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Crag & Route Beta

Area	Location	Sub Location	Crag	Links
VIC Southwest	Werribee Gorge	(General)	(General)	[ Werribee Guide \| Images ]

Topic Date User

Unsafe bolts at the Falcons lookout 15-Oct-2015 At 11:21:35 PM Dave_S

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And we did indeed replace them. Here's a report on that.

A huge number of bolts were loose to the point where the hanger could freely rotate. This is extremely concerning, as loading the bolts when they are loose will cause damage, as you can clearly see in many of the images linked below. A tight bolt keeps the hanger clamped tight against the rock, such that when loaded, the load is taken up by friction between these surfaces, and the hanger does not actually pull down on the bolt. However, when the bolt is loose, there is no friction between the hanger and the rock, and instead the hanger pulls down onto the bolt, crushing threads and/or cutting into it. This is especially problematic with bolts that have an external nut, rather than a bolt head. (The bolt headed ones like the Rawl 5-piece have an unthreaded body section immediately below the head, so there's more material directly under the hanger, and the hanger is not in contact with threads.)

All 10mm bolts were tightened to 35Nm and 12mm bolts (just the anchors above the Holiday Sidewinder arete) to 50Nm, as per Ramset's recommendations, using a poor man's torque wrench. (Which is equally usable by tightarse men, poor women, and tightarse women.) Bolts were tightened on the following climbs.

Barbara Streisand:

1: Tightened, I think with Loctite, but not certain.
2: Tightened, I think with Loctite, but not certain.
3: Loose. Bolt under hanger was rusted and worn down due to loading while loose. Cleaned, applied Loctite and tightened. (Image)
4: Loose. Bolt under hanger was rusted and worn down due to loading while loose. Cleaned, applied Loctite and tightened. (Image)
5: Loose. Bolt under hanger was rusted and worn down due to loading while loose. Cleaned, applied Loctite and tightened. (Image)

Tina the Ballarina:

1: Tightened, I think with Loctite, but not certain.
2: Tightened, I think with Loctite, but not certain.
3: Loose but undamaged. Cleaned, applied Loctite and tightened. (Image)
4: Loose. Bolt under hanger was rusted and worn down due to loading while loose. Cleaned, applied Loctite and tightened. (Image)
5: Loose. Heavily rusted non-SS washer. Could not fully remove nut as it jammed after loosening it a few turns and I was concerned about damaging the bolt. Tightened without Loctite. (Image)
6: Already tight. (I think.) Did not modify.

Snatch and Grab:

1: Tightened, I think with Loctite, but not certain.
2: Tightened, I think with Loctite, but not certain.
3: Loose with rusty non-SS washer, and I think this one I wasn't able to tighten as its nut was too small for my socket.
4: Loose but undamaged. Cleaned, applied Loctite and tightened. (Image)

Redex:

All bolts except 4 and 7 tightened with Loctite. Bolts 4 (Image) and 7 (Image) were 5-piece bolts (hex head rather than nut) which my smallest socket was too large for. The anchor bolts to the right of the block at the top, above Holiday Sidewinder, were also tightened with Loctite.

There's very likely still a lot of loose bolts out there, so be careful, and carry a spanner!