Man, I take my hat off to guys that can do mechanical work like that, I break out into a cold sweat just looking at the pictures. I cross my fingers that the tires all make the same noise when I hit them with the bar, because it's such a pain to put air in the inner duels
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Just some work pics
- Thread starter crane operator
- Start date
crane operator
Senior Member
A customer bare rented this machine for a job, I'm going to do the bigger stuff, he just needs this to load out trucks. The thing that always gets me on these rental rigs, is the becket on the cable. The mechanics at the rental houses don't know cranes, and sometimes the customers don't either. The cables get messed up, the mechanics put on new cable, and they never install the becket correctly. This one the cable is routed backwards through the becket, then live line and dead end clamped together. Every thing they could have installed wrong, they did. Burns my a$$. Rant over.
hosspuller
Senior Member
At least they didn't put a saddle on a dead "horse" (thanks to your rants, I've learned the correct use of a Becket & its wedge)
PS ...Is it wrong to use a rope clamp with a correctly threaded Becket ?
PS ...Is it wrong to use a rope clamp with a correctly threaded Becket ?
crane operator
Senior Member
You never clamp the live side of the line to your dead portion, the becket is taking that strain, you don't want to clamp it because then it can't move. The cable rotates under load so it is constantly turning as you load and unload it (even rotation resistant cable- it just turns both ways because of how the cable is wrapped- whole different subject).
The second becket in the accepted methods (first image) looks like the live side is clamped, but it's not, that's just a special style clamp that doesn't clamp down on the live line. Second image shows that style better and explains it.
crane operator
Senior Member
That is probably the least bothersome thing to me about that installation. The becket will hold the cable from unraveling, as well as his incorrect cable clamps. All your doing with the seizing is keeping the cable together. I actually don't seize my cables with the wire wrapping method. The wire wrapping method is fine if you have a quick reeve boom head- and never take off the becket, or are installing it in a lattice boom that's going to sit on some site for months and never reeve cable. Some beckets are so tight you can't get a seized cable through them.
We are constantly swapping from block to ball and back in the rental game, and the wire type seizing will not stay on while running cable through the block sheeves. I've seen guys weld the ends, but I don't like that because I think it heats it too much and makes the wire brittle. I actually braze my cable ends. I think it is a little softer (which helps the cable to still move), you're able to reeve through block and boom head and becket with it. It doesn't work as well with the more ridgid rotation resistant cables ( like a 19x7),it works well with the multipart capable rotation resistant cables (like a 8x25), and standard cable (like 6x37).
The danger with brazing is internal damage to the cable from not allowing the wraps to rotate independently of each other.
I have seen it start to bunch up the cable a little on the other side of the becket- usually about 2' up, but if that starts to get bad, you can always cut it off and redo it. Keep a eye on everything.
The big danger with installing the cable through the becket backwards is that it puts a terrible angle on the cable as it starts into the becket on the load line side, it will actually cut/ severely bend/crack the cable there.
The danger with the clamps on both sides is two fold. You can keep the cable from rotating how it needs to, damaging the cable. The second is that you can actually have the becket wedge come loose in the becket, then you're relying only on the clamps.
Actually early beckets never even had the clamps on the back side, the wedge actually holds it all (your dead end inside the winch is only a wedge becket- no clamps). The clamp is there so if the cable slacks, the wedge can't come loose and have the cable slide around it.
My rope is non rotating , my last rope was brazed but this new rope is anealled. My understanding is it is important to have a good job of one or the other to hold the iner layer from turning independently from the outer layer.
Someday I'll tell the story of my fight with the safety man about proper becket installation. We were both a little angry by the time we agreed my way was right. His insistence on having at least 3 clamps and having the load line clamped to the dead end was a little frustrating. Most safety consultants really don't know that much about cranes. But you can't tell them that.
I don't know how many times I've fixed that issue on customers cranes. I've explained it and showed people till I'm blue in the face. Anymore I just fix it and move on.
I don't know how many times I've fixed that issue on customers cranes. I've explained it and showed people till I'm blue in the face. Anymore I just fix it and move on.
crane operator
Senior Member
I had to say something about snow- and this is a current picture outside. Supposed to get 1-2 inches-it was 70deg here this week.
crane operator
Senior Member
From about 12:00 until 2:00
Hank R
Senior Member
- Joined
- May 28, 2014
- Messages
- 2,068
- Location
- Princeton B.C. Canada
- Occupation
- Retired Truck driver and School bus driver
More trees coming down for you. Really enjoy all your posts here, never ran a crane but like them.
davo727
Well-Known Member
So you ended up fixing the cable on the rental crane? Send a bill to the rental?
Tugger
Well-Known Member
Ive found the terminator beckets are the best ,they take away any argument and they come apart nicely when your reeving lots.
crane operator
Senior Member
I like them too, but they are awfully expensive. I have a operator who I've caught twice with a terminator installed wrong
, I think he's got it figured out now (he hadn't seen that style before). I've never seen him have problems with any other style. I usually tell the operator- its not my crane, not my problem, but I would feel awful if something happened and I hadn't said something.
I've been using the "special" cable clamps, must be a term for them? That look like a conventional one but they don't actually clamp down on the live cable.
As I like to go down the road with my ATB weight not jerking on the switch, the last thing I do when tearing down is winch up until the ATB stops me, then I hit the defeat switch and come up another few inches, just enough to have slack in the chain from the weight to the switch. To secure the hook and ball I have a hand winch and strap on the front, that way when I set up I don't have to climb back out of the cab to unhook it after reeling out some slack, I loosen it first thing, before putting the outriggers out. The only problem with this setup, is if someone hooks me up and I don't see them do it, then I winch up into the ATB, I tear my winch strap off. No big deal, just 2" load binder strap, I carry spares. Since going to this way of securing the ball, EVERYONE now wants to hook me up, before, when I NEEDED them to do it, to save me a trip out of the cab and back, they NEVER did it!
This leaves the dead end of my wire rope inside the cast iron weight ATB, so I mouse (now there's a term....) the end first using heavy black tape used by well drillers for securing the wires to the drop pipe, then I go over the tape with good old aircraft safety wire, which is stainless. That holds up real well, and looks good also. It took me a while to figure out why I kept going through ATB switches, like a dummy I was going down the road with that weight working on the switch, nobody told me, I had to figure it out myself.
of a well,
As I like to go down the road with my ATB weight not jerking on the switch, the last thing I do when tearing down is winch up until the ATB stops me, then I hit the defeat switch and come up another few inches, just enough to have slack in the chain from the weight to the switch. To secure the hook and ball I have a hand winch and strap on the front, that way when I set up I don't have to climb back out of the cab to unhook it after reeling out some slack, I loosen it first thing, before putting the outriggers out. The only problem with this setup, is if someone hooks me up and I don't see them do it, then I winch up into the ATB, I tear my winch strap off. No big deal, just 2" load binder strap, I carry spares. Since going to this way of securing the ball, EVERYONE now wants to hook me up, before, when I NEEDED them to do it, to save me a trip out of the cab and back, they NEVER did it!
This leaves the dead end of my wire rope inside the cast iron weight ATB, so I mouse (now there's a term....) the end first using heavy black tape used by well drillers for securing the wires to the drop pipe, then I go over the tape with good old aircraft safety wire, which is stainless. That holds up real well, and looks good also. It took me a while to figure out why I kept going through ATB switches, like a dummy I was going down the road with that weight working on the switch, nobody told me, I had to figure it out myself.
of a well,
Don't worry I'm not Santa. That poor little tree is right at the shoreline of Lake Huron ( one of the Great Lakes ) I live between Lake Huron and Georgian Bay. That is frozen slush I walked on it right out to the water, I thought it made a cool picture. You can tell that its been slow on the crane just a few sets of trusses in the last three weeks. I'm down to taking pictures of sad little trees.My god Tradesman ! How far north did you walk ?
That lone tree & background looks like it could be the North Pole .
crane operator
Senior Member
"piggyback" clamps, or double saddle.
Also our snow is now all gone- 45deg and sunshine
.