Old crane guy out of Houston changed my whole setup with one sentence

I was always dead set on running my luffer at max angle for every job, figured it gave me the most reach and made me look like I knew what I was doing. Ran into this older operator named Don at a job site outside Dallas last summer, he was retired but came by to check on his son's crew. He watched me set up for about five minutes, then just said "son, you're fighting the boom more than the load." I got defensive at first, but then he showed me how he drops his angle down by 15 degrees when he's picking close to the cab, said it saves fuel and keeps the load from swinging like crazy. Tried it on the next pick and honest to god it was like driving a different machine, everything just felt smoother. I still bump the angle up for the long reaches, but now I actually think about what the boom is doing instead of just cranking it all the way up. Any of you guys ever had an old timer hand you advice that made you feel kind of dumb for not figuring it out yourself?

2 comments

2 Comments

oliverbailey19d ago

Don taught me that same lesson in '08, never ran a crane the same way since.

verac4019d ago

@oliverbailey what exactly did Don do that made it click for you? Was it something about the load calculations or more of a hands-on technique? I remember the '08 downturn got a lot of old-school operators teaching their secrets just to keep guys safe when budgets got tight. Always curious if his method was from an actual accident or just a better way he figured out.