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Carrot failure @ Muline 14-Nov-2013 At 12:46:48 PM nmonteith

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On 14/11/2013 patto wrote:
>It seems that Neil expected that all carrot bolts were extremely reliable
>(or can be visually inspected). His faith has been shattered and that
>is extremely confronting and scary.

As someone who has replaced hundred of carrots I can certainly say your statement is far from the truth! I am fully aware that carrots can be bad and that the physics holding them in isn't great. I've pulled out many with little effort.

What shattered my faith is that a bolt that had held a large fall from me in the past would then fail so quickly from a small load in the future. This bolt would have held other falls in the past most likely, or at least held considerable outwards force from seconds falling off. Why it just decided to part ways with the cliff this time is a mystery - and one of the problems of carrots.

For an expansion to fail like this would require the nut to fall off the head (obviously loose) or the rock to be so chossy that the expansion cone is not big enough (obviously loose again). Glue-ins are the same. When they begin to fail over time the glue begins to break up and the bolt starts to loosen. Years later, and after many falls this wobble gets to be really wobbly. Even then it still takes a lot of force and engineering to extract it! The bolt will come out bit by bit over time - not fail instantly.

> (Personally I have always been quite cautious to avoid outward load even
>if resting on a carrot bolt.)

As Kent said, these bolts are installed on an overhung wall. Take a look at the first photo on page 1.