Tried a bucket trick for leveling a mobile crane on soft ground near Austin

I was setting up on a muddy lot last month and my outriggers kept sinking no matter how many pads I stacked. After digging around in my truck, I used four empty 5-gallon buckets filled with gravel under the pads and it worked perfectly. Has anyone else found a weird trick like that for stabilizing on sketchy ground?

3 comments

3 Comments

robin8966d ago

Well that's clever, I wouldn't have thought of that. How long did the gravel hold up under the weight of the crane, did you have any issues with the buckets cracking or the bottoms popping out after a few hours? I've always wondered if the plastic can take that kind of load without splitting.

evan_grant706d ago

Yeah, and like Emma_Lee22's uncle said, it's all about spreading that weight out over time.

emma_lee226d ago

My uncle swears by using old railroad ties for soft ground work in Louisiana. He says the wood spreads the weight better than plastic buckets over time. That gravel trick sounds solid for a quick fix though.