Switched from manual to hydraulic leveling and I won't go back

After 15 years of running cranes, I finally made the switch to hydraulic leveling last spring on a job in Portland. Used to spend 20 minutes messing with cribbing and manual jacks on uneven ground at that construction site near the river. The new system got us level in under 3 minutes and saved my back from the heavy lifting. I get that some old timers swear by the manual stuff for reliability, but has anyone else noticed a big time difference with hydraulics on sloped sites?

2 comments

2 Comments

finleyw993h ago

My buddy runs a crane outfit down in Eugene and he swears by his hydraulic jacks, but last winter he had one seize up completely because of some cold weather gunk in the lines. Took him two hours to bleed the system on site with a construction crew standing around waiting. Meanwhile, my old manual stuff has never let me down, just takes a bit more sweat equity. Different tools for different weather conditions, I guess.

wendy_jackson2h ago

Ugh, that's rough... standing around waiting while the clock's ticking and the crew's just staring at you. Two hours in the cold messing with gunked up lines sounds like a nightmare.