Next Return Previous

BO.VE Diablo
(#431)

 

Front View Rear View Side View
Front View Rear View Side View
 
Front View: Open for Rigging Rear View: Open for Rigging
Front View: Open for Rigging Rear View: Open for Rigging

Technical Details

I acquired this descender (#1227) from Repetto Sport in Genova, Italy in 1982.

My BO.VE Diablo is 223 mm. tall, 63 mm. wide, 32 mm. thick, and weighs 327 g.

The two side plates are made of 33 by 3.0 mm. aluminum. The side plates are very similar to the earlier Petzl Simple design, and a quick attachment feature nearly identical to Petzl’s is provided. The attachment points are not beveled. The upper bollard is very similar to Petzl’s, complete with off-center mounting and provision of a threaded 7 mm. hole for reversing the bollard. The lower bollard is part of an autostop device. The bollard has a 15 mm. diameter toothed cylinder attached at the 10 o’clock position . The cylinder is screwed onto a 5 mm. connecting pin which is then pinned to the bollard with a 1 mm. roll pin. A handle is attached to the bollard with two 3.5 mm. screws. The fixed side plate prevents these screws from backing out. The lower bollard and attached handle assembly house a bronze bushing and pivot on the lower 7 mm. bolt. Friction from the main rope’s passage tends to turn the lower bollard and force the toothed cylinder towards the upper bollard, thus locking the rope and ideally arresting the descent. The rappeller uses the handle to keep the autostop feature disengaged.

The handle assembly has two other features. Plastic plates are riveted to the two sides of the handle to increase its thickness, mainly for comfort and aesthetic reasons. In addition, there is a small lever attached to the back of the fixed side plate with a 3 mm. countersunk head machine screw. A turned pin riveted to this lever extends through an arcuate slot in the fixed side plate and can engage a slot in the handle when the autostop feature is disengaged, thus holding the descender in this position.

The pivoting side plate is stamped "diablo" and "brevettato." The lower bolt head is marked "RS" and "A2," the upper "C" and "A2."

InstructionsComments

In general this is a well made descender. The manufacturer paid attention to minor details, such as center punching the bolts so the nuts would not loosen. The use of a bronze bushing rather than the tempting omission is another commendable practice. The one oversight I noticed is that the semi-tubular rivet on the attachment point guard is barely expanded and had a very sharp end on the inside near the rope path, but probably far enough away to be of no concern.

Unfortunately, I find the autostop feature is rather insecure. In fact, I have used this descender for normal rappelling with the autostop fully engaged, and found the friction provided to be preferable to the normal amount. The lever provided for disengaging the autostop feature works, but it appears to be rather weak, so I do not use it.

For far more content, use a larger monitor and a full-width window.

Hundreds of cell phone users complained and asked me to for a simpler, mobile friendly site. In particular, they wanted me to limit each page to a small number of pictures and minimize my use of text. This new site provides what they asked for.