"Mary Fisher" wrote in message
t...


In my experience wood is heavy and aluminium is noisy. I'm always
surprised at the strength and stability of our two-part aluminium one and
am not sorry that we bought it to replace the wooden one, which I found
clumsy and heavy.

But that was more than twenty years ago, things might have changed. Ours
still supports me while I'm carrying heavy weights, which is quite a
challenge!

I forgot to say that the aluminium one is manageable by five year olds.
Well, it was by two of our grandsons once they'd worked out that you didn't
need to say a magic word to release it but that there was a little catch on
the side which locked the two parts into position ... they were the first
grandchildren to discover that and are now twenty one years old. When they
were small they couldn't reach the rod which pulled it down and pushed it
up - and closed the hatch door - so there was no danger of illicit use.

Mary