Yes, 48 foot does seem a bit high, although if your just spiking gutters it's not to bad, I'm in the market for one at the minute as my girraffe snapped about 6 month ago, never got round to replacing it, snapped whilst I was trialling one of the wall washers on it. It worked great on cladding/soffits/ exterior gutters with just a fan lance or turbo on, although did get a bit heavy after a while with the legnth of it stretched out on an angle