Why Was My Gradall Built Crooked?

[CraneInnovation]

As many of you know, I have a full thread on this project down in the Shop Talk forum, but I sometimes have questions that I'd like to directly ask you all in the Excavator section. This one is a doozy.

Background:

My G3WD has always leaned to the driver's side. I assumed this was due to the badly worn tires and suspension in need of some TLC. When we replaced the cab roof, for example, we actually squared it to the machine deck rather than "level" with respect to gravity.

Well, we pulled the bumper this weekend to service the steering box, and what I found was a total surprise. They built it crooked!

Here you can kinda see the deck lean towards the cab:



A closer inspection showed that there is over 1/4" of shim plates under the main deck brackets on the passenger side....and NOT the other:



WTF??? :beatsme This is clearly how the machine was built in the factory. Is it supposed to do this?? All of the heavy components (boom, engine, counterweight) are all centered on the machine so there shouldn't be a center of gravity issue, right?

Thanks for any input!

 

[kshansen]

Maybe it was set up for circle track racing to handle the corners better?

 

[DJK]

So it sits level on the road while working? The shims help level the crane cause the carriers cab side wheels will be higher up the crown than the passenger side wheels? Just a guess...

 

[CraneInnovation]

So it sits level on the road while working? The shims help level the crane cause the carriers cab side wheels will be higher up the crown than the passenger side wheels? Just a guess...

That's a really clever idea. As I thought about it more, I realized that 95% of the time that it is on the road, it will be on the right hand side. If it was built square, you'd have a somewhat top-heavy machine constantly leaning to the right due to the crown, like you say. Perhaps this was a simple way to improve handling characteristics and safety? Huh....

kshansen isn't too far off, then either!