EXPLODING TOTEM

I purchased this this summer and it’s barely been used. 5’ lead fall on Calcutta, piece ripped and a yellow totem caught him—-awkward 5.8 on Short Wall in Indian Cove (Joshua Tree). I sort of forced the cam on the leader  (newish to jtree trad) after he had already fallen and blown a little wild country on the same route. My guess is that he overcammmed—-and then when it popped it somehow umbrellad and both trigger wires blew simultaneously. $75 obo (lol) I can add this to my collection of alien evolutions, Definitely was not expecting this to happen to a totem. Seems worthy of repair or maybe totem will replace…

If it was overcammed it could not have umbrellad. Perhaps if it was undercammed significantly. Did the piece rip immediately upon the fall or did it hold briefly?

Sounds like a leader placement issue

Those torn cables are all guide wires.  They solely manipulate the cam lobes.  The cables which bear load and save your life are intact.  

There have been examples of totems blowing out on the forum, but typically the umbrella variety where the fall destroys the cam.  I don’t remember the details but imperfectly recall one set of lobes blowing out because the other set of lobes did not take load (most likely due to poor placement).

Your example is not that.  All of the guide wires tore off.  You and your friend need to figure out how you loaded those cables and ensure you don’t do that again. 

ClimbingOn wrote:

If it was overcammed it could not have umbrellad. Perhaps if it was undercammed significantly. Did the piece rip immediately upon the fall or did it hold briefly?

It ripped pretty immediately. I ended up finishing the pitch for him (it was the top section of Bombay, not Calcutta) and the rock quality was quite grainy around where he fell.

Definitely was not expecting this to happen to a totem

Bad placements are bad placements. Totems aren't magic, just a little better.

As a note, you can repair the broken trigger wires. I think I saw a picture here of somebody doing it with weed-wacker line and a soldering iron or something like that. If you are going to bin it, I would definitely pay shipping.

"Overcamming" had nothing to do with this.

Blue Totems can be repaired perfectly and easily with 0.05" round weed wacker line. This doesn't work well on bigger sizes though, and I haven't tried with a black one either.

Austin Donisan wrote:

"Overcamming" had nothing to do with this.

Blue Totems can be repaired perfectly and easily with 0.05" round weed wacker line. This doesn't work well on bigger sizes though, and I haven't tried with a black one either.

On larger cams what is the problem? Would thicker line work? 

Isaac Mann-Silverman wrote:

On larger cams what is the problem? Would thicker line work? 

Thicker line won't fit without drilling. I've tried on a purple and the problem is that there's nothing to stop the lobes from umbrella-ing when you let go of the trigger. Then when you pull the trigger it doesn't un-umbrella, it's just flops over.

On the blue it's a tight enough fit with all of the wires to stop this from happening. But on the bigger sizes you really need those nubs to stop the lobes from going past horizontal.

Thanks y’all!  on second glance, there doesn’t appear to be any damage except for the trigger wires so maybe I’ll give the Weedwhacker version a try…. I’ve definitely done some drilling to my UL C4s with those flimsy trigger wires.

It looks to me that the rope came across the trigger in the fall.  I had this happen to me with a Camelot junior 30 years ago. The piece came out and the trigger wires were broken.  

Regarding the floppy purple, I assume you tried knots in the wire to stop movement. Did they slip?

Regarding the floppy purple, I assume you tried knots in the wire to stop movement. Did they slip?

I tried melting blobs of weed wacker cable to recreate the nubs but that didn't work well (they just flaked off).

Knots are a good idea though! I'll give that a try.

Neil Little wrote:

Thanks y’all!  on second glance, there doesn’t appear to be any damage except for the trigger wires so maybe I’ll give the Weedwhacker version a try…. I’ve definitely done some drilling to my UL C4s with those flimsy trigger wires.

Those UL trigger wires are the worst.

If you don’t want to buy a new cam and the plastic cable doesn’t work, you might give this company a call:
https://www.savacable.com/

website looks to have all you would need to fit new steel cable though the blue tubing and reattach to the cam lobes. (Including crimping tools )

Definitely trash the cam if you have any doubt about the load bearing cables!  $90 is $90.

Use wire crimps to replace the nubs.