Broken Climb-X Bolt Hangers

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Messages 1 - 30 of total 30 in this topic
20_kN

Sport climber
20 kN Land
Topic Author's Original Post - Aug 31, 2015 - 01:39am PT
Yet again a broken Climb X hanger photo came across my news feed. I think this is the fourth case I have heard about this problem.












Rock!...oopsie.

Trad climber
the pitch above you
Aug 31, 2015 - 04:44am PT
They're 34% off on their website right now, seems like a deal since the failure rate is way lower than that ;-)
franky

Trad climber
Black Hills, SD
Aug 31, 2015 - 07:44am PT
solution- buy the tried and true, Fixe.
crunch

Social climber
CO
Aug 31, 2015 - 09:51am PT
Jumping Jeesus in the Cross! Bolt hangers have been around for ~50 years. How difficult is it to design and make a reliable one in this day and age?

"For Pete's Sake!"
couchmaster

climber
Aug 31, 2015 - 09:54am PT
Simple Crunch. Here's 3 ways to screw up a bolt hanger. I'm not saying that occurred here, although any could be the issue.

1st) You skip the passivation process. Easy to do.

2nd) Possibly cleaning it with some kind of Chloride solution to get the oil off before you ship it. Chinese/ROC are very literal (and honorable) when they get an order. If you don't tell them to harden a screw, it won't get hardened for example. If you told them to "remove all machining oil before shipment", but didn't specify the method so they used some type of caustic pickling solution or chloride cleaner, you'd have issues. The picture in the first post exhibits classic characteristics of SCC and something along those lines is what I think most likely occurred. More on that: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stress_corrosion_cracking

3rd) It may be that a print was sent over with out a material spec, and "stainless steel" was ordered, and the factory had a bunch of other material like 410 Stainless or like (insert alt non 18-8 material here) laying there and ask: "Can we use extra 410 stainless from canceled job we give you discount" and it was approved.

Ask Jim Titt, he's an expert in this stuff, he may have 5 more reasons.
healyje

Trad climber
Portland, Oregon
Aug 31, 2015 - 09:55am PT
Not really any surprise.
Moof

Big Wall climber
Orygun
Aug 31, 2015 - 10:29am PT
Rot-gut bottom of the barrel hardware from a knock off of low-end Mad Rock turns out to be rot-gut bottom of the barrel quality. News at 11.
Roger Brown

climber
Oceano, California
Aug 31, 2015 - 11:06am PT
I have pulled a lot of bolt/hangers and some pretty violently. I have never had one break and the only broken ones I have seen were those thin SMC ones. I agree; FIXI are the best!
Oops, I did see the after effects of when that big rockfall on Hall of Mirrors took out a couple pitches Clint and I had replaced a couple seasons before. A couple FIXI hangers were torn apart, but most were intact, just flattened.
Batrock

Trad climber
Burbank
Aug 31, 2015 - 02:15pm PT
They are just a little broken, whats the big deal?
thebravecowboy

climber
The Good Places
Aug 31, 2015 - 02:18pm PT
all this fuss over busted churchkeys?
clinker

Trad climber
Santa Cruz, California
Aug 31, 2015 - 02:44pm PT
SS is brittle when there is not enough nickel in it and makes for a shiny time bomb.
couchmaster

climber
Aug 31, 2015 - 03:26pm PT
Batrock asked:
"They are just a little broken, whats the big deal?"

Ya think that hanger will probably buff out then? Might. LOL
FRUMY

Trad climber
Bishop,CA
Aug 31, 2015 - 03:29pm PT
Oh I'm sure a little buffing & maybe a little glue. It's all good.
AAA

Big Wall climber
The great America!
Sep 1, 2015 - 01:40am PT
Yea, Climb Tech and Climb-X are two very, very different companies....
tradmanclimbs

Ice climber
Pomfert VT
Sep 1, 2015 - 03:31am PT
I use climb tech. good american made stuff. Never bought climx hangers but did buy about 20 pagan hangers about 5 years ago? hope they wern't the same shite..
mucci

Trad climber
The pitch of Bagalaar above you
Sep 1, 2015 - 07:26am PT
Surprised nobody has mentioned Fusion Brand hangers.

I remember some bad press on the metal.
jaaan

Trad climber
Chamonix, France
Sep 1, 2015 - 07:33am PT
I can see the problem from here. Some idiot tightened the nuts up with a wrench. Finger tight only for these babies...
Greg Barnes

climber
Sep 1, 2015 - 08:28am PT
I use climb tech. good american made stuff.
I thought Climbtech made their hangers in Taiwan?

Fixe - Spain, Petzl - France, Metolius hangers used to be US but went to Korea many years ago - not sure any hangers are made in the US anymore? Maybe the Metolius rap hangers are still made here (those are not stainless by the way…). Moses of course, but Theron is not exactly in the bulk hanger production business.

Of course with Leeper and SMC in the made-in-the-US hanger history catalog, might not be a bad thing!
crunch

Social climber
CO
Sep 1, 2015 - 09:25am PT
"solution- buy the tried and true, Fixe."...


+1...

Hmmmmm......... not so fast......

http://www.alpenverein.de/bergsport/sicherheit/fixe-umlenkung_aid_16119.html

franky

Trad climber
Black Hills, SD
Sep 1, 2015 - 07:28pm PT
Solution- don't trust your life to a single point, I guess.
Batrock

Trad climber
Burbank
Sep 1, 2015 - 07:30pm PT
About the worn shuts being "stronger". I remember reading something about the worn groove kept the rope at the bottom of the shut which kept the rope in line and prevented it from riding up the open side and bending it open. It was somewhere on ST, maybe a banquo thread?

Oops, wrong thread.
bhilden

Trad climber
Mountain View, CA/Boulder, CO
Sep 1, 2015 - 10:03pm PT
^^^^^^^^^
Crunch,

you gotta love the design of that German anchor. Redundancy all the way to the single point of failure and then redundancy after that. Who designs these things?
Greg Barnes

climber
Sep 1, 2015 - 10:17pm PT
Yeah, that Euro single point anchor idea is just weird, all these bomber bolts then a single rap ring. Weird even if rings never wore down. Around 1999 or so we had Fixe make us a few "ASCA" trad anchors - the vertical ones with the two hangers connected by chain to a single ring - but we had them weld on a second ring on the lower hanger so it had redundancy (they probably thought Americans are crazy). Guess we should check them for the welded chain link, if we can remember where any of them are (I think one of them is at an upper belay on Stoner's Highway, and maybe there's one on the 3rd or 4th or 5th pitch anchor of the DNB?).

Never ordered them again since we didn't have the money, and we preferred re-using the original holes (old holes never lined up with the correct spacing - no surprise).

Edit: checked my old notes, looks like there are those ASCA double-ring-on-bottom-hanger Fixe trad anchors on pitch 4,5,6,7,8 anchors of Stoner's, and the pitch 5 anchor of the DNB. Anyone heading up there want to bring a camera and check on the welds on the uppermost chain links?
jaaan

Trad climber
Chamonix, France
Sep 2, 2015 - 03:27am PT
Interesting to look at FIXE's ratings for the individual parts of their belay systems. Not easy to read the very light figures. These are for SS and the darker figures are for plated steel. The chain and the rings are the strongest parts. This is a page from an old catalogue I've just found in the depths of my desk:



What however is surprising is the angle at which they show the hangers - they will rotate and unscrew the nuts when loaded. I'm guessing this is just the draughtsman's error that has managed to get past their tech department?
karabin museum

Trad climber
phoenix, az
Sep 5, 2015 - 07:10am PT
Climb Tech bolt hangers were originally coming from China.

SS FIXE hangers used to be stamped 44KN but since the Fixe Bolt is rated to only 30KN, now the hangers are stamped 30KN to match the bolts breaking point. But the hangers themselves will still hold 44KN.

Climb X hangers had a bad batch of metal but that issue has been resolved. The Pitt Bull hangers on ebay are now being sold through Climb X.

The 1974 SMC hangers were over tempered and were cracking easily, and there are a lot of these still on the walls. If the SMC word is stamped horizontally you are dead. If the SMC stamp is vertical (sideways) the hanger is bomber (thicker metal).
Steve Grossman

Trad climber
Seattle, WA
Sep 5, 2015 - 02:42pm PT
Marty- Those early SMC hangers were made from chromoly and not stainless steel which is why they fractured easily once deformed. The SMC folks claimed that they had never had a case of failure with their stainless steel bolt hangers placed properly when I made inquiries several years ago.
karabin museum

Trad climber
phoenix, az
Sep 5, 2015 - 09:21pm PT
Thanks Steve. Many people have told me that they were cracking from being over tempered. But maybe they just assumed that. I replaced a few of these early SMC hangers on Sven Slab in the McDowell Mtns AZ because I could visually see the cracks under the rusty bolts. The newer SS SMC hangers are totally bomber. That 1970s rescue from Pinnacle Peak AZ where a climber decked off of the Requium was caused by a broken early SMC hanger.

Did you score that other Dolt hanger with the green tag?
Juan Maderita

Trad climber
"OBcean" San Diego, CA
Sep 5, 2015 - 09:54pm PT
Marty, I've never heard from an expert source about the cause of the old SMC hangers cracking. I don't believe it is solely due to the materials choice of chromoly steel, as Steve suggests. I'm also skeptical that it is due to improper heat treatment. Chromoly hangers should be heat treated after the stamping and bending is completed.
I've long suspected that it is due to hydrogen embrittlement during the acid pickling and plating process. Hydrogen embrittlement is a well known problem affecting high-strength steel.
tradmanclimbs

Ice climber
Pomfert VT
Sep 6, 2015 - 05:30pm PT
I don't get the fixation with useing the old holes for rap/ belay station replacement. If they are in the right place great. If the Fa did a botch job of it then the replacement crew has the opertunity to clean things up and do it right.
pinckbrown

Trad climber
Woodfords, CA
Sep 7, 2015 - 07:11am PT
A photo of the two different SMC bolt hangers

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