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How Much Can GroundGrabba Products Hold?
A regular question we are asked is "how much will GroundGrabba screw-in ground anchor products hold?"
As of today, June 23rd 2022 this page has been updated.
We have recently been able to carry out our own testing of hold down force of our GroundGrabba's and in most circumstances also have done direct comparison tests to the equivalent length and thickness of the old hammer-in tent peg stakes.
We also did some angle insertion and pull out tests to try help answer the age old question if tent pegs and stakes should be inserted on an angle away from the load or vertical. See the blog here.
Before we Start, Some REALLY Important Information
I know that you're probably after definitive exact measurements so you can determine the best option for your ground anchoring or staking purposes. But before you make your mind up about hold down ability please be super aware that there are so many factors that can affect the hold down force available.
Things such as:
- Is the substrate the same variety from the surface to the depth you are anchoring to?
- If there are different layers in the substrate are they softer or harder?
- If there are softer layers in the substrate then anchoring ability will be compromised to some degree.
- If there are harder layers in the substrate it is likely to increase your ground holding.
- If you hit a hard layer and keep pushing through 'churning' this will lessen your hold down as you are just boring a hole in that section.
- If you hit a hard section it is best to drill a pilot hole to help drive in the ground anchor without churning.
- If you drive them in too fast or do not put enough downward pressure on the drill you may just be boring a hole in the earth greatly lessening your hold down ability.
- Generally speaking the deeper the ground anchor, the greater the holding capacity.
- Deploying to a depth less than maximum will effect hold down.
- Is the ground wet or sodden? In our recent tests we've found some places that are like mush from 400mm beneath the surface. Wet ground will reduce your Ground Grabbers holding capacity.
- From our tests we have found our ground anchors tend to perform best installed vertically as they work on a different principal to hammer in pegs for ground holding.
- Screwing into the ground can disturb the substrate. At some stage in the future, when the substrate settles it is likely to increase anchoring ability.
There are other factors but these will give you an idea why we cannot give you a precise answer.
Here is a compilation of our tests so far.
Go ahead and contact us if you've any questions we can help answer.
More testing to be done on clay type soils. All tests below are vertical pull out tests.
Please read all notes & footnotes in relationship to the results below
| Vertically installed and vertical load | beach sand | Grassy softish sandy ground | wet/damp dirty sand | Mixed Clay/Loam. Notes* | Mixed Clay. See notes* | Firm Clay! |
| GRUJ 275mm x 8mm (10 7/8"x 5/16") | Not Recomended | 36.5kg (80.5lb) | 32kg (70lb) | 19kg (50lb) | 72.5kg (159lb) | TBA |
| Spike tent stake 300x10mm (12 x 3/8") | 3kg (6.6lb) | 17kg (37lb) | 20kg (44lb) | 7kg (15lb) | 23kg (50lb) | NA |
| GR13S, 300x10mm (12 x 3/8") | 21kg (46lb) | 63kg (138lb) | 55.5kg (122lb) | 46kg (101lb) | 99kg (218lb) | 227kg (499lb) |
| Spike tent 450x10mm (18 x 3/8") | 17.5kg (38lb) | 30kg (66lb) | 42.5kg (93lb) | 19kg (42lb) | 32kg (70lb) | NA |
| GR13M, 450x10mm (18 x 3/8") | 79kg (174lb) | 176kg (387lb) | 158kg (347lb) | 67kg (147lb) | 248kg (545lb) | 443kg (975lb) |
| Spike tent 600x10mm (24" x 3/8") | 18kg (39lb) | 46kg (101lb) | 49kg (108lb) | 88kg (193lb) | 109kg (240lb) | NA |
| GR13L, 600x10mm (24" x 3/8") | 129kg (284lb) | 290kg (638lb) | 249kg (548lb) | 239kg (526lb) | 239**kg (526lb) | 635kg (1397lb) |
| SR14 400mm (16") | 45kg (99lb) | 101kg (222lb) | 139.5kg (307lb) | 102kg (224lb) | 238kg (523lb) |
Do not use. Ground too hard
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| Spike tent stake 450mm x 15mm spike stake (18 x 5/8") | 7kg (15lb) | 59kg (130lb) | 47kg (103lb) | 40kg (88lb) | 63kg (138lb) | NA |
| GR14S, 450mm x 15mm (18 x 5/8") | 72kg (158lb) | 368kg (809lb) | 142kg (312lb) | 118kg (259lb) | 316kg (695lb) | NA |
| Spike tent stake 600mm x 15mm spike stake (24 x 5/8") | 26kg (57kg) | 109kg (240lb) | 69kg (152lb) | 98kg (215lb) | 228kg (501lb) | NA |
| GR14M, 600mm x 15mm (24 x 5/8") | 142kg (312lb) | 431kg (948lb) | 299kg (658lb) | 299kg (658lb) | 289**kg (636lb) | NA |
| Spike tent stake 900mm x 15mm spike stake (36 x 5/8") | 57kg (125lb) | 70kg (154lb) | 83kg (182lb) | >1000#kg (2200lb) | 999#kg (2198lb) | NA |
| GR14L, 900mm x 15mm (36 x 5/8") | 349kg (768lb) | 509kg (1120lb) | 478kg (1051lb) | >1000#kg (2200lb) | 798**#kg (1755lb) | NA |
| All are peak readings only in kg | ||||||
| Do Not Use | ||||||
| Not Recommended | ||||||
| Recommended | ||||||
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*Variable density and damp ground effecting readings
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** From aprx 400mm down the ground density was soft. Need to retest
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| > Reached crane scales 1,000kg max | ||||||
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# From depth of aprx 600mm Ground extremely dense
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Only deployed to 700mm due to extremely dense ground
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IMPORTANT NOTES
- SR14 = GroundGrabba Lite ** Not for commercial use
- All tests are vertical insertion and vertical loading.
- These are PEAK readings, even if only reached for a fraction of a second.
- DO YOUR OWN TESTING to determine actual hold down forces in the ground YOU are about to anchor down into.
- THESE READINGS ARE UNCERTIFIED AND UNOFFICIAL.
- DO NOT RELY ON OUR FINDINGS.
- No data yet available for harder grounds. TBA
- DO NOT deploy where there is a risk of striking underground services such as electricity, gas, communications, water, sewer
- GroundGrabba Pro (GR13S) 300mm
- GroundGrabba Pro I (GR13M) 450mm
- GroundGrabba Pro II (GR13L) 600mm
- GroundGrabba Lite (SR14) 400mm
- GroundGrabba GR14S Commercial Use 450mm
- GroundGrabba GR14M Commercial Use 600mm
- GroundGrabba GR14L Commercial Use 900mm
Independent Reviews
In August/September of 2018 Rv Daily online magazine did a review of hammer-in tent pegs versus screw-in tent pegs. This gave us great feedback and from here we realised what was originally intended as a screw-in tent peg, we had overshot the mark and created a ground anchor. The secret is in with the auger design and the flights.
Although the table of results from RV Daily has some ambiguity it gave us a good idea as to how ours performed in relationship to the others on the market at the time.
More recently a customer in the USA did some testing of his own on his farm using his agricultural equipment. This also revealed some great results for our GroundGrabba Pro I and GroundGrabba Pro II.