Rigger told me to stop trusting my load chart at a steel yard in Cleveland

About two years back I was on a job in Cleveland setting steel beams for a new warehouse. There was this old rigger named Walt who must have been 70 years old, been doing cranes since the 70s. I was lining up a pick and he came over and told me my load chart was wrong. I pulled out my book and showed him the numbers, but he just shook his head and said the chart don't account for wind hitting the side of a beam that long. He was right. That beam was 45 feet and the breeze was catching it like a sail. I almost didn't listen because I trusted my paperwork over a guy who looked like he slept in his truck. But he made me add a tag line and take it slow, and sure enough the load swung way more than I expected on the way up. Ever since then I double check conditions before I trust what the manual says. Has anyone else had a spotter or rigger save them from a bad pick by ignoring the numbers?

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baker.riley2mo ago

Man that Walt sounds like the kind of guy you don't ignore twice! What did he say exactly about reading the wind before you even got the beam off the ground? I'm guessing he had some trick for eyeballing it that didn't involve any numbers.

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simon3782mo ago

Man that Walt sounds like he knew his stuff. @baker.riley I bet he was reading the way the dust and debris was moving around the site to guess the wind before even grabbing the beam. Old timers like that don't need numbers, they just feel it in their bones after forty years of doing the same thing.

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