Harness and tool pouch

[JBarker]

Let's start a discussion on the type of safety harness you wear and any tool pouches you might use on top of the tower. I have attached a pic of a tool pouch I might purchase.

[Kansas Rust Buzzard]

Someone gave me a fancy new harness that looks like you could hang upside down in and work but its hard to put on and not very comfortable, I got my grandfather's old lineman's belt that I would rather wear and just throw a nylon rope around something and hook into the belt. I have tried those tool belts but for me I just tie a rope around a bucket with everything I want and pull it up, then tie it to the tower. I am not very gracefull and a bunch of stuff hanging off me just gets caught on things and causes problems. Most of that stuff is very expensive and made for Osha compliance anyway.

[windybob]

I bought my safety belt from Jud. lol still have it. HAHA still fits too.

[JBarker]

Someone gave me a fancy new harness that looks like you could hang upside down in and work but its hard to put on and not very comfortable, I got my grandfather's old lineman's belt that I would rather wear and just throw a nylon rope around something and hook into the belt. I have tried those tool belts but for me I just tie a rope around a bucket with everything I want and pull it up, then tie it to the tower. I am not very gracefull and a bunch of stuff hanging off me just gets caught on things and causes problems. Most of that stuff is very expensive and made for Osha compliance anyway.

I was thinking the same thing.

[Ron Stauffer]

A lineman's belt only classifies as a work belt because if you try you can wiggle out of it when working upside down. But that is what I use but with a 36" nylon lanyard instead of the leather lanyards that comes with lineman's belts. Regular lanyards have the safety snaps. A rock climbing harness is the most comfortable, cant dump out of it but only has a single center attachment point and not conducive to a pouch. I keep one in the truck as I have used it to clip in on one of the lines of the crane. With the remote clipped on to my belt, I can raise and lower myself.

Have never had the thrill of being caught by a harness but did have the thrill once of thinking I was clipped in and wasnt.

Have tried different pouches but settled on a very soft all leather 4 compartment one. Think it is a repurposed carpenters bag. Being soft it hangs well and is not as bad for catching. As Aaron, I mostly have a bucket up there too.

Ron Stauffer
Montrose CO

[Kevin]

An open top round “Canvas Bag” or “Canvas Bucket” is handy to have. They come in all sizes. The tapered bottom bag will not get hung up on towers as quickly as other bags.
Because they are soft, they don’t bounce off of towers when you pull them up and they don’t make marks when they hit you or the windmill. They collapse nicely in your tool box for storage.
I have one that has a bunch of small pockets on the inside that is loaded with spare parts for setting windmills. I hook it on the tail when I fly the windmill.
Klein Tools makes a bunch and you can find cheap ones at Harbor Freight.

bag.jpg

[JBarker]

An open top round “Canvas Bag” or “Canvas Bucket” is handy to have. They come in all sizes. The tapered bottom bag will not get hung up on towers as quickly as other bags.
Because they are soft, they don’t bounce off of towers when you pull them up and they don’t make marks when they hit you or the windmill. They collapse nicely in your tool box for storage.
I have one that has a bunch of small pockets on the inside that is loaded with spare parts for setting windmills. I hook it on the tail when I fly the windmill.
Klein Tools makes a bunch and you can find cheap ones at Harbor Freight.
bag.jpg

great advice, thanks. Looking at the pic you posted reminds me to ask how everyone handles installing the pump rod on the head once on the tower??? I find this part of the installation one of the trickiest and dangerous parts to perform on top of the tower

[Kevin]

When the boney finger of fate points at you, you will find that the law of gravity is always enforced.
Therefore, I’m a big advocate of fall protection. In my fire service career, I have treated too many fall victims. Some fatal and many life altering for the wounded as well as the witnesses. The common thread was lack of fall protection with complacency added in. (A shocking number of fall victims and witness attempt to justify the unsafe action.)

Unpredictable events from a swarm of bees to a bolt failure can change your life forever. In my case, a crane operator mistakenly “bumped” a joystick while distracted and the windmill moved six feet slamming into me and the tower before he stopped it. My hardhat landed about 10 feet from the tower but I stayed on the platform. (Once the windmill hit me, I was a passenger just along for the ride.)
You can pick up an inexpensive harness at Home Depot in the roofing department for $50 or less. My rig has cushioned shoulder pads and some extra padding so I can be in it all day.

The Big Fatal Four
Falls – 381 out of 971 total deaths in construction in 2017 (39.2%)
Struck by Object – 80 (8.2%)
Electrocutions – 71 (7.3%)
Caught-in/between* – 50 (5.1%)

[Gregg]

About a month ago, a crew was working on a 2000' tv tower here in central Iowa. For whatever reason a mans fall protection did not work. It was estimated he fell about 1000 ft. The result was probably the same if he had fell 50', he just got a few seconds longer to think about it. Very unfortunate situation, so check and re-check even if you are only going up 20 feet.

Gregg

[Wayne]

A helper knocked me off a ladder leaning against a Pine Tree I was trying to saw a limb off. I fell about 14 ft holding a running chain saw. I was thinking as I went down how bad it was going to hurt when I landed. Seemed like a eternity. Landed in Pine straw so it soften the impact. No damage done just knocked me out for a period. Landed on my back with my arms thrown out to the side still holding the chainsaw in my left hand. Probably used one of my nine lives.