Recently I bought an 8’ Stokes step ladder through Tractor Supply because they had a reasonable shipping cost- AM Leonard charged an absurdly high cost, more than doubling the cost of the ladder.
For my customers I’ve been recommending the Japanese ladder, Hasegawa, because we have two distributers of it in our region. I tried one of them out in a customers orchard yesterday and it is so much better engineered than the Stokes, which is a standard commercial orchard ladder, I decided to post this.
If you cannot afford a ladder accident and want to buy the most stable ladder you should check Hasegawa out. Stokes ladders suggest using the top 3 feet of their ladders is dangerous while the Hasegawa is designed to fairly safely stand on the very top, although I don’t recommend that for people not completely comfortable on ladders.
The features of the Hasegawa ladder would take too much effort to describe, but given the favorable exchange rates to the yen right now, it seems like the Japanese ladder is far the better value, even though it is more expensive based on listed height. But even that metric is changed by the ability to safely climb higher on the Hasegawa.
I should add that my go-to ladders are made by Little Giant because I need to fit them into my light truck bed and I’m very used to using ladders. I can more easily maneuver these ladders through big apple trees than a tri-pod and adjust the height as needed, even converting it to a straight ladder. I also can reach a wider area because you can walk up and down both sides. They are not quite as stable as an orchard tri-pod used carefully, but if you are careful to balance them before going up they are more than adequate for me, as long as I don’t do something stupid, like failing to adequately test stability before ascending and having an animal tunnel collapse when I’m on top of the ladder because I didn’t jump on the ladder from the ground to make sure the ground is solid. .
Orchard ladders are made for turf and dirt and not solid surfaces- maybe the legs can slip on that kind of surface. That would suggest that LG type ladders may be more versatile. They certainly are in potential configurations.
I bought a Hasegawa ladder this past winter. Used it for pruning, thinning and harvesting peaches. The adjustable tripod leg is easy to change if you have uneven ground. The feet gripping into the ground was a reassuring feel that the ladder is not going shift as you climb. It comes with plastic ends that pop on the “clawed” feet to allow use on hard surfaces.
SiteOne Landscape Supply sells them through their 200 stores in 32 states. Their website has stocking info. Their store in Richmond VA had them in stock so I was able to pick up mine without any wait. They start at $459 for 6 foot and there are two different styles. A 10 foot is $619. Prices have gone up like everything else but it’s a solidly made lifetime purchase.
You know the ladder better than I do. I wonder why the Hasegawa web site doesn’t mention Site 1 as a distributer- that’s just weird, even if it’s a pretty awful website that takes forever to download. (My son could redesign it to lightening speed in a few hours.)
I wish I had known about these a few years ago… I had so much difficulty getting my orchard ladders shipped to me. I think three times they were damaged in transit. Now I see one of these SiteOne stores is only 15 minutes away and has them in stock!
You got me curious so I looked on Hasegawa distributor list. They show New England ladder as sole US distributor. On NE’s site they have a dealer locator. They show 600 Hasegawa dealers across the USA with Site One being the main one.
I wonder if NE ladder isn’t hustling Hasegawa and is their primary distributor and secretly using their status to steer sales that they control. Both web sites are very slow so were probably developed by the same incompetent engineer.
I got the 8 foot GSU model. Size wise it’s easy to handle to quickly work around a tree. The GSU features a hand rail at the top that adds a feeling of safety. Comes in handy when leaning to thin as that portion adds some length to ladder beyond the last usable step. You don’t feel like you are out there in gusty winds with nothing to stabilize yourself on.