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Should I toss this biner


Peter_SS

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I have been given a HB Wales locking carabiner. It has been shelved its whole life. I was showing the kids how to assend and noticed that with my weight (155) on it the gate pin catches the hook. It does not have any issues when un loaded. Do I toss it?

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Gates not opening under body weight was common with old timey stuff like Bedayns which were otherwise perfectly OK. Gates which would open under body weight had the selling point that they worked much better for aid. If your biner is 'rated' and appears otherwise undamaged I wouldn't worry too much. OTOH something like a locker where failure=death and cost=cheap I would toss in a heartbeat if I lost confidence for some reason.

Biners both flex a lot and break easily with their gates open as looking at gate open vs gate closed test data will tell you. They're simply not intended for high gate open loads.

 

I think easy opening under body weight was first engineered by increasing clearance for the pin in the latch rather than stiffening the frame to any significant extent.

Edited by MisterMo
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  • 4 weeks later...

That is funny that you mention the Bunny Face, because I actually did this very thing, and hung half a biner about halfway up on the route, I think it was about February of 1997. I have always wondered who found it and what they thought. Probably made for some good noobie spray around the fire that night.

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