My National 1300 has 2 pins in the boom I need to grease on a routine basis, the retract and extend cables run on the sheaves inside the boom that rotate on these pins. Thats about all I know, you guys that have torn your cranes apart and put them back together are laughing right now...but I have yet to have an intimate knowledge of the guts inside, and hope to keep it that way.
One of the pins is with the boom out just a couple feet from fully retracted, the other doesn't appear until 102+ feet of boom are run out. So, I sit there and extend the boom out until the LMI cuts me off, then defeat it and keep extending it, until the too small holes in the side of the boom line up perfectly and I can lube the pin with a needle adapeter for the grease gun. The manual says "lube until you can see it's full" or words to that effect, no way to do that as far as I can tell, I just guesstimate it. This one lube point is my only complaint about the 1300, otherwise I love the thing. I guess my question to you all is, since I can't figure out any other way to do it, should I be concerned about forcing the boom out that far, as it doesn't seem to like it much. No chatter or anything, but the slow boom extention and retract the National has (they are known for that I understand, just the way they set them up, nothing wrong) and then having to jump out and run up on a ladder and verify I have the holes lined up exactly is a real pain, as is lining up a helper.
I have considered it is a screw up, when they built it, all the book says is run it out until the holes line up, the first time I did it (with a helper) I couldn't believe they would make it so awkward and such a PITA. Everything else is well laid out and super easy to reach and grease. So, is this a common complaint, should I stop whining and not worry about the boom as I extend it that far at that unnatural angle, and just deal with it? It sure seems like they could have designed it different to avoid the issue, more holes in the boom, whatever, to make it more convinent.
One of the pins is with the boom out just a couple feet from fully retracted, the other doesn't appear until 102+ feet of boom are run out. So, I sit there and extend the boom out until the LMI cuts me off, then defeat it and keep extending it, until the too small holes in the side of the boom line up perfectly and I can lube the pin with a needle adapeter for the grease gun. The manual says "lube until you can see it's full" or words to that effect, no way to do that as far as I can tell, I just guesstimate it. This one lube point is my only complaint about the 1300, otherwise I love the thing. I guess my question to you all is, since I can't figure out any other way to do it, should I be concerned about forcing the boom out that far, as it doesn't seem to like it much. No chatter or anything, but the slow boom extention and retract the National has (they are known for that I understand, just the way they set them up, nothing wrong) and then having to jump out and run up on a ladder and verify I have the holes lined up exactly is a real pain, as is lining up a helper.
I have considered it is a screw up, when they built it, all the book says is run it out until the holes line up, the first time I did it (with a helper) I couldn't believe they would make it so awkward and such a PITA. Everything else is well laid out and super easy to reach and grease. So, is this a common complaint, should I stop whining and not worry about the boom as I extend it that far at that unnatural angle, and just deal with it? It sure seems like they could have designed it different to avoid the issue, more holes in the boom, whatever, to make it more convinent.