Here is another project I was involved in back in the mid 70's. It is not wise to swing and extend the boom of a rough terrain crane, if you do not have the outriggers down. This crane photo shows the results. No one was injured, but a worker in the jobsite trailer needed clean underwear I think. Jeff
I am no crane hand but I have operated them and certainly forgotten outriggers a time or two. I don't understand how this kind of thing occurs. Whenever I have started to pick up the load or even extend the boom out it always felt extremely squishy and reminded me of my fault.
Years ago, welder was using a boom truck, lifted the pump onto the deck, left the boom up at 45 deg. still rigged to the pump and drove to where he was installing it. The pump slid off the deck at the second corner and the whole works was on its side. Cam
I remember this well. Notice he had the boom way out, so maybe that contributed to the "turn over". I remember he was just going to hook onto a spreader bar that happened to be stored there, but was not hooked to anything when it turned over. The crane was just fine, and so was the operator. The office trailer, well not so much. Jeff
I've operated free on rubber quite a bit, it's certainly a bit of an eerie feeling, I'm not sure how you can do it accidentally. That said, it certainly happens. I know of one incident last year where a largish rough terrain crane was moved with full stick out. Needless to say, it didn't end well
I learned in a Grove just like that one. A 22 ton if I remember correctly. She was a pretty forgiving old girl as I ran through the complete rookie mistake handbook with her. I guess I never got to that one.
One of those little groves was my first time in the seat to. It arrived at the shop on a lowbed with no detachable neck,we hadnt heard of them then. They shop foreman was asking for a volunteer to unload it. At 22 id do anything to try running a crane,even drive it off over the beavertail with half the tires hanging out over the edge of the bed. Once i got in the seat the excitment rapidly dissipated to extreme nervousness. But with a couple of guys yelling your fine give er off we came .All went well ,but the next time i loaded it i dug a hole to back the lowbed into backfilled to the edge of the bed and crabbed it on the side till i was on. I had a few haywire lessons on stability with that crane ,but no mishaps. The good old days of get in the seat and try it.
Yes, I remember those days. You would learn by doing. Ha. Now, OSHA or MSHA would be all over the company like stink on a hog. The first big machine I ran was an R35 Euclid at a ferro alloy plant. I believe the actual words from the foreman were, " Get going, you will figure it out". Jeff
I ran an R 22 for a while... very memorable unit, It wasn't to bad if you were clutching a rosary in one hand and a prayer book in the other. By the time you got home most of the color had returned to your face,
I ran one of those Euc s to I cant recall the model. It had the 6-71 stack thru the hood and the 5 speed.And minimal brakes. Hauling ballast for logging roads,some days were real nail biters. Must have have set me on the daredevil course to drive grove RT s of narrow lowbeds.
Well there you go, good training.