Close calls?

Anyone on here have any close call stories? The subject is kind of fresh in my mind as I just had a good one. Im working in the blind, 60 ton grove rt, on a bridge job. Had laborers hook me up to the bidwell to fly it down. Even after I say, keep me boomed up where it looks underboomed to compensate for deflection. They had it overboomed, so when they touched me up that bidwell went into live traffic. Thankfully no cars were comming.

Hoister said:

Anyone on here have any close call stories? The subject is kind of fresh in my mind as I just had a good one. Im working in the blind, 60 ton grove rt, on a bridge job. Had laborers hook me up to the bidwell to fly it down. Even after I say, keep me boomed up where it looks underboomed to compensate for deflection. They had it overboomed, so when they touched me up that bidwell went into live traffic. Thankfully no cars were comming.

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Holy swinging load Batman!

Yeah, that would scare the bejesus out of ya!

Your best learning to judge where your load line is without depending on [crane] inexperienced hands on the ground. Keep your hook rigging above reach of the ground hogs and position your line over the center of the load, then drop your line for them to rig it. Snatch up the load, and boom up as you feel/see the deflection of the boom. The more you operate a particular rig, the more you become familiar with its tendencies.

Yeah thats easy on the ground brother. But when the only thing we see is the two-block weight when we're in the blind and below a structure, those inexperienced people can kill someone. In ten years Ive had some guys try some stupid things, Ive also held jobs up until they could give me someone who can throw me the right signals.

Hoister said:

Yeah thats easy on the ground brother. But when the only thing we see is the two-block weight when we're in the blind and below a structure, those inexperienced people can kill someone. In ten years Ive had some guys try some stupid things, Ive also held jobs up until they could give me someone who can throw me the right signals.

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LoL, yup, operating a crane can get interesting at times.

ATCOEQUIP said:

LoL, yup, operating a crane can get interesting at times.

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Amen :beerchug

I lifted a hopper grain tank off a steel frame this summer. Calculated weight was 15,000 pounds. Rig was good for 20,000 the way we were set up. We'd sent three different bozos into the tank to make sure it was empty. Their response...."Oh it's just a little dust in it stuck to the walls" Winching up the computer showed we passed the calculated 15K weight. Not unusual. Tighten up some more, and pass the 20K capacity of the crane, and it still didn't budge. Hit the overide and got 22K on the hook. I saw one corner getting light, so, figured I had it. Then, we had to cut the columns out from under it. Everytime we'd cut the steel column, it'd settle down where they just cut. It just didn't "feel" right, so, ran two 8,000# telehandlers over to give me some help. After we got it to the ground (14' high) we looked over into the tank and there was about 25,000 of commodity still in the tank. Talk about a pucker factor.

did the "bozos" get fired or beat with a stick?? i think they needed both

i'm not a crane operator but have been around a few close call's involving cranes,one of the in my opinion stupid moves was we were working at a hospital and one of the important people that lived across the street had talked to the genral contractor and said they wanted this huge pine tree transplanted from the hospital to his yard,so we stayed late one day and i made a pad for a 4100 manitowoc with a 963 track loader ,the moved the crane in rigged it up to the tree, we dug a big hole around the trunk and they went to lift the tree, know one knows what it weighs the crane has it's boom over a power line and so the crane begins to lift ,out comes the tree ,up off the ground comes the crane,the operator was smart enough to let the tree free fall to the ground now the boom and the cable are banging and the crane rocking,yeah the tree stayed and was choped up with the rest of them.

cat 385 said:

i'm not a crane operator but have been around a few close call's involving cranes,one of the in my opinion stupid moves was we were working at a hospital and one of the important people that lived across the street had talked to the genral contractor and said they wanted this huge pine tree transplanted from the hospital to his yard,so we stayed late one day and i made a pad for a 4100 manitowoc with a 963 track loader ,the moved the crane in rigged it up to the tree, we dug a big hole around the trunk and they went to lift the tree, know one knows what it weighs the crane has it's boom over a power line and so the crane begins to lift ,out comes the tree ,up off the ground comes the crane,the operator was smart enough to let the tree free fall to the ground now the boom and the cable are banging and the crane rocking,yeah the tree stayed and was choped up with the rest of them.

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Must have been some tree to pull a 4100 over. Some tree or a long reach.

Hoister said:

Must have been some tree to pull a 4100 over. Some tree or a long reach.

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not a real good pad

Trees: A crane operators worst nightmare

cat 385 said:

not a real good pad

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That'll do it too.

JDOFMEMI said:

Trees: A crane operators worst nightmare

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Trees can be a pain. Power lines are what gets me on my toes.

...so when they touched me up that bidwell went into live traffic.

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I see you're from Da Burgh. Let me know where that crew is working so I can go a different way...



Good topic though. I can think of a few, which I may have time to post tonight...

digger242j said:

I see you're from Da Burgh. Let me know where that crew is working so I can go a different way...

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The crew in question has been some of the steady help for a company thats packing up their north eastern operations and heading south with them, off to the right to work states. So after this job finishes in a few weeks, theyll be gone. Needless to say, I wont really miss them :waving

Getting into a little more detail with my little close call. Only a few feet of the bidwell went out in traffic, not the whole thing. The legs or posts hit the barrier. However, if the right car came past at the right instant, the passenger of that car would have been gone. Now from my perspective below the bridge, all I could see was the very end of the bidwell straight up above me so when I touched up, it vanished. I knew what happened as soon as I saw that and boomed it the hell up out of there.

had a few cranes fall over next to me one at a time... One tried to pick at I'll say ZERO Degrees... 18 ton? P&H fully extended with manual and jib.. didn't work... end up about 20 feet away. 250 -500 pounds crash
#2 was a boom buckled because... well rookies.. some old hydro truck crane... pull the boom to pin it but pulled it pass the pinning part. that one sent two guys to the hospital...
I was 20 foot away from that on also.. but I had a refinery reactor to protect me...

Also was working near a broderson ..it was another zero type degree pick..I'll give them 10 degrees. it had all it's boom out and the jib...lifting the end of a exchanger head... 2 foot diameter... he swung and thump...

I picked a 3500 # valve from the top of a tower once ... the crane was a grove 85 ton with 200ish foot of boom and lattice... woobly thing.. it was a night pick so I could see .. just radios.. The crew doing it had done this maybe 20 times.. I was a little concerned with the continuous boom ups with very little cable up..... No Problems..
The next night a valve is setting on the ground... same place I set the old one.. I set the hook about two foot to me.. The guy choking it tried to boom me down... I said no the boom will bend.. It did...WAY more than I ever thought.. The valve ran about 20 feet away from the crane... kinda puckerish

Loading out a 718 it was my job to hook up the car body . Used 4, 1 1/4 dia by 20 foot steel chokers.In order to save room we set the tracks on the ground then blocked the car body on top of the tracks.

Had an 80 ton hydraulic crane to pick up the parts . I put the chokers on the hook and climbed up on the car body. Operator swung the machine but didn't run out enough boom for the chokers to clear. So I drug the chokers around , 1 st two on the far side struggled to get them in position .

The last two I wondered to the other side and fought them to get hooked up.I'm under the boom with my back turned to him so I know I didn't flag him but he decided to help me out by running more boom out.

BANG , I heard and I froze as the 850 lb ball hit the car body right where I had been standing just moments before . The operator forgot about the whip line and extended the boom until the cable broke .

He had just run out 30 feet of boom so I know he run both lines to do that .
Just a lapse in thought that could have gotten me hurt.


For those that don't know the car body is the section that the house sets on and the tracks connect to........44,000 lbs by its self

No anti two block devices on that rig? That wouldn't have hurt you Tiny...that would have killed you dead. That's bull@#$%

Tiny said:

BANG , I heard and I froze as the 850 lb ball hit the car body right where I had been standing just moments before . The operator forgot about the whip line and extended the boom until the cable broke .

He had just run out 30 feet of boom so I know he run both lines to do that .
Just a lapse in thought that could have gotten me hurt.

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Not just hurt. An 850lbs downhaul would have killed you. Glad you werent standing there anymore.

I really want people to understand that a computer and anti two block systems are there as an aid only.Do not ever trust your life to man made devices This thing had something shorted and kept extending.