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Gas powered drills
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Questions about the availability of climbing oriented gas powered SDS drills, pop up semi-regularly on this forum. If you're looking for the "real thing" .... check out the Raumer Climbing website, www.raumerclimbing.com they sell products named "gasoline powered hammer drills" that look perfect (although heavy) for climbers. |
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With the improvements in brushless motors, batteries and solar chargers I wonder if there is really any demand left for gas powered drills in climbing? The drills listed on the Raumer site are probably meant for putting in via ferratas where there is an extreme amount of drilling relative to climbing. I’m struggling to think of a scenario where gas makes more sense than batteries these days. Maybe a rap bolted sport route in Baffin that is being done capsule style? Any other ideas where the gas makes more sense? |
Mikey Schaefer wrote: Batteries work great in most situations but .... if you're bolting for glue-ins, you'll probably need 1/2" holes ..... most batteries will only get 8 1'2' holes max in tough rock .....if you are going "back country" to bolt a multi-pitch bringing more than 3 or 4 batteries gets heavy .... I agree that gas powered drills are a "specialty" product ... but I think they still have a niche ... |
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Don't see much niche for rock climbing, probably for via ferrata like Mikey said. 3/8" holes are fine for the right glue-ins. Such as https://www.team-tough.com/raumer-superstar-ø8x80-a316l Besides, if you're real back country in the US, power drills of any sort are unlikely to be legal! Hand drills are super light, it's pretty easy to get proficient enough that even bolt intensive routes on granite are not really that big a deal with hand drills. |
Greg Barnes wrote: Hi Greg, this is your elbows calling. I think we need to talk about some things. |
Rprops wrote: My elbows are fine...but the tinnitus in the left ear sucks... Seriously though, so many people seem to have this irrational fear of hand drilling. It's really not that big of a deal, and way the heck lighter than powered options... |
Greg Barnes wrote: i definitely don't have a fear of hand drilling, just wish it didn't take twice as long as yours... ;-) |
Ian Dibbs wrote: No way a few batteries and drill are heavier than that gas powered drill plus gas can for refills. |
Kevin Mokracek wrote: I'd be curious to see the "bolt holes per pound" for gas vs electric. |
Kevin Mokracek wrote: Small to medium number of bolts, batteries with battery drill would weigh less per bolt .... for "many" bolts a (heavier) gas drill would be more weight efficient per bolt....an anal person could probably draw a graph with intersecting lines showing where the crossover point would be .... of course: hole depth, hole width and rock hardness would affect the crossover point ..... gasoline has an extremely high "energy density", much higher by weight than batteries. My post was an "informative" post ... not a defense of gas-powered drills .....however I do believe they still have a ...specialized..... role in bolting equipment |
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I’m old and fat ebough to have had a ryoibe 30+ years ago, good riddance, it would always be real hard to start on the last bolt top down drilling and you had to keep it away from the rope because it got hot. But it was cheap and did have a sick amount of power. |
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Still have my Ryobi ER-160 gas powered hammer drill. Why? I dunno. Mine's still in darn good shape though. A friend said they were popular in Europe in wet canyoning circles as if you dropped it into a pool of water or got it wet, you could just blow it out and restart. Burly rigs. What I thought was fun was if you were drilling with it, stopped to place a bolt or clean out the hole, if the hammer spun around and the hot manifold hit your bare skin, was a painful reminder of why a gas drill didn't make sense. That and the smell of melted nylon. Good times. |
