BD Ultralight Camalot Trigger Failure

Bought a rack of new Ultralights and on the first day climbing two of the triggers failed! Had to fix them in the backcountry with tape.

Has anyone else experienced this? Essentially, the trigger wire is a loop that runs through the plastic trigger--which has a tiny plastic clip to hold the wire place. But that clip doesn't do its job. The wire loop can easily pop out. And is very difficult to put back in (without tools). Happened with the #3 and #0.4, but only one wire clip failed on each cam, not both.

I'm kind of shocked by how badly it is designed. And I'm surprised I've not read about the issue. Did I just get an unlucky batch?

I will contact the vendor and BD but just venting and wondering if others have had this experience.

Happened to me too. I was racking up my new #3 and the trigger wire popped off. It was pretty frustrating trying to reattach with my sausage finders. Got it back on and it's been fine since.

Same thing has happens to mine twice on my #3 trigger wire pops off the tab holding it through the trigger..

Here's some images of the failure and the duct tape field fix. You can pop the wires back in with a small screwdriver or the like. Possibly with your fingers if they're tiny, dextrous, and not cold.

Sort of glad to hear I'm not the only one. But hopefully BD offer a fix. Otherwise I might need to add a drop of epoxy.

Sometimes the cables pop out of the holders. That's not specific to the Ultralights. That can happen on any generation of Camalots. It's an extremely easy fix, just put it back in place. I've never had trouble reassembling it. Just use the tip of your finger to hold the cable in place, and use your other hand to pull the cable tight. That will fix it.

20 kN wrote: It's an extremely easy fix, just put it back in place. I've never had trouble reassembling it.

It is fairly easy to reassemble I agree, though not on lead. But it keeps popping out, so that's not really a fix. My #0.4 has popped out 3 times in three days, once from just being in a bag.

Kyle vH wrote: It is fairly easy to reassemble I agree, though not on lead. But it keeps popping out, so that's not really a fix. My #0.4 has popped out 3 times in three days, once from just being in a bag.

Ah, yea, that's excessive. I normally have them pop out when in my bag, and it doesent happen often. If it's happening that often that's a problem. Maybe some epoxy would fix it.

Yeah I think a drop of epoxy is probably the right move for me. Even if BD updated that trigger bar it would be a bit of a hassle to ship them back and forth.

Thanks for mentioning that it has happened in your bag, and on other generations. That does give me some perspective. I hadn't seen it in 15 years of the older generations so it was a bit of a surprise.

20 kN wrote:Sometimes the cables pop out of the holders. That's not specific to the Ultralights. That can happen on any generation of Camalots. It's an extremely easy fix, just put it back in place. I've never had trouble reassembling it. Just use the tip of your finger to hold the cable in place, and use your other hand to pull the cable tight. That will fix it.

Yep - not unique to ULs. I've had this happen with other Camalots. A little drop of hot glue will do the trick.

i wouldn't epoxy-- would make replacing the trigger wires (if they ever become frayed) really hard to do. Duct tape seems like a better solution...or maybe a drop from a hot glue gun?

Thanks for the info and recommendations.

But how many grams does the duct tape or epoxy add?

Hello everybody,

This also happened to my #3 when my partner was cleaning the piece but he was using a nut tool to pull a trigger coz I shoved the cam pretty well. So it's at least half of my fault.

Not a huge deal, I managed to get the wires back and it looks like nothing has happened to it.

And yes, it can occur with any BD cams. However, it is a bit surprising how many cases have already accumulated with BD Ultralights during less then 9 months since these cams are in the market.

BD, your call now...

It also happened to me with two of the cams, after only using them twice. In 8 previous years of heavy use of the original C4s, this never happened. It's definitely the design of the ULs.

mpech wrote:i wouldn't epoxy-- would make replacing the trigger wires (if they ever become frayed) really hard to do. Duct tape seems like a better solution...or maybe a drop from a hot glue gun?

rubber cement? peel it off when ready to replace...

I think it might have to do with lack of a trigger bar stop. When the cam is stuffed in a pack, other cams push on the trigger bar and mash the cam's trigger bar towards it own lobes. This would tend to try to push the cables out of the clips. My bigger concern is that is excessively folds the trigger cables and will cause early fraying and failure of the trigger cables. That's my theory at least. I wrapped tape around the stem in the same location that C4's and other cams have a trigger stop, and I think this fixes the issue.

Look at your other cams. None of them allow the trigger bar to move any closer to the lobes than in the "passive/neutral" position.

This happened on a route, returned to Rei, then happened on a really big route. Not cool, needed cam, could not stop to fix mid route and now carried useless #4 up 10 pitches. To me it looks like they shortened the plastic that goes over the wire, making it easier for the wire to pop out than in previous designs. Not sure I trust it now.

This Has happened to me with several UL as well. Pretty disappointed given the cost. Looks like the UL needs a redesign. On the first few, I thought they were defective and sent them back, but it keeps happening. I guess I'll experiment with ways of keeping the wire in place, but seems silly to go to that length and always have a concern in the back of my mind for cams at $90-$130/piece. The stuff should work without modification, especially brand new! What's up, BD?

Air Alexy wrote:It also happened to me with two of the cams, after only using them twice. In 8 previous years of heavy use of the original C4s, this never happened. It's definitely the design of the ULs.

+1

It happens maybe once every few years with C4s and older Camalots. But my UL #3 popped a wire after 2 days. The UL trigger wire is clearly a smaller diameter, and appears to me to be springier. Together these make it easy to pop out. Add in the bone-headed lack of a trigger bar stop, and you have a really weak design.

BD added a trigger bar stop to the Camalots when they went from Gen. 2 to Gen. 3; no conceivable reason to go backwards on that important little feature.

Gunkiemike, "no conceivable reason to go backwards on that important little feature"

weight savings bud

For a part that weighs less than half a gram? That seems pretty stupid.