new ride

No we use mostly osb that is actually 3/4 plywood the wall is 18' high so the plywood is for structural strength

To clarify this isn't one of my jobs I'm just doing the crane work. I wish it was my job, all time and material. They have another building similar to do for the pool house and games room likely another year or more

That makes sense. I tore down a grain mill years ago, and ended up building my own home out of the material. I sheathed the entire 3 level ( tall, but not huge) place with 3/4" AC plywood, and it was 4' x 10' sheets! From the mid 60's it was, never seen it 10' sheets before or since. The entire place was overbuilt, but used material. I knew I would be selling it at some point, and I didn't want any static from the buyers home inspector. Like 2 x 12's, 12" OC, spanning 12', you could drive a loaded forklift on it, they did in the mill anyway and I put it back together the same way. Years later, when I did sell (at a huge profit, compared to what I had into it) the buyer's inspector was an old carpenter (thank God, he had some common sense) and he first commented on it all being "pre-owned" material, then went on to say it was the most overbuilt and solid small home he'd ever seen (200' of 12" I beam, 2x8 studs) and signed it off.

I pulled theses two pumps out for servicing for an organic to fertilizer plant today. they where 3,500 each, i had to set them down at 60 ft. over the side of my rig I was well inside my charts but the old arse meter was pinching, I had my son tail them down with our backhoe he did a nice job, the last one i did some one else tailed them with a tela- handler and I couldn't stop him from side loading me. I think he felt he had to help me instead of just holding on and letting me set it down. I picked them out of a building so it was mostly a blind lift, we used my radios and the guy giving me signals was great he never stopped updating me " cable down - slow -3 feet - 2 feet - stop " best I've ever worked with, and I told him so.

I have an update on my de-rating last Tuesday I got my new data plate, charts and new chip, other than the horrible price it was just like Christmas. So I rushed home and put the chip in the first time it didn't work " I had put it in wrong" third time was the charm. I put it outside, put the stick up to 78 degrees keyed in four parts of line and she came up at over 36,000 # oh sh!! it was the same chip that I already had, so on to the phone to Omaha to the head of service for Elliott I read him the code on the chip and yep he confirmed it was the full chart chip. He apologized and sent the correct chip right to my door step by courier I had it in two days, So back to the shop I went and plugged in the new chip "Computer fails to communicate with chip" Oh no so I tried again, no luck so i tried it upside down phew! the hand made label was upside down. So after much anguish and a pile of money I can go anywhere and operate with a clean conscience . I have to give the guys at Cropac " my crane shop" and the service tec. at Elliott a big thumbs up for All their good work and their efforts to get this done as fast as they did, never once did it feel like I was annoying anyone, I find with so many places I deal with its like the end of the world when you ask someone to do their job. Both these businesses are great to deal with.

So do you get to keep your old chart, data plate and chip? When you say a pile of $, are we talking $500, $5,000, or even worse? Have you been down while you're shipping data plates etc. back and forth? I would have been real tempted to keep the old data plates, and ordered a "replacement chip" before the derate (I accidently lost my chip-- honest) and made a real good copy of the plate.

I think all this kind of stuff stinks. Its a gov't written rule, that you've basically had to work around, it hasn't made you lift anything different than what you could before, and you had to spend a bunch of $ to do it. Hasn't made anything safer, just spread $ around to different people. I'm all for safety, if it actually makes the job safer, not to appease some gov't bs.

Yep I had to surrender my data plate and charts before they shipped the new ones. But I give credit to the guy in Omaha, he told me to hang on to them till he had everything ready and then he shipped on his end when he got the tracking number from the courier so they would cross paths on the way. On the other hand the Elliott dealer in Toronto wanted me to leave my rig at their shop from day one, screw that they lost my business again.
I normally don't have much work for the crane this time of year but in the week and a half I was down I missed out on four good jobs.

A smart ass Carpenter (nail bender ) that has worked for me for almost 20 years now texted this to me a while ago, I almost had to let him go but he's a master carpenter and kinda hard to replace.Oh the abuse I take

LOL Tradesman ! That's a good one .

Honestly those jobs can be the worst. Can't leave the cab but absolutely nothing is going on. I'd rather go all out then make two picks in 12 hrs.

Knepptune said:

Honestly those jobs can be the worst. Can't leave the cab but absolutely nothing is going on. I'd rather go all out then make two picks in 12 hrs.

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Gets hard to keep the peepers open.

Sunglasses. That way the nail benders can't tell if your napping.

I had some reflective sunglasses that worked that way, and I found myself taking advantage of them....just kind of resting my eyeballs a little. Now I make a point of my job sun glasses letting my eyeballs show pretty much, it helps me keep awake if I know I can get caught out! I think my customers like being able to make eye contact also, darn it. The Sirius sat radio I have in the cab is a godsend, if you can't find something entertaining (as in keep you alert and hopefully awake) to listen to with it you may as well go home. I'm upfront about it too, I tell my customers it keeps me more alert and I make no excuses for having it, though sometimes if caught fooling with it I'll say "just a second, have to reset my load computer." It's on pretty much 100% of the time, got the speakers close to my ears so it's kind of private, news, talk, music, makes the day go by. I am better now then when I started out, there is a knack to entering a zone of total awareness but also relaxing a bit. That's what the guy sawing logs in the above pic probably said also.

I re-installed the sewage pumps that I pulled a while ago. Turned out to be a nice job, we were to be on sight at 8:00 am. When the installers got there the pumps were still on the truck in the parking lot, it took a hour and a half to unload and bring up the hill with a tellehandler. Then when they lifted the lid on the pit there was 4 ft. of water in it down 30 ft. and all they had for a pump was small electric one, it was noon before I hooked onto the first pump. To make it even better my son was there with our backhoe to tail for me. At one point there was four white hats on sight with their hands in their pockets. All I could think of was the picture someone put on here last week. I showed one of the plumbers,I thought he was as going to fall in the hole laughing.

Natman- I wear sun glasses even on cloudy days, I can't stand having to squint and your right nobody can see if your eyes drift closed.
When I show up on sight I can't help judging the guys with wrap around sun glasses, I always think this guys an a-hole but then at lunch I get talking to the crew it turns out most times he's a nice guy. And why not he's a carpenter, the salt of the earth

I never complain about someone's job taking too long.....

That said, how do you like your rigging chains? I see more and more guys using them, it's just they are so heavy, and so expensive. I have two sets of 12'x 3/8" two leg slings I bought for a job several years ago, but they live in the shop most of the time, I just never end up taking them with me. I think I saw a set in knepptune's pictures a while back setting a hopper bottom stand, and I used a short rigging set with the guys who had the 210 ton, on the ride the other day.

I see them in a lot of pictures from europe they seem to be quite popular over there also. For me it's always been a case of a 3/8" chain weighs about what a 3/4" cable does, but only has the capacity of a 3/8" cable, but I guess the new 100 proof chain is actually a little better capacity wise than that. Also they would wear even better than steel cables do.

They are 5/16" grade 100 they match my spreaders for a 5 ton capacity the reason I like them is they fold up into a small plastic container I keep in my top box. I really only use them with the spreaders, I also spray oil on them a couple times a year so they're not a nasty rusty mess.

I used my grade 80 3/8" chain just the other day, first time in a few months. We used them to balance out a pre fab steel stair case at the local university housing complex. They are only 10, maybe 12' long, with grab hooks at both ends. Balancing loads is about all I use them for, rarely at that. With grab hooks at both ends, I keep a roll of electrical tape on board to serve as a substitute for a spring latch. I've heard that is a OSHA approved method, but won't swear to it! I love buying rigging....I never begrudge buying it, even the stuff I don't use much, I think it shows I give a hoot about getting the job done in the best way possible. Good advertising in other words.

Tradesman, it looks like you don't have a adjuster link on your chains. That's one of the few ways I usually use chains. My set didn't have a adjuster leg when I bought it either, I split up a 4-leg chain group (4-12' legs on one ring), into 2- 2 leg spreaders (each is one ring, 2 12' chain legs, 2- 6" adjusters). You can shorten the long legs with the short hook, or wrap all the way around something with the long leg and make a basket to the short hook with them. Adds a lot of possibilities.

All you would need is a few hammer-links and few hooks. And yes, mine have not been sprayed with oil and don't look as nice as yours .

This a good example of why we have data plates on rigging I got wondering if I was correct about the size of my chain slings and I was wrong they are 9/32 good for 6 k at 60 degrees
I've often thought bout adding grab hooks or clutch hooks but I keep buying other stuff instead.