Vehicle Anchor

Bunch of hot chicks did it in that movie The Descent

What size bolt is proper for attachment to a vehicle substrate?

Is 3/8" x 2-1/2" enough? Should I go 3-1/2"?

What if I'm parked in the desert?

Maybe glue-ins work better on side-panels or fenders?

Just go with titanium glue ins and call it done. Your life is worth that much, right?

Glue-ins anchored to a vehicle require JB weld or Lock-tite. Noobs.

Incidentally, gas and oil don't generally damage nylon (but who wants an oily rope?); however acid is bad. Don't anchor to the battery. Also, don't anchor around your brake lines on the axle or you could end up with a whole new set of problems.

You know what? It all comes down to common sense. Don't do anything stupid, and you should be just fine.

Careful of corrosives. Nylon and gas and/or exhaust residue probably aren't a good combo. Maybe use chain?

Just use the shackles on the recovery points on your vehicle:

If I were to do it ( have definitely seen application for it before ) I would back the vehicle up with the tail facing the top of climb, chock rear tires and I would treat it like any other anchor i.e. two points equalized to a master point. In my head I am building this off of the tow hitch assembly which is always mounted directly to the frame of the vehicle. I would not trust the bumper flares, any point of vehicle body, rims etc. The frame and strength rated parts associated with the frame are all I would trust and the vehicle's position is important In my opinion as well.

I have seen SAR teams do this before and during my time with SAR, we used our big rigs once or twice when in a pinch.

So there we have it. If SAR uses Land Rovers as anchors, my Tacoma should be able to do the trick for a rap or toprope. I figured it's probably fine, my truck weighs a lot and is probably more solid than some bolts in sandstone. It's one of those things that seems kinda scary because it's not stuck in the ground, but of course you'll be fine if you set it up right.. and wear a helmet of course..

For those of you wondering, I asked the question because yes, most routes are bolted but without anchors... Which is super weird to me. Last time there I saw a chopped bolt anchor haha. There are somewhat solid-looking junipers about 30 ft back from the cliff, they don't seem like their roots go very deep but they're probably fine... It's that mental thing of thinking the whole time you rap down a route that all of a sudden your anchor's not so good after all.

I haven't tried too hard to get to know any Montrose climbers as I live in Telluride.. And there's not much info on the area other than the fact that it's there! If anyone knows who bolted the routes or is chopping bolts maybe tell him to chill out. Anyway, other than that it's a great place to climb in the winter!

You should only do it if the vehicle is an Xterra....

m.youtube.com/watch?v=NmpM8…

'Don't trust the rims' Apparently all 6 lug nuts are going to rip out simultaneously lol.

Seems OK to me.

Depends on the park spot obviously, but you don't sound like the kind of person to park on a scree slope.

I've rapped off a Jeep many times, it's fine. Awhile back I tried wincing my Jeep across the dirt with all four wheels locked to see how much force it could resist before starting to slide. It took about 5,000 lbs, which is stronger than some 3/8" bolts.

Lock the vehicle in 4x4 low range, pull the parking brake, lock the wheels to the extreme left or right, and you're fine. You could block the wheels, but honestly it's not needed. Between your transmission pin and parking brake, the chances of both failing are no higher than the chances of a sport anchor ripping out. If you dont have 4x4 low range, then I would jam a pipe of sorts between your seat and the brake pedal (while the engine is running) and block the wheels.

As far as anchor points go, you could use an OEM recovery point, which is connected to the frame, or you could just wrap your rear axle with some webbing. Either would be fine.

If you have a tow-hitch, that's a good anchor point, too.

A lot of mention of parking perpendicular to the cliff. Wouldn't you want to park parallel?

bcaiell3 wrote:A lot of mention of parking perpendicular to the cliff. Wouldn't you want to park parallel?

You wouldn't park perpendicular, the OP couldn't think of the right geometric sounding P word and got it wrong. Everyone else just went along.

I've TR'd off a Camry with no issue fwiw.

Funny, people will usually trust two expansion bolts in rock at an anchor but are sketched out hanging from a tow hitch of a truck.

http://www.rescuetech1.com/instanthitchanchor.aspx

Matty1985 wrote:Funny, people will usually trust two expansion bolts in rock at an anchor but are sketched out hanging from a tow hitch of a truck. rescuetech1.com/instanthitc…

+1
Also.....the paranoia about being able to move a 1-2 ton anchor vehicle with the forces involved in a TR or rap by people who would think nothing of doing the same by tying off a 500lb boulder.

DrRockso wrote:'Don't trust the rims' Apparently all 6 lug nuts are going to rip out simultaneously lol.

Steel vs Alloy vs Aluminum vs other fancy forged metal etc. The point is that a rim is not designed to have outward force on spokes, its downward force. imagine threading one or two spokes on a 5-6 spoke rim. Thats not anchoring to a vehicle, thats anchoring to a small piece of metal and if you're ignorant to the physics makeup of your rims ( which most people are. Im a total truck geek and thats why I share such opinion ) it could totally bend and fracture or depending on the properties of the rim, it could just skip the bending all together and fracture.

I would suggest following the advice of where to anchor to and don't question anchoring to rims, body, flare outs from bumper, etc. These points will not be bomber.

I once tried to use my WRX as a slackline anchor. We used the recovery point on the rear of the car which is welded to the frame and ran the line over a downed tree. We couldn't get the line tight enough and finally realized we were dragging the car. I had the parking brake set hard and the car was in first gear (manual transmission.) The wheels were actually rolling despite being in gear and having the brake set.