How to stiffen up a wobbly ladder?

[Duffster]

But doctors bill are not cheep!

Or worse, the funeral home bill.

 

[impdaddy]

Man this thread scared me... on the main page for rural living it says"how to stiffen a wobbly.." I didn't know whether i wanted to open it or not. Thought it was a viagra thread. haha

 

[keegs]

Man this thread scared me... on the main page for rural living it says"how to stiffen a wobbly.." I didn't know whether i wanted to open it or not. Thought it was a viagra thread. haha

ROTFLMAO......

 

[kenmac]

Throw it away. Buy a heavy duty weight / class rated latter

 

[valley]

Father tightened up a wooden ladder he made useing heavy galvanized wire and turnbuckles. It seemed to work very well. when I moved here years ago I brought it with me, it was laying on the ground and a girl walked a horse over it, it broke when the horse stepped on it.

 

[emmy71]

My dad found an aluminum step ladder in a dumpster once. He decided to take it home and use it. It broke and he broke his arm. He is 73. I cut up the ladder and threw it back in the same dumpster and bought him a new fiberglass step ladder. He could have bought about 30 ladders for what that one free one cost him.

Terry

 

[CurlyDave]

Same kind of story here.

A mason working on my house needed a ladder and I had borrowed a 16' orchard ladder, which I had not gotten around to using yet.

Well, it turns out the pole had once broken and had been repaired by forcing a wooden closet rod into the hollow aluminum tube. Over the years, the wood had rotted, and it broke with his feet about 8' off the ground.

For a while we thought he had broken his leg in the fall, but after I drove him to urgent care, it turned out to be only sprained.

He only lost week's worth of work.

 

[keegs]

I stopped by Lowes on the way home last night to pick up a fuel filter for the boiler and swung by the ladder section. They essentially had two grades of aluminum ladder both made by Werner, one grade heavier than the other. A 24' high end ladder is in the $325. range and the same low end is in the $250. range

When I got home I picked up this used ladder and it's obviously made of a lighter guage aluminum than either of the two Lowes selections.

To a person you all suggested dumping the used ladder for a new heavier one. I'm not sure if I should dump it since as I mentioned it's in pretty good shape, just light weight. But as wobbley as I get on a ladder, I need a sturdy one and I don't think either Viagra or some add on steel bars will do it for me in this instance.

Thank you all for your stories and thoughts. Cheers....

 

[jinman]

I am amazed at the overwhelming amount of great responses in this thread. It makes me proud to be a TBNer surrounded by such level-headed thinking. GROUP HUG!

Keegs, I like the posted idea of making two short ladders out of that extension ladder. You'll salvage some value out of the ladder and remove the primary source of it's wobbly "behavior." Sounds like a win-win to me.

Oops! Almost forgot. . . Keegs, did you think to check the weight ratings on those two Werner extension ladders you found at Lowes? I'd bet the lower price one has a weight limit of 250 lb whereas the heavier one is probably 325 lb.

 

[Egon]

Good choice Keegs!

Short ladders always come in handy.