Staking Awning Tiedowns

[revrnd]

I had a problem last season when I tried to anchor my tiedowns @ a campground in northern Ontario. The campsite was on a mix of sand & gravel & the dog chain stake wouldn't hold. Does anyone have a suggestion or alternative method for anchoring?

[Herk7769]

You could try bottles of water. The 3 gallon square blue ones have molded in handles that would take a tie down or bungee cord. There are 6 gallon round versions that have handles molded in too.

Bella could easily run with a 6 gallon bottle of water tied to her neck, but I doubt she would run very far.

[KyDan]

Harbor Freight has "auger" anchors. I use them to tie down my
portable green house but I'm not sure if you'd be able to get then
into gravely ground. There are anchors made specifically for sand.
They have a mushroom head and you dig a hole and bury them.
I don't know where you'd shop for them however...

Some thoughts-- Last summer we camped at Jacob Lake campground
in the Kaibab National forest near the North rim of the Grand Canyon.
One afternoon it was breezy and sunny and warm.
We just happened to be talking to the camp host near our trailer.
We heard a noise like "cars on the expressway" and looked up to
see the biggest dust devil I have ever seen.
It was ripping across the camp ground headed right for our trailer.
All we had time to do was grab the lower bars on my awning
and hang on.
It made a direct hit on my trailer but luckily it hit the opposite
side first. We closed our eyes and mouths and hung on and it
was over in 5 seconds.
When we opened our eyes my awning was unscathed!!
It had literally lifted me partially off my feet at one point.
Our pockets were filled with pine needles and sand.
The spokes on my motorcycle were laced with pine needles!
We had to take the bed clothes off the bed and shake them out.
What a mess.

It was such a large dust devil the fire service guys in a near by
fire tower sent over a line truck to check out the campground.
When they saw the dust plume they thought it was a smoke
column!!

I am sure my awning would have been tossed over the top
of the trailer if we had not just happened to be standing there
to hang on to it.

I'm now in favor of leaving the awning poles clipped to the bottom
of the trailer rather than standing them straight up and using
some sort of little ground anchor to try and hold them.
If the anchor pulls out your awning is going to wind up mangled
on top of your trailer.

[revrnd]

I have a couple of 5 Imperial gallon gas cans that are empty thru the summer. I could toss them in the truck if I thought I'd have a problem anchoring the awning.

[grhodes50]

I've used these;
Happy Hook Awning Tie Down Kit - RVWholesalers.com RV Parts

They are easy to set up and worked well for me on my manual awning.