Warning: a new guy on site was talking about his load chart and it made me check mine

I was grabbing coffee yesterday morning and heard a young operator mention he only looks at the main chart in his cab. He said his boss told him the small print about wind and ground conditions 'didn't matter much'. That stopped me cold. I went back to my tower crane and spent ten minutes going over every note on my chart for a 50-ton pick we had planned. The fine print had a big warning about soft ground after rain, which we got last night. I called the foreman and we moved the pick point. Has anyone else had a close call because someone skipped the chart details?

3 comments

3 Comments

bennett.noah1mo ago

Didn't matter much" is how you end up on the evening news. That fine print is there because someone ELSE already had the bad day you're trying to avoid. Glad you actually read yours.

alicesingh1mo ago

Check if your chart's small print even matches your crane's current setup.

simon71725d ago

Check if your chart's small print even matches your crane's current setup" - man, that's such a good point. I've seen guys trust the chart on the side of the cab without realizing the crane had been modified with different rigging or a different boom configuration. Bennett.noah was right, those details matter way more than people think. Even something small like a different headache ball or auxiliary winch can throw your numbers off completely. It's like nobody wants to take those extra 10 minutes to verify until it's too late.