Friction Crane Operation-Tips and Tricks?

[alskdjfhg]

Won the auction for the machine in this previous thread;
https://www.heavyequipmentforums.com/showthread.php?57210-Need-Info-on-Lattice-Boom-Truck-Crane

Now there is an element of doubt, never got the upper to start, so not sure the whole operational condition. Putting that aside for right now, what are the controls on this machine? As far as which levers do what, I have no clue how the machine works.

Is there anything that I should know about right off the bat that would cause an accident ie letting a winch or the boom free fall by accident?

Any safe practices I should know about other than staying on the right side of the load chart, make sure the boom doesn't hit anything or get side loaded and making sure outriggers are solid and placed right?

What about slings? What sizes, types and lengths are the handiest? Lots of variables here I'm sure and id imaging this is like machine tools, you just end up with atleast one of everything in every size, but what would be the best "set" to start out with?

As usual, thanks for any and all help.:notworthy

 

[Operator4100]

Ok, you have never ran a friction crane of any kind I take it,,, All of your clutches work off master cylinders and slave cylinders (brake fluid)
keep it full at all times(behind operator seat up high round canister). The swing clutches are up front of the crane they got to be adjusted correctly or it wont swing worth a crap, swing lever is far left hand lever. The next lever to your right is the left hoist clutch pull back to lift load push forward to power down(controlled load lowering), next one to right of that is the right hand clutch this one usually didn't have power down (those 2 are in the center). Far right hand lever is the boom hoist lever, push forward to boom down, pull back to boom up. There are 2 dogs underneath the boom hoist clutch which is located behind the seat towards the bottom of the floorboard. These 2 dogs have to be free on their shafts or the boom will be in live mode and not be controlled lowering, be very careful. Any more questions, please do not hesitate to contact me. Dwight

 

[old-iron-habit]

Congratulations on the P&H. Hope you got a great deal on it. Bet the upper doesn't take much to get going. Never let anyone be on the outside of your load. If you start to tip the load moves away from you. As rhe boom drifts it goes out and down. If your rigger lands the load from the crane side it will move away from him if something goes haywire. Hook on to something that is worthless and practice swinging, lifting and lowering. All of them steps take practice. Do it by yourself. Keep everyone away. Takes some time for it to come togather. Good friction operators are getting scarce. Not many friction clutched/braked machine left working in the commercial world. Most have hydraulic drums now.

 

[ichudov]

Congratulations on the P&H. Hope you got a great deal on it. Bet the upper doesn't take much to get going. Never let anyone be on the outside of your load. If you start to tip the load moves away from you. As rhe boom drifts it goes out and down. If your rigger lands the load from the crane side it will move away from him if something goes haywire. Hook on to something that is worthless and practice swinging, lifting and lowering. All of them steps take practice. Do it by yourself. Keep everyone away. Takes some time for it to come togather. Good friction operators are getting scarce. Not many friction clutched/braked machine left working in the commercial world. Most have hydraulic drums now.

I was driving on a highway recently and I saw an old small lattice boom crane doing some destructive work. He was dropping a wrecking ball repeatedly on some concrete slabs. It was kind of fun to watch, the operator worked so fast that I thought he might be taking some drugs. Really quick and professional work, dropping that wrecking ball. What was also interesting is that the crane hook was holding an old tire, and the wrecking ball was suspended on that tire, I guess for some cushioning.

To the OP, congrats on buying a crane. Please keep us posted, maybe just start a thread on it or keep this one going.

 

[shaggy650]

The pedal on the left of the hoist lever is the hoist brake. If you push with the front of your foot it will lock and hold the load, if you push with your heel it will release and allow the load to freefall. Make sure to fully engage the hoist and boom levers when using, don't feather them, lock them in then kick them out. And make sure you have your foot on the hoist brake when releasing or the load will freefall. The throttle is the big pedal in front of the seat, use you right foot. The swing is tricky to get used to as it is a free swing, so it will take some counter swinging to control and stop where you want. The swing brake is a lever on the left side of the seat, back is off forward is on. The swing will be real touchy after rain or if the swing clutches get a little rusty, until you wear it off. I am not an expert but I just went through a CCO training class, and they had a T440 just like that one, but a little older. Supposedly you can shift gears to make the boom and maybe hoist move faster, but we left it in the low gear for training.
I thought the old friction rig was the easiest to run, the swing was the hardest to get used to, and wind will really affect the lattice boom, but overall it is a really good machine. I would recommend a CCO training class you will learn a lot of valuable info. Good Luck

 

[alskdjfhg]

Stupid question, but does this machine have the third drum? http://s1309.photobucket.com/user/m...60206_141820_zpsqjcgte4w.jpg.html?sort=3&o=13 Or is that one drum and just looks like two?

These 2 dogs have to be free on their shafts or the boom will be in live mode and not be controlled lowering, be very careful. Any more questions, please do not hesitate to contact me. Dwight

Thanks for the descriptive post, really helps, and don't worry I never hesitate to ask for help. I didn't look super hard at the upper when I was at the machine, and the house is pretty cramped, but I did see some dogs on the boom hoist winch. There are in about the middle of this picture, are these the dogs your referring too?

http://s1309.photobucket.com/user/m...160206_142256_zpslfexkz12.jpg.html?sort=3&o=5

Congratulations on the P&H. Hope you got a great deal on it.

I'm comfortable with what I got it for, paid 3k, not sure if it's a good deal or not. And thanks for the tip about rigger placement.

keep this one going.

That's the plan

The pedal on the left of the hoist lever is the hoist brake. If you push with the front of your foot it will lock and hold the load, if you push with your heel it will release and allow the load to freefall. Make sure to fully engage the hoist and boom levers when using, don't feather them, lock them in then kick them out.

Thanks for that info, I'm kind used to old machinery that prefer's a bit "stronger" touch, but good to know that's how it's supposed to work.

 

[Tugger]

Sounds like a fair deal.The guys are right ,practice with something you cant hurt,it wont take long to get the feel of it.You still wont be a crane operator that quick so be careful.just rig one drum until you've got some experience,that will reduce the risk of two blocking while booming down[your block or ball jams in the boomtip sometimes breaking the hoist line or folding the boom] .Don't try and go too fast,dont be distracted by everything else that might be on your mind,just run the crane and focus on lifting safely

 

[Operator4100]

lots of folks giving good info here yes lets keep it up,,, that is the boom hoist pawl (dog) like for parking and shutdown over night, engage that (there's a vertical row of short levers just behind the seat on the wall little short one's, top is boom hoist dog, next 2 down are the hoist line dogs) if it is working will not let the boom lower or hoist lines come down, don't slam them down on the dogs that will either bend or break them off and you need them, just ease the boom or load down on them and they will hold. now the dogs I'm talking about are underneath the boom hoist drum, a son of a b to get to, take the seat out and lay down on the floor to get to the front one, the back on cant remember but you might got thru where you took the pic of the dogs and reach that one. the boom hoist and far left drum are set up on planetary system, for the boom, when you boom up(engage clutch) the boom hoist will speed up somewhat and raise the boom, when booming down when you push forward on the lever the boom hoist brake releases and one or the other dogs underneath the drum will catch and lower the boom slowly, if either one doesn't catch you will have a live boom (scary) been there done that!!!!!

 

[Operator4100]

You got a good deal , just saw other pic, it has only 2 hoist drums, your gonna have to spend some cash on new cables thou

 

[shaggy650]

Only 2 drums, the one farthest from the cab is the left hoist control, that one should have power down, don't know if the other will. To release the dog for boom lift up on dog lever (behind the seat) and boom up a little while pushing in on dog lever it will pop in and release. Same for hoist dog. To set pull dog lever out and let the boom or hoist down slowly, it will catch. 3K sounds like a good deal, and yes need new cables

 

[ichudov]

Anybody needs a spool of 1" 6x36 cable, 500 feet, brand new? $200 for this forum only

 

[alskdjfhg]

Anybody needs a spool of 1" 6x36 cable, 500 feet, brand new? $200 for this forum only

That's too big for this machine unfortunately (I think) The load chart says I need 3/4" 6x25.

But that brings up an another question, where do you buy cable for a crane? Just a rigging supply house?

 

[ichudov]

I buy cable at uscargocontrol.com

 

[Tugger]

As was pointed out earlier keep that resevior up in the back corner of the cab full.we used a small electric air horn compressor to apply a bit of positive pressure to the system when we had to bleed the actuators, saved a lot of lever pumping.If you do a major on all the actuators replace the fluid with synthetic brake fluid it wont draw the moisture like regular brake fluid,a major issue here on the wet coast.Have agood look at all the steel lines especially where they cross under the drums on the deck,ours have corroded.All that being said it looks pretty dry where you are .Every time I get in one of those small P&H s I give the lever a couple of quick pumps just before use,probly not necessary if things are set up right.

 

[old-iron-habit]

Great deal at $3,000.00. Its worth that just to wind them two Detroits up and set there listening to the music. Better that most music played today.

 

[hmburner]

I ran and American like that for years in a scrap yard. I used to be pretty good at throwing cars with the grapple on it. Get used to the idea of using your hands and feet in unison to operate and invest in a manual to set up the brakes and clutches (it makes a huge difference) Throwing cars is the same as draglining.......it just takes coordination. I could pile cars 8 high with 55 ft of boom. Now doing the same thing with a hydraulic Sennebogen crane.......not nearly as much fun and no Detroit screaming behind my head

 

[ichudov]

I ran and American like that for years in a scrap yard. I used to be pretty good at throwing cars with the grapple on it. Get used to the idea of using your hands and feet in unison to operate and invest in a manual to set up the brakes and clutches (it makes a huge difference) Throwing cars is the same as draglining.......it just takes coordination. I could pile cars 8 high with 55 ft of boom. Now doing the same thing with a hydraulic Sennebogen crane.......not nearly as much fun and no Detroit screaming behind my head

How was that grapple operated, with a second cable opening and closing it?

 

[hmburner]

You are right,the second cable opens and closes the grapple / clam. This makes things real interesting when trying to swing,boom down and hang on to a car all at the same time. I doubt if you will ever be in that much of a hurry , so,operate one function at a time and you will be fine.

 

[alskdjfhg]

Trying to get a wrecker lined up for tomorrow, but they are worried about tire pressure (these look like those old military unidirectional tires). They said when they moved the machine up to the auction originally they had to no way to air tires. I didn't even think about checking this when I was at the machine, any of y'all know about this weird fitting size?

The tires look really good, not low and no dry rot, but that's just a visual inspection. Be nice to air them up if I had too.

 

[lantraxco]

Trying to get a wrecker lined up for tomorrow, but they are worried about tire pressure (these look like those old military unidirectional tires). They said when they moved the machine up to the auction originally they had to no way to air tires. I didn't even think about checking this when I was at the machine, any of y'all know about this weird fitting size?

The tires look really good, not low and no dry rot, but that's just a visual inspection. Be nice to air them up if I had too.

Guessing it's oversize? Probably the same as a loader tire, I used to buy little thread in adapter fittings from my local Deere dealer, adapts down to a standard valve stem. Tire chucks are also available in that size, but probably not cheap.