A guy on the dock in Savannah made me rethink my whole ladder setup
I was working a small channel job last fall, using a basic aluminum ladder to get from the barge to the cutter head for a check. This old timer, Frank, who was running a clamshell bucket nearby, just shook his head and yelled over the engine noise, 'You trust that thing with your whole day on it?' He waved me over during a break and showed me his rig. He had a proper marine-grade ladder with non-slip treads and a custom bracket he welded himself to lock it to the barge rail. He said, 'I saw a kid take a swim in Mobile Bay because his ladder kicked out. Cost him a phone, his tools, and nearly his job. This bracket cost me twenty bucks in steel and an hour of time.' I went home that weekend and built my own version. It feels rock solid now. What's the one safety tweak you've seen that seemed small but made a huge difference?