Jump to content

mallet or hammer?


gp1

Recommended Posts

Hi weve found another windbreak on the road that must have fallen out of someones van. With the earth being so dry is it worth taking a hammer aswell as a mallet? Its wooden stake type. Cheers.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

A mallet has a wider head than a hammer - unless you mean a club hammer - which reduces the risk of you thumping your hand but when the ground is hard you run the risk of splitting or breaking the pole, or blunting the pointy bit if you hit it too hard.

We carried a windbreak for years and never used it - too much faffing about - just enjoy the wind or change your diet!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

In some parts of this country the earth is extremely dry and almost impossible to use a hammer in peg for our awning tie down ropes. I have made up a screw in peg made from a large wood screen with a hex head. Mine are the biggest I could find in the hardware store measuring approx 12mm dia x 250mm long. I made a bracket that sits under the bolt head to accept the tie rope hook end. I use a pilot drill to make a hole using the same cordless drill and a socket, screw the bolt into the earth. It works a treat. There are some plastic types available in the RV stores but I found they were no strong enough. Mine are gal plated steel. Could be worth a try in hard earth areas. Cheers,
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I second Keith’s advice.

 

I recall tenting at a campsite in Scotland where the pitch was mostly shale. The tent had been hired and supplied with a dinky wooden mallet. When I tried to drive the tent-pegs in the head of the mallet snapped off - I was well peeved...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Keithl - 2018-07-15 3:09 PM

 

Try driving a steel spike or chisel in first to create a hole or you’ll never get the wooden poles in without breaking them.

 

 

Good evening,

 

Good Lord, are you sure your not trying to pitch into concrete

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've always found a claw hammer of sufficient wieght does the job, for driving in wooden windbreak poles use the side of the hammer head, for steel pegs the correct end of hammer, the claws used to extract the pegs. Wooden mallets are useless.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

chas - 2018-07-18 7:55 AM

 

...Wooden mallets are useless.

 

Depends on the mallett and the mallett’s wielder.

 

My body-builder wife drives in the poles of our windbreak using a wooden mallett that she made herself from ironwood pressure-impregnated with resin. The attached photo shows her splitting trees with it.

mallett.jpg.047e9fc7205711727149de93d86431e2.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Fascinating that people can have such strongly held views that their way of putting tent pegs into the ground is the "right" way.  Clearly the type of peg you can get in depends on the type of ground and with the increasing use of (for example) hardstanding pitches, ordinary wooden or plastic pegs driven in by a mallet aren't likely to be usable, hence the emergence of screw-in pegs and the like.  There are different sizes and different materials to cater for all sorts of different ground and the holding power you need, so you consider your pattern of motorhoming and make your choice.  And as always you have to consider your payload rather than just loading up with more than you really need - which reminds me that I don't really need both a club hammer and a plastic-headed mallet, so I need to unload one of them!

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Photo of body builder wife is impressive. Do people really make ironwood forceably inpregnated with resin? Is there such a thing as iron wood? Amazing that you can even split a tree. Makes the seemingly impossible task of putting up a windbreak seem trivial.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I put 22mm straight end feed connectors on the end of my poles, stops them splitting when you bash them in the ground. Heat them with the torch first until they are nice and hot and drive them on the pole, then quickly quench in water.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...