Mast ladder - try before you buy?

[DenisB]

I've had a look at this Kinleven mast ladder - I have a Deffee one and it's far better. The webbing used by Deffee's ladder is a tougher. Kinleven claim to have made improvements by using 'parting' of their webbing to feed the rivets though - you couldn't do that to the webbing on a Deffee ladder - it's far too tough. My personal opinion is that the Kinleven design is a cheap copy of the Deffee one.

Interesting claim, it would be interesting to know how or where this inspection was done. The only comparison by a reviewer who is familiar with both, that I'm aware of, was complimentary, and I might suggest that a product that comes with a five year guarantee is unlikely to be a cheap copy of an original that doesn't. Both are excellent products.

 

[DenisB]

Having read many of the posts about the pros & cons of the webbing type mast ladders, I do think that using one is likely to make getting up my 12m sparcraft mast easier for me. The Deffee ladder gets good reviews, however I'm reluctant to splash out several hundred quid to find that it doesn't improve access as much as I expect. Before I start phoning around, does anyone know if any of the manufacturers loan them out on a trial basis? Is there anywhere that would loan/hire a ladder to try?

Good idea, give us a call at Kinleven Marine and we'll try to help.

 

[stranded]

I know I am reviving an old thread, but thought this mini review might be helpful!

Having read the reviews for the Mastaclimber I had decided it was probably the solution for me but wanted to try it because I was worried that my dodgy knees would make it difficult to use. Fortunately for the purpose of this test (but a real bugger otherwise) they were particularly bad yesterday at SIBS - needed many a sit down and the steps between show areas were a painful trial.

Anyway, long preamble to a very short review. Tried it up the short (5m?) length of mast section on the stand and it was an absolute doddle. Up the mast like a monkey (the people on the Bainbridge stand with whom I had previously been talking commented on it) and really comfy swivelling around the masthead to reach all areas. Reckon I could reach the top of our 18m mast in less than a minute. Bought one before I reached the ground! (No connection whatsoever!).