I've had a few snaps, sections that have been run over (I'll elaborate) and some fun with a fully extended 35ft triple ladder!
One occasion the top of the line 35ft gardiner pole had only section one extended...no way that is going to snap is it? So I carefully lobbed it a few feet onto a bush the other side of a path...nice and safe landing while I walked around the other side of said shrub lined path to continue working.. it landed perfectly on top of the bush, the pole flexed and SNAP! the first instantly snapped 😠 note to self, always fully retract retract the pole if you are going to throw it around!
Lowering the pole to fast rather than retracting if one needs to adjust the angle of the brush is also something you won't do again just because you are in a hurry ... SNAP! This time it was section 3 that couldn't take the sudden strain of arresting the pole's descent too abruptly 😢 more haste, less pace...as they say.
For a while I used the modular gardiner pole, incredibly light and rigid but of course when you are working over 35ft you have to break the pole down as you get to lower levels...those lightweight modular poles will float away in the lightest of breezes...and on at least 2 occasions took off in the wind and rolled across a busy road and ended out looking like the debris from a major F1 crash on a street circuit!😭
The 35ft very heavy triple ladder?
Many years ago when I had lads working for me, one of them had the ladder fully extended on one side of an office block he was working on in very windy conditions, the wind took the ladder which went crashing to the ground...right across a road full of traffic that was passing to the side of the building! 😱😱 fortunately the traffic was stationary and the ladder fell directly between 4 cars (2 going up the road and two going down) that was one lucky escape...ever had to work of a bent 35ft triple ladder? It's a challenge 🤔