Ran my 40 ton with the old manual outrigger pads versus the new composite ones on a job in Phoenix
The composite pads set up twice as fast and didn't sink an inch in that soft dirt, so now I'm wondering if anyone else has swapped and regretted it or if it's a no brainer for every rig.
Man I feel you on the soft dirt thing. I ran steel pads for years and watched them disappear in wet ground down in Tucson more than once. Switched to composite about two years ago on my 35 ton and the sinking stopped, but the real win was my back not killing me at the end of a long day. Only thing I miss is how cheap it was to just toss a beat up steel pad and grab another one. Composite gets chewed up if you drag it across gravel, so you gotta be a little nicer to them. But going back? No way.