I could start a new thread "Dumb things Impact did at work", but, I'll place this post here. Read this, and bash me, tell me how stupid I am, or whatever. I take full blame for it, and I'll agree with you.
On the 100T we run two winch lines. Winch 1 is a single part. Winch 2 we typically keep rigged with a 3 part line. It gives us about 41,000# of winch pull, which is enough to load counterweights etc. We have a larger block that has five pulleys on it. There's five pulleys on the boom nose.
Had a lift a boiler the other day off a truck and fish it inside a building using skates etc. As normal, I was getting conflicting answers on the weight. I really though an 8 part cable would suffice, but, why stop there? If 8 is good, 10 should be better. We made the lift and it was uneventful. Before we left they wanted us to life some screw conveyors on top of some storage tanks. Weight was only a few hundred pounds, but, the radius was 100-115'. I decided I needed the full 157' of live boom. Instinct was to unreeeve the 10 part cable and re-install the 3 part. I knew there was no way the block would make it to the gound. Everyone was ready to make the lift NOW, so, I ignored my instinct and left the 10 part cable on winch 1. I simply just kept it up near the boom tip. We lifted a couple of screw conveyors w/o any problems when all of a sudden, I got a two block alarm. You old crane operators probably already know what happened. I couldn't believe I had two blocked. I was 100% confidant I hadn't accidentally lifted winch 1. So, I let winch 1 down a bit. About that time, my guy hollered..WAIT..I looked over my shoulder and there was about 50-75' of cable laying on the ground. Wow and Yikes. The five part block was wedged up into the boom nose. I was totally lost for a bit there. I had NO idea what had happened.
Finally it dawned on me. The line on the boom side of the 10 part block was heavy enough to raise the block. It was like not having a heavy enough headache ball. It took us an hour to slowly wind the winch cable up, while drawing the main boom in inch by inch. Whenever we got about 2/3 of the boom in, we were able to lay the boom down and check everything out. Of course the winch cable looked like a bird's nest, but, we managed to NOT kink the line.
That happened to me once, it will NOT happen again.
Ok, tell me how stupid I am. I suppose the moral of the story could be "Trust your Instincts"