BoltBuster - Horizontal climbing hanger break test in slow motion

Do you want to see how strong horizontal hangers are when they break? Check it out on this episode of how not to bolt bust. Hi, I'm Ryan Jinks, and welcome to my gear room. Today, we are going to talk here on Bolt Busters about horizontal hangers, why there are horizontal hangers, and watch them break, because that's what we love to do here at Bolt Busters. Since this is not something we use for high lining, it's designed for lower offs, and I don't climb as often as I used to. I'm going to have Bobby explain why there are horizontal hangers. Hi, I'm Bobby, and I climb way more than Ryan does. That's true. So with our normal climbing hanger that you see out there a lot, it doesn't work too well for lower off anchors, because if you put one quick link in there and then have the rope going through, it's mashing it directly against the rock. So to make this work, there are generally two links in the chain, either a quick link and a second quick link, or a quick link and a ring. So with the horizontal hanger, you can use one link, and it is oriented nicely against the cliff, so it's not creating any pinching or rubbing right against the cliff. A caveat with this setup is often these are put too far apart, and when the rope is this far apart, it can create twisting in the rope, and oftentimes you don't want them too close together because of rock quality. So something to consider when you're installing these. So do you want them close together or not close together? So if they're close together, you're worried about rock quality. If they're too far apart, you're worried about your rope becoming a tangled mess when you're done. And what is a good distance? A number of bolt manufacturers say... 10 times diameter. 10 times the diameter of the bolt. So that means half inches, five inches apart, right? And so five inches is probably only, you know, if your hand is spread out like that. So if you've climbed at all, you'll see what like pretty normal standard anchors are. But let me tell you why this is pretty like amazing to me. I was on a... We're trying to repel the stove legs on El Capitan, and we put a rope in the chains in a way that it pinched our rope against the rock in such a way we could not get a rope back. And it had only that much of a twist and we could not get it fixed. And we had to jug the rope like this. There was no other options. We tried everything for hours and hours and called Yosar and everything. And so this makes a lot of sense why there's horizontal hangers out there. Now, what we did test here is a zinc plated hanger because when we were shopping for this stuff, that's all we saw. But because we shit on zinc plated shit and recommend you use stainless for everything, we looked up to see if they made stainless options. Don't know why we didn't do that earlier. But anyways, they make stainless options. This would be probably good for something like in a climbing gym. I assume that's why they make this stuff. They also make it with the ring already attached, which is pretty convenient since there's a weld keeping this thing shut. And if these get worn out from lowering off, you could always cut them out and install quick links later. However, I like the way these work as far as the concept of a lower off anchor. Please don't install zinc plated stuff outside. And please don't install bolts if you don't have to. But anyways, let's get to the brake tests. What we did is we pulled these things in sheer since there's really no point in pulling them in tension. And we got 20.74 kilonewtons, 21.22 kilonewtons, and 20.2 kilonewtons. And it basically the carabiner would roll off to one side, turn it into an angled hanger and break it like a normal hanger. Now, these are zinc plated ones that are probably intended for the inside of climbing gyms, which makes sense why they would have them. However, they're rated for 18 kilonewtons and we got some. All our results were higher than 18 kilonewtons. Then they do make stainless steel versions of this. I don't know why we didn't buy the stainless steel versions. Don't think we thought they existed. But luckily they do because that is what you're supposed to use outside. And I do recommend the ones that have rings embedded in it. So you don't have to add quick links later and people trying to mess with them. You could always cut the ring off if it's getting worn down and add a quick link a couple years down the road if it's a super popular route. Those stainless steel versions do have stamped on them 26 kilonewtons, but the website says 30 kilonewtons. And because I know how fixed hangers are, they're probably in the high 30s if not 40s for their breaking strength. So I definitely recommend these for lower off anchors. And if you want to learn how to bolt, you can go to the Bolting Bible. We have tons of information on there on how to install bolts. Now, the whole point of bolt busters and the Bolting Bible is to promote not bolting. If you don't have to bolt, please don't. Because once you stick a hole in a rock and put a bolt in there, either people have to maintain it or you have to add new holes and it turns our climbing crags into Swiss cheese. So if you're gonna put in bolts, please put in some good shit and not this zinc plated crap. So stainless steel for life. Get it? If you have suggestions for the Bolting Bible, please let us know as we are actually in the process of revising it as you're watching this. And we will add any thoughts you have into it to make sure it is the most accumulative knowledge database for how to bolt so we can have the best bolts out there around the world. We post every week a series of break tests. So make sure you follow, like, and subscribe to our YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram so you don't miss a single one. Cheers. Hey, thanks for watching. But don't be an idiot and try highlining without going with somebody who knows what they're doing the first time you go out. We actually have available now the Highline University International, which is A to Z everything you need to know before you go highlining. This teaches you how to use a highline that's already rigged. So let's talk about some leash management. That's the H0 course, which is out right now and available at hownottohighline.com. It's over 100 videos with quizzes, PDFs, illustrations, and it comes with homework and teachers that you submit it to. It's a very interactive online school. So you get to learn in person online.