North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Mark & Helen Angermayer" <hangermayer@isp.com>]

Alan wrote:

"My one skilled pruning helper had 10 years experience full time working in a commercial orchard before he came with me and his experience was all tri-pod but once I put him on one of my ladders he never went back."

 

Alan,

 

I'm having a hard time understanding this.  It seems to me three legged ladders would be more stable on uneven ground.  I understand with the Little Giant you can adjust the individual height of the front and back, but that still leaves side to side rocking.  That's the problem I have with my stepladder.  The ground can be just a bit uneven, or soft, and the ladder rocks from side to side and is unstable.  One would think four points on the ground is more stable vs. three, but it's not been my experience.  Once I built a grinder stand with four legs, but no matter how level I got the legs, it still rocked a little be when moved to a different part of the floor.  Then I remembered seeing manufactured grinder stands with three legs, and realized why they were built that way.  For this reason, I was planning to buy a Tallman tripod orchard ladder, but now you have me wondering.

 

Mark

KS

----- Original Message -----

From: Alan Haigh

To: nafex@lists.ibiblio.org

Sent: Thursday, May 29, 2008 5:03 PM

Subject: [NAFEX] orchard ladder

I spend an insane amount of my life on top of a ladder while I prune a lot of ancient apple trees amongst other fruit things.  I know that the tri-pod is the old standard and it has advantages but for stability and mobility (both sides have steps) nothing beats the design brought to us by Little Giant Ladder Systems. 

 

My one skilled pruning helper had 10 years experience full time working in a commercial orchard before he came with me and his experience was all tri-pod but once I put him on one of my ladders he never went back. 

 

Now you can buy one of the many knock-offs and save money, I have, but the original is built better, maybe not enough better to warrant the extra expense.  In the end I'm stuck with Little Giant because they make a lighter version that none of the competition makes and it is my staple elevator.  They also make some very heavy ones that go above the standard 22' when straight.

 

They work as both a straight and step-ladder and are designed to enable the stepladder configuration to set at different heights for stability on uneven ground.  I also use one of their very heavy ladders that is one size up from the 22' (can't remember the specifics). 

---

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