JLG Liftpod Aerial Platform
Nov. 20, 2009 — Build a better mousetrap? Forget that. Build a better ladder, now there you've got a product.
Which is just what the Pennsylvania-based manufacturing giant JLG Industries has done. Its new Liftpod "personal portable lift" is a relatively consumer-priced addition to its line of aerial work platforms for construction companies, the military and the guys at Home Depot who have to reach the ceiling to get that particular ball-peen hammer you want. And not to be nationalistic, but finally, here's a big, multinational company that does its manufacturing right here in the USA. So, your staff can do high-up maintenance work, painting, cleaning or hedge trimming effectively and help workers keep working here.
Safer than a ladder and much more practical — your super or porter is surrounded by railing, he or she can turn 360 degrees to do work, with both hands free, and there's a tray right there for tools, lightbulbs, what have you — the Liftpod is lightweight and highly portable. Its three parts snap together in 30 seconds (a video on the company's website shows a willowy blond woman assembling it in just that amount of time), and it has wheels for easy carting.
With a platform height of 7 feet 7 inches, and a working height of 14 feet 2 inches, the Liftpod can hold up to 330 pounds on its platform and up to 33 pounds on its accessory tray. You can make it go up and down with a regular old 18-volt power drill, which your worker just fits into a slot, or you can buy an optional rechargeable power pack to do the job. The base is made of steel and the mast of what the company describes as "aircraft-quality aluminum."
Among its safety features: The gates open inward, so your worker can't accidentally push against them and fall out, and there's a manual descent feature, for descent in an emergency. (Or, we suppose, you could just bring a ladder — nothing wrong with having a backup. Or with irony.)
You can see a product brochure here, and a fact sheet here. We also highly recommend the videos, which, while informative, are also inadvertently hilarious. It's probably the dramatic, heavy-metal bass-and-drum music, or maybe the Terminator-like whirring of the power drill. But hey, safety: That's no laughing matter — even if the company does refer to its Liftpod as "the right way" and a ladder as, um, "the rung way." That's too awful a pun even for us.
JLG Industries • 1 JLG Drive, McConnellsburg, Penn. 17233-9533 • (717) 485-5161 • toll-free (877) 2-LIFTPOD (254-3876) • E-mail contact form here