New Sleeve Bolts

Tal M wrote:

Wanted to reach out here because I’m not sure if it’s user error or not, but I haven’t been stoked with these so far. My set up is the 12mm sleeve bolts with 10mm petzl hangers (washer between the hex head and outside of the hanger)

1. How do I avoid having the hanger spin with the bolt while tightening them down? This has been an issue with the majority of them I’ve installed
2. Loosened one after installing to replace the hanger and was unable to re-tighten down. I tried pulling out on the hanger while tightening down but that didn’t seem to work either. I’ll try and get a tuning fork to get better leverage in the future, but is this common? Is there a way to avoid this?

I appreciate developers chiming in their experience and feedback. 

Hi Tal,

1. I'd say a general cause of the hanger spinning is the added friction from the shank (solid rod) of the hex bolt (as opposed to threads as on say a wedge bolt or hex nut style-sleeve bolt) on the inside hole of the hanger hole PLUS the standard friction of the hex head (or nut in other cases)+washer pressing on the hanger surface. Matt, from Mountain Mullet briefly mentions this issue happening HERE with these style of sleeve bolts in general. You could try a tiny dab of grease or lubricant on the bottom of the washer and a little in the hanger hole to help reduce friction.  --- The same problem (hanger spinning) can even happen when a larger hanger is used and goes outside the sleeve instead, same issue, added friction; solution is to find a hanger with a larger hole and not as tight of a fit on the sleeve. --- But basically when the bolt is tightened, due to additional friction on the hangers, it might wanna spin too. But I haven't found this to be the case with all that I have installed.

2. This is a bummer issue to have; and especially tricky because the nut (conical nut) is basically in the hole as opposed to wedge bolts/hex nut sleeve bolts, a con to having a nice flush head (lower profile) sleeve bolt. I'm gonna just mainly share some observations/experiences about prevention: When we assemble the components for the sleeve bolts, we run the conical nut up and down the entire length of thread to make sure there are no nics on the threads (of both the hex bolt and conical nut) that could cause galling. We also lightly lubricate the hex bolt threads. When installing, I make sure my holes are fully brushed and blown to avoid getting any grit inside the threads (to prevent any galling). Another thing I do is make sure the drill bit I'm using hasn't worn down too much. If it has, and I'm having to wack the sleeve bolt in a lot harder than before, more grit could come off in the hole as the sleeve is driven in and possibility getting into the threads.

Sleeve bolts can become more difficult to install when drill bits become worn down too much making the sleeve a much tighter fit, cause there's a lot more material touching the sides of hole, and the sleeve itself could have a tighter tolerance for hole diameter. So if someone is having to hammer very hard where the embossed text on the top of the hex bolt gets smashed and unintelligible, yeah...time for a new drill bit. 

I'll give them a try with some 10mm Petzl hangers too.

Thanks Kevin! I seem to have found a rough solution for issue #1, which is to just give the whole system a good wiggle and make sure everything is moving smoothly before installing. This went from happening every bolt to typically just 1 or 2 each route which I’m totally fine with.

I’ve ended up moving a few bolts around and now have quite a few bolts with no sleeve or nut for them since they were left in the old holes. Is there anyway to source just those parts so I can reuse the studs?

Tal M wrote:

Thanks Kevin! I seem to have found a rough solution for issue #1, which is to just give the whole system a good wiggle and make sure everything is moving smoothly before installing. This went from happening every bolt to typically just 1 or 2 each route which I’m totally fine with.

I’ve ended up moving a few bolts around and now have quite a few bolts with no sleeve or nut for them since they were left in the old holes. Is there anyway to source just those parts so I can reuse the studs?

I'm glad to hear you found another fix around for the hanger spinning, thx for sharing for sharing your tip.

I don't have any idea where someone in the US could easily buy sleeves and conical nuts for M10 thread that either didn't already come with a stud or tap bolt, esp in small quantities. Also there can be a variance of diameter for readily-available sleeves diff companies make; they're the hardest component to get right. 

Easist is I can have HN2 hang onto to some extra sleeves+conical nuts for you and others, and toss 'em in with your next order. Can you message me how many you need? Thanks!