Slow week in the office

[Kiwi-truckwit]

Currently stuck doing site work since their tower crane was pulled out. Fly and needle at 40° offset, but most of the lifting is done on the main (the fly is only needed to reach the other side of the building).
There's a reason I prefer taxi crane work.... Slow days drag and are exhausting!

 

[Kiwi-truckwit]

 

[Kiwi-truckwit]

At last a bit of action. The tanking arrived for the stormwater, which all needed to be lifted to the other side of their excavation. Then a toy excavator to spread 600 ton of drainage metal. That's kept me occupied for an hour. And as you can see, I'm in the middle of a fishbowl.

 

[crane operator]

That looks like fun. Nothing like skip box work with all of the jib out. Looks like they might have the concrete bucket sitting a little too close to you to get a hold of it, once you have your stick out.

 

[Kiwi-truckwit]

That looks like fun. Nothing like skip box work with all of the jib out. Looks like they might have the concrete bucket sitting a little too close to you to get a hold of it, once you have your stick out.

I can get the rubbish skips that are right behind me, so the concrete bucket won't be an issue. It's not getting used, however.

 

[crane operator]

How close can you get to yourself with all the boom out and that jib with offset? My 70 ton with 126' main and 60' jib I can't get within 40' of myself. If I have all the offset, I think its more like 70' away. Which is a pretty narrow range when you're only good to about 120' of radius. But it only booms up to 77 degrees, and doesn't have near the counterweight that the newer AT's do.

 

[Kiwi-truckwit]

How close can you get to yourself with all the boom out and that jib with offset? My 70 ton with 126' main and 60' jib I can't get within 40' of myself. If I have all the offset, I think its more like 70' away. Which is a pretty narrow range when you're only good to about 120' of radius. But it only booms up to 77 degrees, and doesn't have near the counterweight that the newer AT's do.

On the main boom, I can boom back to 82° and get to about 6m radius (20'). With the fly/needle at 40° radius like it is, my minimum radius is 18m (60') and maximum is 54m (just over 175'). Thats with a 170' main and 60ish' fly.

 

[Kiwi-truckwit]

Thankfully a bit busier this week so far, as you can see, I'm rushed off my feet!

 

[Kiwi-truckwit]

Starting the morning with some Tetris. I knew all those hours of playing would pay off some day.

 

[Kiwi-truckwit]

Thankfully I'm now back to taxi crane work. Need the fly today to reach the top flashings, halfway down the side of the building. Main boom won't quite get me the height I need. This job should have been done a week ago, but high winds prevented it.

 

[Kiwi-truckwit]

 

[CM1995]

I can get the rubbish skips that are right behind me, so the concrete bucket won't be an issue. It's not getting used, however.

Nice work Kiwi!

I am surprised they didn't use the concrete bucket to place stone between the storm water chambers. If I had a job that a crane was in the budget, that's how I would do it. Unfortunately we have to do it with a full grown excavator and CTL.

 

[Kiwi-truckwit]

Nice work Kiwi!

I am surprised they didn't use the concrete bucket to place stone between the storm water chambers. If I had a job that a crane was in the budget, that's how I would do it. Unfortunately we have to do it with a full grown excavator and CTL.

It was suggested, but the outlet in the bucket wasnt big enough for the drainage metal they were using, so it wouldn't really have worked.
After they backfilled, it all needed to be dug out again as the specs called for the excavation to be "tanked" with polyethylene and joins welded. Unfortunately, those specs weren't given to the contractors actually doing the job, so they used filter cloth. Oops!

 

[CM1995]

It was suggested, but the outlet in the bucket wasnt big enough for the drainage metal they were using, so it wouldn't really have worked.
After they backfilled, it all needed to be dug out again as the specs called for the excavation to be "tanked" with polyethylene and joins welded. Unfortunately, those specs weren't given to the contractors actually doing the job, so they used filter cloth. Oops!

Interesting spec on the welded poly instead of filter fabric. Is the site soil contaminated and the engineers were afraid of off site migration through groundwater or just a dumb spec.

Note to all budding PM's - check all the specs and get shop drawings approved by the engineer before installation.

 

[Kiwi-truckwit]

Interesting spec on the welded poly instead of filter fabric. Is the site soil contaminated and the engineers were afraid of off site migration through groundwater or just a dumb spec.

Note to all budding PM's - check all the specs and get shop drawings approved by the engineer before installation.

From what I can gather, it's all reclaimed land, and they've already had issues with foundations settling, so they don't want any more water entering the ground than necessary.

 

[Kiwi-truckwit]

Good reach out for the 60 today, placing bundles of traydeck for the midfloor of some new apartments. Slow going, however, as there was rebar in the way of nearly every lift.

 

[crane operator]

So do you haul counterweight on your tandem axle set up on the rear of the crane? It doesn't look tall enough to be a actual boom dolly like we use in the states.

 

[Kiwi-truckwit]

So do you haul counterweight on your tandem axle set up on the rear of the crane? It doesn't look tall enough to be a actual boom dolly like we use in the states.

Yes, with this 60 ton crane I can haul my full counterweight and be fully self sufficient.

 

[crane operator]

That's super handy. My 70 ton doesn't have removable counterweight, so its self contained too. I'd like to see a picture of it broke down and ready for travel sometime, if you have a chance. Its always interesting how other areas do things.

Here in Missouri, anything that requires a extra travel permit (issued by our state- for state roads), must be a irreducible load. Most any crane over about 60,000lbs is going to require a permit. If it can come off (the weights), it comes off, and goes on a trailer. No axle can weigh more than 20,000lbs. And then you can't drag the weights behind you on a trailer.

 

[Kiwi-truckwit]

That's super handy. My 70 ton doesn't have removable counterweight, so its self contained too. I'd like to see a picture of it broke down and ready for travel sometime, if you have a chance. Its always interesting how other areas do things.

Here in Missouri, anything that requires a extra travel permit (issued by our state- for state roads), must be a irreducible load. Most any crane over about 60,000lbs is going to require a permit. If it can come off (the weights), it comes off, and goes on a trailer. No axle can weigh more than 20,000lbs. And then you can't drag the weights behind you on a trailer.

We had a 70 ton Grove truck crane, but that was set up the same with removable counterweight and a trailer. It would outlift the 60 ton all terrain, but the 60 outreaches it. What I love about it is the small footprint, it's only got a 21ft let spread, but will reach to 120ft radius. And if course it's much more comfortable to ride in.
Our axle limits depend on spacings, but our fleet of all terrains range from about 12 - 13 ton (too late in the day for me to do the maths, but 1t is about 2200 pounds). The gross combined mass of the 60 I operate is just under 50 ton with the trailer, 39 ton without. There's only a few cranes around with boom dollys, and that's mainly because of weak bridges in their area that they can't cross with the boom over the front.
I'll get you a pic, thought I had one when it was nice and clean, but can't find it now.