You can keep them in a box to show your grandchildren what a wild man you were to climb on such risky gear.

for all of them?

Seriously, Yes. I don't want to use them, though my gut says they're ok. And I can't bring myself to put them on ebay. I'd only send them to somebody who thoroughly knows the controversy, i.e. a reader of this thread.

I'll give you $25 + shipping if you'd send them to Aric to be pull tested.

That was a good idea. But, they are SOLD and SHIPPED. Sorry.

On the other hand, if they would have held up under the test, it still wouldn't satisfy me at this point. I'd need to see maybe a hundred random cams from that era pull tested with all being in an accepteble range for me personally to feel confident about them. As I mentioned earlier, I only had one light, veritable toprope, fall while leading on the red. And I've used all of them in plenty of toprope anchors. The brazing was clearly evident where the cables attach. They are probably solid cams.

One thing I'm curious about are whether there are any real world accounts of these cams breaking when properly placed. I don't mean inverting, but bent or broken axles or cable breaks.

Regardless, I think I'm on to Metolius Master Cams as replacements for my Aliens.

The potential breakage issue came to light as a result of the braze failures and mis-drilled axle holes, casting serious doubt on CCH's entire manufacturing and QC process. I'm not aware of field failures due to breakage, but definitely due to the braze failure that started the whole issue and recall. But if the cable pulls out because of a faulty braze, isn't that the same as breakage?

Post-recall braze failure at IC

RC post with links to all failures.

Pull testing won't prove Aliens to be reliable.

Right now, I think it's just a matter of gathering more data. Most of the aliens pulled below their rated strength, which may be because of the misdrilled axle holes... this could be happening every day, but would probably be written off as a bad placement instead of a hardware failure.

Of course, there's always a chance of finding more braze failures.

But I think we're beyond the point of proving them reliable.

Yes. Thanks for the link to those pics. The one of the yellow alien still placed in the vertical crack with no stem really says a lot

Allen you sold them out from under my nose!!!! They would have made a great addition to an aid rack. I'm MAD at you!!

Sorry bud. But I got a private offer shortly after my reply to you that I was serious. I'll let the well-known poster here decide if he wants to gloat over snagging all 4 for $35, including shipping.*


*Actual price only mentioned to cause further needless distress to RangerRob for not immediately sending a private message, in which case he would have gotten them for $25