Pro tip: park your load over the tires, not between them, and a guy in Tulsa set me straight | Crane Operators - Freelance Forum - The Community for Independent Professionals
Pro tip: park your load over the tires, not between them, and a guy in Tulsa set me straight
I used to run my outriggers fully extended on every single pick no matter what, figured more spread meant more safety. A guy named Dale on a job in Tulsa laughed at me and said I was wasting 20 minutes a setup and putting more stress on the pads than I needed to on short picks. I tried his way on a 6 ton lift at 30 feet and the chart actually gave me more capacity with a tighter stance. Anybody else had a seasoned hand call out your setup like that?
That "more spread meant more safety" thing was me for like three years straight, no joke. I got humbled on a job where the chart flat out told me my tight stance had more capacity at 40 feet than my full spread did, and I just stood there looking dumb while the older guy nodded at me. It felt wrong at first because who argues with more stable, right? But the pads were sinking on soft ground and that was the real problem, not the outrigger position.