It's about 60 degrees and breezy today, time for a test.
Flagpole has big spring pins that pop out when they align with the segment below.
The one (easily fixable) design flaw with this pole is there's a little alignment dot on the pole just above the pin on one side only.
If the pin's on the other side of the pole while you're raising it and you miss it, you can pull the pin out of the segment below.
Then you gotta fiddle with it to get it back inside the lower segment and into the hole. This thing's not super light, so that's no good!
So I took a paint pen and made a line that goes all the way around the pole a few inches above the dot.
Then I made another vertical line down to the dot.
You can't miss these lines... line up the vertical line with the hole in the segment below and it pops right in. Result!
Because the pole is at ground level instead of 18" in the ground, the segment you're raising is at eye level instead of chest level.
It moves smoothly, but it's still a pretty good workout for the old shoulders. Going down is no problem. Gravity is your friend.
So I ordered an extra wide folding plastic step stool to get me back up to the design height... Ford Blue, of course.
When it's all the way up, it is as tall as the peak of the roof of my two story house. WAY taller than the old skinny pole.
It sways a little at the top, but not very much. The massive wheel stand does not budge.
I won this credit card sized pouch awhile back and hadn't yet figured out what I was going to do with it.
I got it. I need to make sure I have a small screwdriver with me in case a pin gets stuck.
I put the screwdriver in the pouch and will put this on one of the wheel stand knobs.
I'll take the key ring off and clip the pouch onto the caribiner.
The screwdriver will stay with the wheel stand in the most stylish way possible.
Update: I stole my wife's step stool and this thing is easy peasy. It takes half as long to put up as the old skinny pole.
Tighten down the big knobs and clip on the flags with those nice caribiners. Four pin snaps later, it's up.
In the past I had to pay attention to the wind. Not anymore!
