Essential Equipment Tower Climbers Need

Today’s modern society depends on reliable signals from nearby cell sites to complete mundane, everyday tasks. As such, tower climbers and maintenance workers are vital to maintaining our infrastructure as we know it. These professionals not only install new cell sites to better distribute signals, but they also perform routine repairs and maintenance on these machines to keep them working correctly. To do this, though, they require various tools and pieces of equipment to protect them at the staggering tower heights. This is some of the essential equipment tower climbers need and what it does.

Fall Protection Harnesses

As one of a tower climber’s most important tools, fall protection harnesses will properly distribute a person’s weight and cradle them should they fall. It’s these pieces of equipment that provide them with the support they need to ascend a tower and properly position themselves to do their work. While the harness fits snuggly around their midsection, waist, and legs, its design does not hinder movement in a climber’s arms. This ensures that they’re both protected and capable of completing their job.

Rope and Wire Rope Grabs

Other essential equipment tower climbers need are their rope and wire rope grabs. As their literal lifelines during a climb, a strong wire or polyester rope will facilitate a comfortable and consistent climb up the tower. The attached rope grab, then, helps limit the amount of available rope at any given moment throughout the ascent. By continuously moving the grab along the rope as they climb, workers can be sure that there’s a device locked in place to help catch them.

Retractable Lanyards

Just like a person’s harness acts as a cushion in the event of a fall off a tower, their retractable lanyard function as their fall arrest system. This device limits the amount of slack in a professional’s climbing line so they can be caught more quickly after a slip. A lanyard often hooks directly to a rope grab to further control a person’s possible fall distance. It’s important to mention, however, that retractable lanyards, unlike a rope grab, works automatically, so it may take a bit of research and training to use them correctly.