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Vent: Tried a new way to set up my outriggers on a tight city job and it backfired
I was on a job in downtown Charlotte last Thursday, setting up a 70-tonner on a site with maybe 6 inches of clearance on one side. The ground looked solid, compacted gravel, so I figured I could get away with using just the steel plates under the outriggers instead of the full timber cribbing I usually bring. My foreman, Mike, even said 'looks good from here.' Well, after about an hour of light picks, I felt the whole cab shift maybe two degrees. Shut everything down and hopped out. The front right outrigger had punched through the gravel into some soft, wet clay nobody knew was there. It took us three hours with a jack and extra timbers to get it stable again, pushing the whole schedule back. I learned that 'looks solid' isn't good enough, and that old rule about always using cribbing on unknown ground is there for a reason, even if it takes an extra 20 minutes. Has anyone else had a site bite them because you skipped what seemed like a small step?
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juliahall22d agoTop Commenter
Last summer in Raleigh, we had a 50-ton crane sink a good eight inches on what was supposed to be a paved staging area. It taught me to always do a test push with the outrigger at low pressure first, just to see. That little check has saved me more than once. I get what @henry492 means about losing a whole day trying to save twenty minutes. Now my rule is if I even have a doubt, I build the cribbing. It's not worth that sick feeling when the cab tilts.
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henry49222d ago
Ever tried to save time and lost a whole day?
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willow_garcia10d ago
Nah, sometimes you gotta push it. Saw a crew last month skip the cribbing on a soft shoulder, got the whole lift done in half the time. @juliahall's method is safe, but that extra prep kills your momentum. If the ground looks fine and you've got a feel for it, rolling the dice can pay off big. Lost a day here and there sure, but saved a dozen more.
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