious backpackers, at 7 g the small peg is very light. At 19.5 g the medium peg is not as light as some tent pegs made of lightweight alloys. The Wurmies are not as heavy as the MSR Cyclone stakes, which at 35 g and 25 cm are seriously heavy duty backpacking kit!
In conclusion, we were impressed with the 18 cm Wurmi peg and would recommend them for pegging out your guy lines - they'll keep your tent secure even in strong winds. If you're a lightweight backpacker, consider the Wurmi but take a look at alloy pegs too.
