On 10/07/2011 15:38, John Rumm wrote:
On 10/07/2011 10:21, Matty F wrote:
On Jul 9, 9:54 pm, John wrote:

I think wooden ones are worse in that respect than a decent box section
ali one. Still not that many extending wood ladders in use these days it
seems.

I use wooden ladders most of the time when climbing around near bare
overhead wiring while the power is on. Tower trucks have wooden
extension ladders. However they are bolted to the truck, which weighs
about 5 tons.

Fibreglass is the new wood for folks working near power lines etc...

Oddly enough, my parents have only just got rid of their wooden
extension ladders, which they've had since around 1980. When they
originally got them, they cost a fiver from British Rail. It seems that
BR bought a load of them for their overhead line maintenance crews, but
the unions rejected them, insisting that aluminium ones had to be used!
I must admit that we had to cut them down by half a dozen rungs to get
them into the garage and even then, they were so heavy that you had to
have two people to erect them safely. They are the only wooden ladders
that I have ever used that were virtually as bounce free as an aluminum
set, but totally impractical due to the weight.

SteveW