Do All Tents Come With Mallets?
Some of the links below are affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. This means that, at zero cost to you, I will earn an affiliate commission if you click through the link and finalize a purchase.
Tents are popular whether you are camping on a site with family, wild camping or camping for one night at a time while hiking it is likely you will need a mallet to push your pegs into the ground.
Not all tents come wit mallets, this is due to different terrains require different types of mallets to enforce the peg into the ground. Tents which are based on grassy fields or at campsites require simple rubber mallet where hills and mountainsides require a stake hammer.
In this article we are going to look at what tent companies sell tents with mallets, what type of mallet you need and whether you need one at all.
Do I Need a Mallet to Put Up a Tent?
You need a mallet to put up a tent, however, the ground texture and the type of stakes your tent has is a determining factor.
A mallet can easily get a plastic peg into the ground, but mountain tops, rocky surfaces, or harder stakes might require a hard hammer.
Regardless of whether you need to set up an enormous shade beside your caravan, portable pop up fun tent, or extend the tent-like roof of your motorhome, they cannot be mounted without the need for mallets.
This implies that the regular mallet that is included in your tent might not be the most ideal choice. There are so many alternatives available in the market, including some that act as peg pullers, purchasing a mallet that meets your camping needs requires careful attention.
With so many tents available in the market, the majority of them require a mallet for installation while few require a related tool.
The few instances you might require another tool instead of a mallet are examined below:
A Rocky Surface
In this case, a rock stake is utilized, most regular campers own a different kind of pegs, mallets, and hammers to go with them. Asides from a rocky surface, the ground might be frozen, in such scenarios: a metal hammer works better than the regular mallet that comes to your tent.
A Screw Peg
Even though some screw pegs are light and require hands (not recommended) or mallets to get them into the ground, some are extremely strong and would require a hard hammer or drill to pin them down. For very strong pegs, a mallet might bend or push them inappropriately into the ground, a perfect tool for screw pegs is required to get the peg into the ground.
A well-placed peg aids effective tent pinning and proper balance after installation.
A Free-Standing Tent
Aside from having to peg these tent types during extreme weather conditions, they barely need mallets for installation. Some just require you to tie them down to a light stake, trees, or surfaces around it.
All in all, you need to keep a mallet handy as most campsites have soft soil and require a mallet to push in a peg. Utilizing a strong hammer on a soft peg or soil can damage the beg. It is safe to say that a mallet is more useful for most tents than a hammer.
Do All Tents Come With Mallets?
Not all tents come with mallets. However, most recent tents come with mallets. The thing with tents is: “you get what you pay for”. This is the reason why you have to conduct a proper search to know your needs and what works.
A tent below the average price range probably comes with only pegs for installation. Although some low priced ones still come with a mallet for strict usage (only to be used on the pegs that come with the tent)
Recently, most tents come with plastic or aluminium pegs and require a mallet to get it stuck firmly to the ground, it comes as an additional tool inside the tent bag. This is because most tent owners reportedly use their feet as a makeshift to get the plastic pegs into the ground.
Nevertheless, the inappropriate force from the foot makes the pegs lose their shape, thereby causing the tent to lose balance, this reason and more, necessitated the need for mallets to come as an additional tool in a tent.
If you are purchasing another tent and contemplating whether the tents come with mallets, The verdict is yes but it varies and it is dependent on the type of stakes that accompany it.
Contingent upon the tent and sort of patented installation pegs, it probably won’t be an impractical notion to replace them. This is because some of the mallets are not strong enough to get a tent peg into hard ground. (Low budget tents often come with mallets that are not usable in some campsites).
A high-quality tent comes with a highly effective mallet, You can affirm this by taking a look at the images drawn at the tent pack, reading the reviews, or checking the product description as it usually states everything that comes with it. If yours doesn’t come with a mallet, you can contact the Manufacturer to know if your tent has one.
A Tip for Newbies
In case you’re new to outdoor adventure or you’ve been out of the camping game for some time, the thought of what comes with a new tent must have crossed your mind.
Do I need to purchase a new mallet for easy installation of the tent or will the new tent come with one? Every tent should come with a mallet, regardless of whether you really need to utilize them or not. But, most simple beach tents rarely do, neither do they need one to get the tent installed.

Unfortunately, most tent producers list the packaged product weight without the weight of an included mallet, then go further to supply the least expensive hard mallets they can locate. The tent mallets that accompany most tents are outrageous, heavy and some can bend the pegs upon mounting the tent.
The odds that recently manufactured tents don’t come with mallets are few. But if you intend camping consistently, you should get better mallets to suit your needs. Another strategy that can be implemented to curb the disappointment of an ineffective mallet, is to opt for premium brands.
What Tents Come with Mallets?
Some Tent brands that come with mallets are:
- WhiteDuck
- Outop
- Glamcamp
- TetOn Sports
- Luna Bell tents
- Star bell tents
- Weekender Polyester Bell Tent
- Nova Air
How Do I Know What Mallet To Use?
As I said previously finding the right mallet for the type of camping you are doing it important. If you are camping at a site or within a field which will have soft ground or grassy land then a rubber mallet will be the most suitable.
This is to be able to give enough impact onto the head of the peg without damaging it, the rubber will protect the head of the peg from damage and is more child friendly.
If you are camping on rougher terrain during hikes, climbs and trails you may find you need something harder, more like a hammer than a mallet. You can find these in outdoor and camping stores. They are stronger, tougher and will create a direct impact with the peg into the rougher ground.
Something to note is that if you are going to more hard wearing and tough terrain check if your pegs are up to the task as you want to make sure your pegs can handle the ground and the mallet you choose to use.