My load line kept twisting up until a old timer showed me a rope unwind trick

I was working a job in Newark last month, setting steel beams for a warehouse extension. Every time I picked up a load, the hoist line would spin and twist, making it a pain to land things straight. I tried letting the block spin free, running the line out and back, nothing fixed it for more than a few lifts. Finally a guy named Pete who's been running cranes since the 80s walked over and told me to take the hook block up high, then do a series of quick raise-lower cycles while swinging the boom side to side. He said it's an old trick to let the line unwind naturally without fighting it. Cleared up the twist in about 2 minutes. Does anyone else have a go-to method for fixing line twist on a lattice boom crawler?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_kai6d agoMost Upvoted

pendulum unwind" - that's exactly what I did last week on a barge crane. @joseph529 nailed it with the friction break comment.

joseph5296d ago

Yeah I actually read something in an old crane manual from the 70s about that same trick. It was in a section about cable twist and they called it the "pendulum unwind" method. The idea is to get the line to oscillate just right so the twist works itself out gradually. I think Pete's version sounds better though because the quick raise-lower cycles probably break the friction on the sheaves faster. Did you notice if the line had any kinks in it after or just smooth running?