Little Giant Revolution XE
Page 2
The A Frame is great for working around the house as well as outdoors and the versatility of being able to convert from one type of ladder quickly to another is great. The quick working Rock Locks securely hold the ladder sections in place and make for a quick way to unlock and reposition the leg sections.
To use the Rock Lock you simply push in on the bottom half and the top half pulls out of the hole in the inner and outer section of the leg pieces. The Rock Lock has a mechanism inside that holds it in the open position until you pull the section toward the top of the ladder or push it in.
This means you can lock open the Rock Locks and pull the top A frame section of ladder and extend the ladder with the lower two piece sections remaining on the ground. Once you have the ladder to the height you want you can move the section back down and it will lock in the next available hole.
This works well for adjusting the height of the ladder while it is in the storage position with both sections close to each other to get the height before opening the sections to an A frame or other position. Using the Rock Locks and the center Mag 4 hinge you can adjust the ladder quickly into any position and height for a secure ladder.
The Mag 4 hinge works well and holds the center hinge securely in place while working on things and being on the ladder and includes magnets on the sides to hold metal tools or materials. The Mag 4 lock has four pins that go into the four holes to secure the hinge; I believe this was changed from the previous version with only two pins for more stability.
The trestle brackets are my one main contention with the Little Giant ladder that I feel is made much too cheaply for the whole set. They are the pieces you use to hold the two outer sections of ladder when you want to set it up as a scaffold and should be firmly held in place on the legs. You remove the two lower sections that come completely off the A frame pieces and use the trestle brackets to secure them together.
The Rock Locks hold the two brackets into the channels but they are only plastic and the brackets do not hold tightly into the channels on the two sections. In a video I remember and found on You-Tube a tool tester named Leon Frachette demonstrates the strength of the A Frame Little Giant ladder Model 1A that is prior to the Revolution XE model by putting his weight on the lowest rung of the ladder with its lying on the ground.
The A frame is laying with one leg section on the ground with the rungs of that side flat along the floor and all the weight of the person is pushing down on the hinge. I tried this test the exact same way and was unsurprised to see it took my 200 plus pounds easily on the hinge. I then removed the two sections and secured the lower pieces in the scaffold position and checked to see how much play and whether the scaffold piece without the hinge and using the brackets is.
I could move the one section of ladder up and down almost a foot and move the sections around very much while the one section is lying on the floor. In comparison I dug out my older Gorilla ladder and put it into the scaffold position and could easily put my weight onto the scaffold section that has two aluminum brackets that are used the same as the plastic ones from Little Giant.
I did not put my whole weight on the Little Giant ladder scaffold section as I was very afraid of bending the daylights out of the lower pieces and breaking the plastic brackets. With the ladder set up and lying on the one section it moves side to side much more than the same section of the Gorilla ladder placed in a side by side comparison.
The Little Giant ladder is made from a thinner aluminum material than the Gorilla ladder and this would explain why the Little Giant outer sections bend more than the Gorilla ladder ones do. The center section is a solid channel so it will not matter but the outer section is a channel with one side open to allow for the outer section to slide over the center section.
The Little Giant Revolution XE ladder weighs 28 pounds and the Gorilla ladder I have previously purchased weighs 28.6 pounds according to the websites. I tried a weight comparison using a digital scale I own and weighed the Revolution in at 27.5 pounds and the Gorilla AL-13 at 29.5 pounds.