Front Runner Aluminum Telescopic Ladder - 9' 6" Extended - 330 lbs

Video Transcript for Front Runner Aluminum Telescopic Ladder Review

Hi everyone, Aidan here at etrailer. Today we're gonna be taking a look at this aluminum telescoping ladder from Front Runner. This is gonna be an easy, lightweight option for a ladder to get to the top of your platform, whether you need to get up there or you're just looking for an easier way to get things loaded up. Let's check it out. Now, it's important to note that we're using this today in conjunction with Front Runner's ladder brackets, which will attach to your platform and provide a little bit more stability with the ladder. I would absolutely recommend using that just because it's gonna help control the side to side movement that you might get out of the ladder.

Because let's face it, it's gonna be aluminum propped against the metal side of your platform, and there's a lot of room there to slip and just have this moving on you. So the more we can get this stabilized, the better. That's important to know because telescoping ladders just on the whole aren't the most stable thing in the world. I've got one of these at home, I've worked with a couple here. And one thing they all have in common is that as you go up, they can feel a little bit flexy.

It's just not the most stable thing in the world because you've only got those two points of contact on the ground, and then your other two are propped against whatever you're leaning on. And this can result in feeling a little unstable for those that aren't familiar with telescoping ladders. But this is pretty common across the whole board. And once you kind of get used to that and accept the fact that there's gonna be a little bit of flex in there, it's not too bad. You can get used to it pretty quick.

And overall, I've never had any issues with them. Both the ones here and the one I have at home. This one has a 330-pound weight capacity so I do trust that it'll be fine holding my own body weight as I'm climbing up and down getting to the platform up top. Now fully extended, this is gonna be 9 1/2 feet tall so plenty tall for our 4Runner here today. But even if you had maybe something like a sprinter van, you should be able to reach the top there too.

So when you're retracting it, there's going to be notches on either side and you want to keep your fingers clear from up here, keep them below that latch and press the latch with your thumbs like that. Now you wanna start from the bottom and work your way to the top. I'm just doing this one, so it's a little easier to see. So what you'll do is just go to the very bottom, keep your fingers clear, and because it's lightweight, it's pretty easy to hold up. But just do that one at a time for each rung. I will say try to just keep your fingers off of it entirely because the more that comes down, the more this kind of bounces around and it just produces a really big pinching hazard. So just keep your fingers as clear as you can until you get all the way done. And you can use the included hook and loop strap to strap it all up and keep it from extending out. So now you can just grab this, throw it inside your vehicle, maybe inside a box or something, and it's ready to go for the next time you need to use it. Taking up very minimal space and being pretty lightweight too. And if you're worried about storing it in your vehicle because it is metal, it comes with a carrying case. You can slide this inside and it's gonna provide just a little bit more protection. So if this is maybe sliding around inside a box or in the cargo area of your vehicle, it's not going to be hitting your other cargo. It's gonna offer a little bit of protection. Overall, it's easy enough to get inside. And once it's done, just put the flap over. You've got a strap to make it a little easier to carry or you can still reach through and grab it by the rungs like I was before. And that's all there is to it. It's not the most stable thing in the world but really no telescoping ladder is gonna be that. But if you just need a way to get to the top of your platform and you're okay sacrificing a little bit of stability for just making sure it works with your situation, then this can certainly do the trick. Thanks for watching.