Just some work pics

[Tugger2]

Nice job on that tank. Tipping things up or down is always interesting with two cranes.

 

[Tradesman]

I threw up in my mouth when I saw that pile of drywall. Drywall, shingles and concrete forms are likely the big reason I have a crane, 40 years of carrying that stuff has ruined my shoulders and since I started running the crane a quite a bit my shoulders don't ache as much.
Your Western Star looks nice with all the snow on it . We just got about 5" of the white stuff yesterday and today.

 

[crane operator]

Tipping things up or down is always interesting with two cranes.

On a lot of larger tanks, unless you've got a lot of stick, its easier with two than doing it by yourself, IF---- IF you've both done it before. I did this one with the new guy and I had a pretty good discussion with him to stay off the swing brake and to only do what I told him to. Keep the tank low, while we were laying it down, and it all went okay.

Finished up the rafters on the boat storage building this morning. 5,300 lb rafters, about 60' long (I'll admit, I never measured them). A little crowded in the building with the crane, two manlifts and a 10k telehandler, but we got them set.

 

[crane operator]

Couple more pics.

Also- I was puttering around on the peterbilt project saturday, and discovered a little oddity. Three of the four rear tandems have hub pilot, but the back one on the drivers side is budd's. Sometime in a pinch put on the budd's with a hub? I have no idea, the steers are hub pilot, and all the other tandems are. I have no history on the truck. I think I'll pull that one off and switch it so they are all alike.

Should be able to just swap hub. I actually might have one laying in the yard from a cutoff. I didn't look into it that far yet.

Got the galion delivered for a job tomorrow, and new latch came in today for my torn up toolbox. Also, for some reason the 40 ton Rt is stuck in 4x4, I think its the coil on transmission/ drop box/ transfer case. Called the dealer to order a solenoid, and he couldn't find it on the computer, so I spent some time in the parts book and came up with a number. Of course that # is obsolete, but he came up with a new number.

 

[crane operator]

Deck on the backside of a new custom house. Tight fit, they didn't want me too close to the new retaining wall, so I snugged up tight to the posts. Above the posts, under the overhang, and right up next to the new windows, it would have been nice if they had waited to put in the windows.

 

[crane operator]

The steel c-channel that was mounted on the wall of the house, put the ball right on the wall of the house above by the windows. I padded the ball up just in case, a little cardboard and some zipsystem tape. I figured it was better than nothing.

Oh and we got a wood rack mounted on the rear of the crane, just to have a little along, also made it so it can unbolt like the front if you needed to be in a tight spot.

 

[Hank R]

Looks like you and the old neck breaker are getting along fine lots of work there for it.

 

[crane operator]

Looks like you and the old neck breaker are getting along fine lots of work there for it.

Don't even start that hank. I'm glad to have work to do, but that thing is a miserable little @#$%^ to run. The truck that they brought the steel in on, was parked exactly where I took this picture from. No way to turn the crane sideways, no where else to park the truck. I just decided to be uncomfortable first thing in the morning and unloaded the truck, and set it all in front of me on the ground.

It's not easy to boom down and hold the load (both levers on the far right of the cab) while trying to turn 180 degrees behind you (over your left shoulder) and watch the truck. I've got pretty long arms, and I even struggle a little. And I'm too stubborn and in a hurry to just run one function at a time.

I also still get a little disorientated when the counterweight swings around over the top window of the cab. It's just wrong and that's not supposed to happen. I'm supposed to be in a seat and the boom and I move together, if you can see the counterweight out the top window, something is seriously, seriously wrong. But not on that thing. But you're right, at least its earning its keep.

I did cheat a little and pulled off the jib mount bracket on the top of the main boom, gave me another 8"s or so under the overhang.

 

[classictruckman]

Stacked a little more sheetrock, and took down a big old sycamore on friday.

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Tree work out of a hanging basket... jeez. So many easier ways to do it.

 

[crane operator]

Tree work out of a hanging basket... jeez. So many easier ways to do it.

That's 106' of boom, so he's 100' up. Got a bucket truck that will reach 100'? Nobody around here does, I know they make them, just most guys don't need one that big and heavy, so they don't own one.

It's a sycamore, I don't know if they have those by you, but even when they are healthy, branches break out of them really easily. It was so dead up high, it wasn't safe to climb.

Residential power all around on the lot, and a neighbor house real close, so couldn't drop it in one shot.

No 125' lifts at the local rental house, only 80', and 125's are really expensive to bring in for just one day. With the trucking, he'd easily be over $1,000-maybe 1.200. Plus with the unlevelness of the lot, I don't know that you would have got a 125' to work anyways, without driving it up on a pile of dunnage, or a bunch of dirt/ rock work. I never have liked driving lifts up on wood. So there's another $1,000+ to bring in someone to level out a pad for the lift to set on.

So- pop jib on the 25 ton, 3 hour job, up in the basket they go. Yes- it's not real easy working out of a hanging basket, but its done and down. I don't know what other options we really had.

Actually, I think its much faster to zip them up and down and around in a tree with the crane. If its someone I've worked with before, I kind of know where they want to be, so it doesn't take to long, I find those big lifts to be really slow.

 

[classictruckman]

Whoa, didn’t mean to offend. It’s up to the climber how it’s done.

I would have lifted the tree down with the crane, but if it were really that dangerous that the climber didn’t want to tie into it even after a substantial amount of weight has been removed by they crane, I would have tied into the crane and still climbed the tree rather than the hanging basket. Or even a boom tip basket.

I’ve done it once from a hanging basket and I will never do it again. Had to be the most dangerous way I’ve ever cut a tree down. Every time you reach out with the saw the basket starts moving, not my cup of tea.

I was just speaking as an experienced climber.

 

[hosspuller]

Looked at the tree pics again... Did the man in the basket have a line to the tree to stabilize the basket while cutting ? Seems to be an answer to classictruckman's point about the moving basket.

 

[crane operator]

It actually works best with 2 guys in the basket. One holds onto the tree while the other cuts. That goes real easy. They point me where they want to be, I put them there, and you can make pretty short work of it, if you can let the pieces fall.

If there's only one guy in the basket (because they don't have enough guys- I always recommend two), I'll usually just run him up against the tree so he won't spin as bad, and tying a line off helps. But it still spins a little, and just like truckman says, every time you step or move, or push the saw, the basket moves a little. Ride it out like a ship, and let the saw do the work.

I had a chance this spring to buy a boom head basket, but I passed on it. I've got too many different cranes, and didn't want to build adapters for all of them. I thought about just setting up one or two of the cranes, but I guess I just didn't want to mess with it.

Once you get onto it, and cut out of the basket, it really isn't too bad. I probably drop a dozen or two dozen trees a year, with a couple different tree outfits. Usually when they can't access the yard with their bucket trucks. Or the tree is so tall they can't reach it. Probably 1/2 the jobs they climb and rig the pieces and I fly them out, 1/2 the jobs they end up in a basket. I've done both on the same job, some of the tree from the basket, and some of it climb and rig.

I've also been the guy in the basket, and I guess I didn't really mind it, but its been a while, maybe I've forgotten. I guess I'd rather ride up the basket as climb, but I'm lazy like that.

It all comes down to what a guy is used to doing I guess, maybe the tree guys do nothing but complain about me afterwards. I know the telephone conversations about a tree job usually start out "I'm not sure about this job, you have time to go look?" Usually great big dead trees on the other side of a house. If it was easy, they would have already had the tree down.

 

[crane operator]

In other jobs- sign today, on the other side of the building.

 

[crane operator]

Still piddling around with the boom truck too. It had a leaky jack cylinder on retract, so we pulled it this afternoon. Wiper seal was like clay, fell to pieces. These jacks come out the bottom, so I used the slope on driveway to the back yard to my advantage. Probably won't be the only jack we rebuild on it, if this one is any indication of what the others are like.

Sent jim to the hyd. shop for seals, and I've got them all in, I just can't get the gland end to go over the shaft yet. I tried to cheat and not pull the nut on the piston, I may end up pulling it, to put it on from that end. That's tomorrow's problem.

 

[classictruckman]

I’m envious of all of the work you have the ability to do on all of your equipment, I’m a decent welder/fabricator and I do turn some wrenches from time to time, but I’d get the cylinder out of the o/r and then I’d have to take it to a hydraulic shop to get the seals changed. I don’t even know where to start taking one apart.

 

[crane operator]

Was also like christmas here yesterday. I lost my 5wr vise grips. I always carry it in the pliers pocket of my pants, and I think it fell out when I was working on one of the cranes on the side of the road last friday.

I feel like a idiot, because I'm constantly reaching for my pocket, and I know its not there, but I can't help myself.

Anyways, the new ones (chinese irwin's) are junk (the jaws don't hold up it seems like), so I always try to find old peterson made ones, but they seem to be drying up at the pawnshops, etc. So I went to ebay and they had some new old stock ones in the box, but $40.00 each and up. I don't care about a box, I aint a collector, I just want a good 5wr.

I got lucky and someone had just posted up 3 like new ones, $25.00 for all three. I didn't even think twice. One had intials engraved in it , but they look like all they have done is lay in a drawer. I've got enough to last me a while now.

 

[Crummy]

Not trying to hijack, but talking about trees....
I did a project years ago with my boom truck & Genie in a big apartment complex- 100's of pole quality sticks and no room. It was an adventure. We came up with some pretty interesting ways to lay them down. First go in with the Genie & the basket on the boom & trim them up, take the basket off and we came up with a choker rig with little pulleys & Sampson pulling tape to keep the choker open and then cinch it up after we got it up the tree as far as we could, he'd cut and give me nods until it was just hanging & he could just slide the saw out "[one nod]bump...bump.....[shake head]GOOD!". Then (if there was room) hook the Garrett up to the butt he'd creep away and I'd lay it down. Fun job.

 

[crane operator]

hook the Garrett up to the butt he'd creep away

What's a garrett?

And I've done about half a dozen jobs with one of those pioneer's. My old boss had one, and I had to go set trusses with it for a first job. I had always run truck cranes with free swing, and I looked like a idiot. I got the job done, but I didn't volunteer to run it for the regular operator, I usually volunteered to take one of the truck cranes instead. I'm a big fan of sitting down and a cab with free swing.

My old boss did say that pioneer was one of his most profitable cranes. They are quick to set up and don't have much footprint. I actually went to wisconsin to look at one that was for sale. The extension cables had broken under load, and it trashed the bottom end of a couple sections. I didn't bring it home.

 

[Crummy]

What's a garrett?

A little log skidder.