Chat with a welder on site last week changed my mind about boom angles

I was running a 90 ton crawler on a highway bridge job outside Nashville. This old welder, probably 60 plus, walked up and said "you're fighting gravity, not steel" when I was adjusting the boom to get closer to a pick. He explained that my angles were too steep for the load radius, and it hit me how much I had been guessing instead of reading the load chart proper. He even showed me a quick hand signal for the operator to adjust that saved us 2 hours of setup time. Has anyone else had a random conversation like that with a ground guy that totally changed how you run a lift?

2 comments

2 Comments

andrew85424d ago

That old timer probably could have run the crane with his eyes closed.

the_phoenix23d ago

Ever actually watched someone try to move a crane with a joystick?