Jump to content

Telesteps Collapses


Recommended Posts

A Nanaimo, BC home inspector, Rick Neveaux, has suffered a spinal injury after falling 10 feet when his Telesteps Type 1 1600 ladder collapsed.

The story is that a pin broke. If you use this type of ladder as many of us do, please be aware of its limitations. This type of sudden collapse could happen to anyone, any time.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think I'll stick with my 300# rated Werner. It's heavy, but lately so am I. The little one Fabry posted last week will get me anywhere the Tele Steps would and it folds up nearly as small for less than 1/3 the price, and it's 300# too.

It'll be 20 years in April since my spinal injury; I fell off a ladder and landed on my feet, compressed 3 vertibrae, dislocated my left hip from my spine, pushing it up and rotating it back slightly. The road to recovery is long and painful, and your never the same after a back injury. I feel for the guy.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It'll be 20 years in April since my spinal injury; I fell off a ladder and landed on my feet, compressed 3 vertibrae, dislocated my left hip from my spine, pushing it up and rotating it back slightly. The road to recovery is long and painful, and your never the same after a back injury. I feel for the guy.

29 years ago today, I was lying in a hospital bed with a crushed vertebrae. It happened when I took a turn too fast on my bike. The center stand touched the road causing the rear wheel to kick out, resulting in me sliding along the ground. That wasn't too bad. It was the sudden stop when I hit the guardrail post that ruined my day.

I was pretty dam lucky. After 10 days in the hospital and 3 weeks recuperating at home, I was able to go back to work. Still, it was several years before I didn't have daily pain.

The guy I bought my business from suffered a fractured vertebrae when his ladder slipped on an asphalt driveway. I think of that every time I set up my ladder on an asphalt driveway. I don't think I'd heal too fast at this stage in life.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think I'll stick with my 300# rated Werner. It's heavy, but lately so am I. The little one Fabry posted last week will get me anywhere the Tele Steps would and it folds up nearly as small for less than 1/3 the price, and it's 300# too.

It'll be 20 years in April since my spinal injury; I fell off a ladder and landed on my feet, compressed 3 vertibrae, dislocated my left hip from my spine, pushing it up and rotating it back slightly. The road to recovery is long and painful, and your never the same after a back injury. I feel for the guy.

I know how you feel, Tom.

I hope he'll be OK. I had to postpone last Tuesday's inspection because my back was twisted up so badly. The previous Sunday I'd needed to do some Cirque du Soliel contortionist stuff to squirrel my way into an attic space and two days later I'd paid for it.

I sleep four hours a night. Have for decades. More than that and back pain wakes me up. I was in a car accident back in August of 1968 and ended up with four compression fractures in the lower spine. It was a couple of years before I could band and stoop normally again. Since then, there have been many times when I've gone days with chronic back pain. The older I get, the worse it gets. Lately I've been thinking maybe I should consider the route Jim K. took to deal with back pain.

Hope the guy will be OK.

Do we know if it was a manufacturer's defect or did he overload the ladder to cause that pin to shear?

ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!!

Mike

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well I'm keeping mine. I don't know how I'd get into some of the closet access attics otherwise. I weight 180 the ladder is rated for 220 or more and I have never had any problems with it.

Just because the poor guy fell does not mean it was the ladders fault. There are lots of reasons it might have failed besides just being faulty equipment: operator to heavy, only having one lock engaged, using the ladder for something other then its intended purpose and damaging it the locks... I'll need more info before passing judgement on the ladder.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have had good success with my Xtend and Climb ladder. I have the one rated for 225lbs and have been product testing this one for about 4 years. It does make it easier for the attic scuttles in closets. When this one goes, and I hope I'm not on it, I will get the version rated for 300lbs. I have the Werner and Little Giant for the exterior of the home.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't like those ladders and I don't trust them. I can get anywhere I need to with other ladders that are 100% reliable, not 99.9% reliable.

That said, whenever we hear one of these stories, it always turns out that there's more information that comes out later and changes the lesson that you take away from it.

As for back injuries, I'm waiting for the day when they can just inject you with some nanobots that can rebuild your spine one molecule at a time.

- Jim Katen, Oregon

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi All,

I mentioned this post today at the commercial inspection class I'm attending and the folks there that had one of those acted like it was old news. One guy said something like, "Yeah, they break" and another guy said that they go about a year before that happens.

I'll just keep on lugging my Chinese LG knockoffs in and out. They're heavy and clunky but they are really really solid and stable.

ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!!

Mike

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've been using Xtend n Climb for maybe 4 or 5 years now.

At least once, I didn't get the pin on one side of the rung to lock in place. The telescoping portions of tubing have such tight tolerances, tough, that they wouldn' slide down because they got bound/pinched by the unevenness of my body weight while standing on that rung.

I think the locking mechanisms on Xtend n Climb and Telesteps are entirely different. I find it impossible to have catastrophic failure with the Xtend n Climb because of the tubing tolerance issue I just mentioned.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Anyone know of injuries from an Xtend n Climb failure?

I remember someone here stating that they were injured from an XnC (Charlie?), but mentioned something about colored markers to confirm the catches engage. That's not like any XnC that I've seen.

Like Randy, I missed locking one rung once, but it can't drop more than a fraction of an inch on that side.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Anyone know of injuries from an Xtend n Climb failure?

I remember someone here stating that they were injured from an XnC (Charlie?), but mentioned something about colored markers to confirm the catches engage. That's not like any XnC that I've seen.

Like Randy, I missed locking one rung once, but it can't drop more than a fraction of an inch on that side.

My XnC has colored indicators, but it's the heavy duty 15'6" model. Maybe it's different due to that?
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Anyone know of injuries from an Xtend n Climb failure?

I remember someone here stating that they were injured from an XnC (Charlie?), but mentioned something about colored markers to confirm the catches engage. That's not like any XnC that I've seen.

It was me. You have a good memory. The version I had had a 300 lb rating. I had a 225 lb rate one before that. It also failed. One of the tubes bent. I was lucky on that one. The manufacturer sent me the 300 lb version as a warranty replacement.

One of the catches for the top step on the 300 lb version failed or did not latch. The ladder was fully extended and failed when I put all my weight on the top step. It's been over three years and the tissue in my ankle still has not healed. I walk fine but...........never mind, I'll complain to the wife.

These ladders are not for a man of my size. By the way, my weight at the time of both failures was 225. Well OK, that is with out the tool belt and clothes. Wouldn't that be a rough way to inspect?. Anyone ever inspect a building at a nudist camp?

In reference to another recent topic. I've abandoned the tool belt and use a single small pouch to hold 3 light testers and my camera. Everything else is in a square electrician's bag in the kitchen. Things change as we age.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Many years ago one of my first jobs as a teenager was working in a hardware store. Thw standing rule at the time from the owner was we would inform customers buying ladders never to exceed 75% of the weight rating of any ladder. I have stuck with that advice for 30 years now and never had a ladder collapse on me. I also have a Telesteps Model 1205, that is a year old and the big Little Giant. My Telesteps is for indoor use only and then only for getting into attic areas. To get to the roof I use the Little Giant exclusively, the only time it ever see's the interior of the home is if it is an older home with the higher ceilings. My wife, refuses to climb the Telesteps, she is afraid of the sag. Me too, but it sure is handy and easy to carry inside a house. I have seen these telescopic ladders fail and it isn't a pretty sight. Before coming to this business I was in law enforcement. These types of ladders have been in use in the law enforcement community tactical teams for years, although they are much heavier duty. But they do fail. The more moving parts there are on anything, the greater risk of failure. Best advice is don't abuse them first of all, maintain a regular maintenance and inspection schedule of the ladder, and don't exceed that 75% weight rule. Especially important also is setting the ladder up with the greatest angle of attack as possible. The lower the angle you set these things to, the lower weight rating they have.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 years later...

Purchased online through Amazon within the past year and a half. The guy who fell because it broke is 160 soaking wet.

Our company works in healthcare and we have close to 2 dozen of these that we recalled into our warehouse.

The tubular aluminum actually ripped within the connection point which concerns us because there is no way to visually inspect this possible deficiency.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Purchased online through Amazon within the past year and a half. The guy who fell because it broke is 160 soaking wet.

Our company works in healthcare and we have close to 2 dozen of these that we recalled into our warehouse.

The tubular aluminum actually ripped within the connection point which concerns us because there is no way to visually inspect this possible deficiency.

Do you have pictures?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'd completely forgotten about this thread.

Fell since my last post above. May 2011. Broke some ribs, punctured a lung, fractured a bunch of vertebrae, spend a few unpleasant months wearing an upper body cast that, with my little Buddha belly, made me look like a Ninja turtle. Now I move, and sort of resemble, a three-toed tree sloth on Red Bull.

Got my evil eye on you nimrods.

tn_2014312181227_001.jpg

ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!!

Mike

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes I was careful not to break my ladder today. Although the $50G speedboat was there to break me, I mean break my fall. The boat is parked diagonaly and fills the two car garage. The feet of my ladder are at the doorway into the house.

I used a partly extended ladder to raise the hatch and jam it. Then raised 11 rungs to reach the lip. One feature of the Telesteps is you can pull more rungs from the top, which I did when I got up there, 12 feet extended gave me a rung in the attic.

No other ladder in my arsenal would have worked here, but I could have got the seller to move his boat and I could go back to the house another day to find the kaka in the attic. It was risky and I gnash my teeth having to do it for peanuts.

Click to Enlarge
tn_2014312193347_Telsteps.jpg

35 KB

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...