Working the National 1300A

you can't win with jobs like that, they want you YESTERDAY and TIME IS MONEY but you can't bid high enough to just tie up your crane and ditch all those customers who pay for the mobs and keep you busy year after year.

The CAT facility a couple miles down the road from my yard, this 75 (?) ton crane had to come from 50 miles away, if I had the rig I'd get all their work like this, oh well. I'm busy enough.
I set every single one of those multi colored panels (and it's a huge facility) when they built the place about 10 years ago. It's a windy location, and they were foam cored, and all custom built, as to the length and the color. There were strict plans as to what color went where, some big brain had it all figured out, I still think it looks weird. I was told if one got away from us and got damaged, a replacement would take several weeks and cost $2,000.00, one never did, still can't believe that.

MY Hirshmann LMI is flashing a 04 error code, I believe that means it is no longer communicating with the boom, it's not getting the needed info about the boom's extension and the pressure on it. The first thing I did was check my ATB cable, and it appears to be fine. That reel keeps track of how many feet of stick I have out, so that seemed to make sense to check first. Then I started thinking it was the pressure transducer...so I get the parts book out, and while it lists every other darn part in the entire 1300A National, there is not one word about the LMI or the boom's transducer. Looking in the boom end, nothing jumped out at me that looked like what I'd think a transducer should look like (hydraulic fittings plus electric wires, both). I think it may be in the dog house on the turret, where all the hydraulic lines terminate. Would it be on the lines that scope the boom out? What do they even look like?

Here's the error code explanation :
Operating mode switch in the
console set incorrectly.
Operating mode is not
permissible with actual crane
configuration.
That sounds better, like I somehow pushed a button I had never pushed before, and somehow made it boot up wrong. I guess it's time to read the entire user manual before I start worrying about a transducer.

Pressure transducer for weight is on the boom up/ doom down cylinder, not telescope.

Does yours have the switches on the outriggers to show full/ half/ retracted positions?

Boom up/down cylinder, I knew that, or should have...... makes better sense. No switches, but the LMI asks what position the outriggers are in, and it's up to me to tell it correctly. The setup mode is the same as its always beenutriggers out 100%, single part line, no jib mounted, etc., either it's a failed transducer, or the LMI did something weird and needs to be set up again from scratch somehow. I hope its a part replacement rather then some obscure computer thing. I will be messing with it more in a couple hours.

My totally unrelated backup camera also quit working, if not at the same time this problem started, close to it. And...I threw a serpentine belt also about the same time. Hard to imagine it's all related, not like losing the alternator would cause a voltage spike, more of a sag I'd imagine.

You probably know the story that trouble comes in threes. Once you fix these problems you should be set for a while.

Natman said:

Boom up/down cylinder, I knew that, or should have...... makes better sense. No switches, but the LMI asks what position the outriggers are in, and it's up to me to tell it correctly. The setup mode is the same as its always beenutriggers out 100%, single part line, no jib mounted, etc., either it's a failed transducer, or the LMI did something weird and needs to be set up again from scratch somehow. I hope its a part replacement rather then some obscure computer thing. I will be messing with it more in a couple hours.

My totally unrelated backup camera also quit working, if not at the same time this problem started, close to it. And...I threw a serpentine belt also about the same time. Hard to imagine it's all related, not like losing the alternator would cause a voltage spike, more of a sag I'd imagine.

Click to expand...

Belt maybe took out some wiring?

Typically the pressure transducer have their own error code when they go bad. It sounds more like a issue in the display key or the override/ operation key on the big box. From what the description is

. If the length reel gets too far out of adjustment retracted, it will throw a code. Will your functions work if you turn the override?

I think you are correct CO. The service manager of the National dealer in SLC told me it sounded like a simple problem, not a transducer, and all I needed to do was "reset the limits in the LMI", which is located in the turret swivel, or at least the limit setting switches are, or something like that. I played around with it today (the LMI display) while setting trusses, and quickly got out of my depth, after it asked for my code. But yeah, I can operate still, via the over ride. As luck would have it though my last two truss jobs, for reasons of the crew, visibility, and the conditions, it would have been real nice to have my radius display back. Not to mention the ATB. So, tomorrow morning at 4 AM I will make the 160 mile drive to their service center, (all interstate anyway) and hopefully be on my way back in an hour or so. No work scheduled tomorrow, so why not. I will also get educated on what went wrong, I'm not just going to drop it off but will be right there while they mess with it. I don't mind throwing some money and time at it, if they can get me turned around and headed back north ASAP. I DON"T want to get used to operating without an LMI, I did enough of that in the past, before I had one and before I knew better.
Lantraxco: Hard to imagine how, the affected wiring for both are not anywhere near the thrown belt, I think it was just my time.....the National has been very good to me for the last 3500-4000 hours (have to check the op cab hour meter, around that) and if I can't afford to throw some money at it now and then I'm doing something wrong. Learning something in the process is worth something too.

Natman, Did you get it back working, and what was wrong?

I made the drive down, timed it just right and got there 5 minutes after the service shop opened. 15 minutes later I was on my way back, all fixed! It was a initial setup code that somehow got scrambled, and just had to be reset. The only codes I have messed with are when I tell it my outriggers are halfways out, or I'm rigged for a 2 or 3 part line, whether or not the jib is mounted etc., this was a bit deeper than that. The 320 miles of interstate driving (left at 5, was home before lunch, on a no work day, lousy flying conditions and no new snow at the ski area so I didn't miss doing anything else) was well worth it as IF it does it again I now know how to reset it. The service tech did say that a few guys have managed to really screw up their LMI's by random button pushing and ignorant code inputs, to the point where they were wiped out or at least had to undergo a lot of reprogramming, I didn't want to be one of those guys. NO CHARGE, they took pity on me, the only bad part of the trip back was diesel went up 5 cents at the same station I had filled up on the way down.
Best of all, my next day job, with a 9 man crew in a pit below me, and three engineer/inspector types above watching and taking pictures while we positioned some 4500 pound pipe assemblies (in and out of the pit a lot of times, until they got the 6' diameter fiberglass tee joined up just right) I was fully operational and didn't have to make some lame excuse about my LMI being out.

yeah that is best. I had an LMI issue when hanging glass on a skybridge, and had to have a guy hold down a button on it while I worked. It was the boom truck so I tossed it over to the other work station and he chilled over there while I finished that set, then we figured out the problem.

While a lot of driving, glad it was a simple free repair. Glad that you are back operating and not having to over ride the computer. Plus now you know how to do it yourself. Even if you forget they will be able to walk you trough it now.

Spotted across the street from where I was working today. This guy modified a standard dump bed trailer with an electric winch (recessed underneath the bed, with appropriate fairleads) and then fabbed up 4 of these dumpster like containers. He has his kid drop them off at his jobsites, and then when needed he shows up and winches them into the trailer and heads to the dump. I'd guess this is cheaper than contracting with the big companies and their much larger dumpsters, plus it gives his kid something to do, keeps him out of trouble. A couple flip down ramps help guide it into the trailer.

Worth a view, only 8 seconds long

Holy crap!!! Reaaaaal lucky nobody was behind it...

Bet it seamed like a good idea. Hook the air line to it and the rod will just get pushed out

https://www.motor1.com/news/494926/pickup-hanging-off-bridge-rescue/ This just happened, I'm surprised it hasn't made the national news yet! They used a big rotator wrecker I believe to hoist it. Which reminds me: am I the only one to get a kick out of "Highway to Hell", and the other one, "Heavy Rescue 401", or whatever it's called, the shows all about heavy wreckers. That's how I know they are called rotators, I like to see how they abuse their rigging, but of course they are not lifting overhead, and I also like how they use their quick reeve snatch blocks in creative fashion. Often though, it seems like a regular small crane would be better suited for the work. Like what they used to get old Tiger Woods cart out of the ditch, that was a nice bit of rigging there.

I think the big difference between a rotator and a crane is how they can side load the rotator

I've noticed that, they must be built hell for stout just for that purpose. I like the dual winches they have, with the boom tip fairleads allowing wildy diverging cable angles. The way the operators have to reach up into the bed to run the controls looks a bit awkward though, the guys with the wireless remotes have it made.

After getting stuck in mud or snow, or seeing others stuck, I have come close a couple times to rigging a snatch block off my front tow hooks, (to get the pull down low, so cable goes straight down off boom tip to the snatch block and turns a 90) and with the boom saddled, using the winch to pull myself out. I seriously considered it, but never did it....just doesn't seem right, not sure what the dynamics of that would be, I'll leave that to the rigs designed for that.