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We used to tap them back out with the same small lumphammer we hammered them in with. If there was a stuck peg, we'd lever it out with another peg. We never had any problems.Originally Posted by chazza
Considering we used them in limestone mountains, we rarely ran into such problems. The holes in the hedgehog were big enough that you had a certain amount of wiggle room and could angle the peg off in different directions if you did strike a rock. And there were enough holes in the hedgehog that you could easily afford to miss a few. I agree that they aren't suitable to 100% of situations, but I'd be confident that they'd get you out of trouble 90% of the time. Again I'm referring back to climbing techniques here, but if the ground were hard enough that I couldn't get an ground anchor in, then I'd probably be looking for a rock to get a sling around, or a crack in the rock to get a chock into and anchor off of that. I'm not claiming any massive 4x4 experience here, you aussies are the experts at thatI'm just looking at the problem from a different point of view. I do like your stake idea though, I guess it's all the same principle really - distribution of load. On a slightly different topic, we had to do many courses on this kind of stuff many moons ago, and there is an optimum angle between your anchor points, which if exceeded, significantly decreases the effectiveness of the anchor point, and increases the chance of it getting ripped out (and in the case of winching out a truck, getting planted through your windscreen). I'll see if I can get the material emailed to me - it makes for an interesting read.
I would, and have done in the past, bet my life on it.
I've never used these, but they look very similar to what we use in snow rescue - we call them dead man anchors. The key is getting the correct angle on them - too shallow and they pull out, too steep and they rip the ground up like a plough. Get them in at 45 degrees and you have a rock solid anchor to work from.
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