On 22/11/2020 11:19, No Name wrote:

I have a 3 section ladder too myself that is 4.25 m when closed and
10.63 m when fully extended.

Now you are supposed to have a minimum of 4 rungs of overlap between
each section, so far so good....

But when my hieght is 1.83 and with extended arms adding another 0.8m
giving a maximum reach from the ground to push each section of ladder up
by 2.3 m.

So if one extends each section when resting up against the wall, thats a
max of 4.25 m + 2.3 m + 2.3 m = 8.85 m.... which is almost 2 m of 10.63
m fully extended.

The only way I can see of reaching that full 10.63 m is to lay the
ladder on the ground and then extend it and then upend the fully
extended ladder which is actualyl quite dangerous to do on your own.

Some ladders do have a pulley system but they do not seem all that common?

This is a real problem with big triples. You do have to climb the ladder
to extend it! The best way is to extend the top section first, with the
ladder at a steeper angle than for normal use. Extend the top section as
far as it will go. Then with a bit of luck you can stand on the ground
and push the middle section up far enough. If it isn't far enough then
you have to climb the bloody thing to push it up. It ain't good. I had a
very heavy duty four storey triple at one time. The ******* thing nearly
finished me off. I got shut of it finally. No-one should be doing ladder
work at that sort of height anyway. It needs to be a platform or a
machine, or **** it, forget that job, find another one. About 1990 I
started to say, 'pay for access equipment or get some other silly bugger
to do it.'

The heavier triples really do have to have ropes and pulleys, and two men.

Bill