One day several years ago, when I was still running the 22 ton Manitex 22101S, I unexpectedly was tasked with disposing of the HVAC unit I had just unloaded off the roof. The scrap yard was of course clear across town, and it was the tail end of a long hot day, and I had something 'real important" to do once I was done (but not so important that I remember what it was) so I was in a hurry. At this point I had close to 2,000 hours in the Manitex, in 2 years, so I knew it well enough to know that if I didn't bother with putting outriggers downs, much less out, I could do some things. The scrap yard was tight and real busy, but I was able to back into a place just right, and I was on level pavement, so I boomed straight up, with the boom fully retracted, until I could pick the 700 lb unit off the deck, then I boomed back to the stop, and then proceeded to rotate 180 degrees and set it down directly behind me right behind the bumper, piece of cake! so far so good.
But meanwhile, I had been noticing a pickup with a long trailer backing out of a long alleyway, and he was doing a bad job of it, and I realized that if I didn't hurry, I'd be waiting several minutes for him to clear the way to the scales. It doesn't make sense now, but at the time it did, so while swinging the boom around 180 degrees to set it into the cradle, to save a few seconds (!) I (of course at this point forgetting the outriggers were neither down or out) also boomed down.
You can guess the rest, at one point the rig slowly started to tip, and though I was able to make it a "soft" touchdown with no apparent damage, I got slammed up against the cab windshield. Less then 5 minutes later the yard had a big front end loader there, and we were able to gently get it back on an even keel in a controlled fashion. The worst part was when I realized Ted the crane dog was in the air conditioned truck cab, which I had forgotten in all the excitement, he was still there, plastered up against the side window and giving me a look like "now what dad?"
