[TowerTalk] Tower Climbing Boots

[Mike Lyon]

Try looking up Red Wing Boots, they have quite a nice selection of work
boots.

Carhartt also makes work boots, too. It's what i wear but it seems they
dont last as long as they used to. Either that or i am actually putting
them more to use than i used to.

Also look up Caterpillar work boots.

Lastly, Google tree climbing and/or forestry boots. I have a pair of those
also. They are very slim and you can get them with a steel shank.

73,
Mike
KE6MRE

On Thursday, August 7, 2014, Donald Chester <k4kyv at hotmail.com> wrote:

> As I prepare to do some serious climbing  work on my tower, footwear is
> now a concern. When I erected 127' of Rohn 25G 30 years ago, I used the
> steel-shank work boots I had on hand, size 9 1/2 M  or 10 M as I recall,
> without a second thought. Those are long worn out, so I purchased a new
> pair of 10 M boots with steel shank. I used them for several weeks for
> other outdoor projects and they are now broken in and very comfortable, but
> the other day I did some preliminary climbing and it turns out that the
> soles of the boots are too wide for both feet to easily fit on a rung at
> the same time. I can wiggle my feet around each step and get both in place
> on each rung as I go up, but IMO that isn't a very comfortable or safe way
> to be climbing a 120' plus tower. The soles could be about a half-inch
> narrower with no problem, but they just weren't made that way.
>
> I set those boots side-by-side and measured the total width of the two
> soles at 9.5 inches. I measured the width of another pair of work boots I
> have, same size - 10M - but no steel shank, at 9.0 inches. It is very easy
> to climb with those, but the lack of steel shank in the sole makes it
> unbearably painful to stand on a tower rung any longer than a few minutes.
> I went back to the store where I bought my new boots, looking for a pair of
> 9 1/2 M with narrower soles, but could find only ones without steel shank.
>
> I tried looking on-line, but the descriptions are big on steel toes, but
> little mention of steel shank, even with a Google search for "steel shank
> boots". Most of the boot stores that claim to carry work boots seem
> primarily concerned with fashion statements, like fancy cowboy boots and
> other footwear, crap that would be useless for serious "work".
>
> Very frustrating. Never thought finding a pair of suitable work boots for
> tower work would be such an ordeal. Since a lot of people use Rohn 25G,
> there must be footwear available for comfortably climbing this tower, like
> there was 30 years ago. And my feet are probably smaller than average. Can
> anyone tell me where they were able to find a satisfactory pair of tower
> climbing boots?
>
>
> Don k4kyv
>
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-- 
Mike Lyon
408-621-4826
mike.lyon at gmail.com

http://www.linkedin.com/in/mlyon