538 Foot Tall Crane

[Mike]

I had no idea they came this tall. And assembled by 3 guys in 1 day? Amazing!

VIDEO

[Dave Grubb]

I have never seen one that high---and looking at that thing gives me a major pucker

In a former life I spent time in the cab of a crane----and I didn't like it one bit! I can best describe it as long periods of absolute boredom interspersed with periods of near terror. Things have gotten much better with load cells and computerized information readouts---but when I was doing it we were operating by the seat of our pants and load graphs on the cab walls. The worst was handling a big load on a windy day that you could not see---a good gust of wind could change the entire dynamic.

Even with much improved safety devices, the damn things still fall over

[Truckman]

I don't know how they keep it counterbalanced...And a windy day could be disastrous......Ben

[Dave Grubb]

I don't know how they keep it counterbalanced...And a windy day could be disastrous......Ben

Look closely and you will see the counter weights on the back---also they have outriggers coming out from the cats to further stabilize it. That does not negate your comment---the amount of wind force a stick like that can be subject to is huge!

[CactusCurt]

The best example of a complete breakdown of crane protocol is "big blue" coming dowm. Here is the wiki page:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Blue_Crane_collapse

There is an embedded YouTube video in there, but I can't figure out how to post links to youtube on an ipad.

Cranes were very recently the most dangerous piece of equipment on a construction site (not talking about statistical stuff like electrical and falls from height) I believe they have been overtaken by manlifts, which kill many young men every year.

On edit: i wish the wiki page had more detail on this accident, but Im sure its in the footnotes. One detail I seem to remember is that the normal operator refused to make the pick. They were behind schedule and management put someone else in the seat. It was 100% preventable and was caused by a cascade of bad decisions that can ultimately be characterized by an utter failure of leadership. It is a famous case study of what can go wrong.

[Truckman]

There is an embedded YouTube video in there, but I can't figure out how to post links to youtube on an ipad.

Atcher service, Curt......Ben

[CactusCurt]

I have had the distinction of having to explain to a very pissed off private client what I was going to do to keep another crane from turning over on a project. Luckily nobody was hurt. $500k down the toilet (well, after some arithmetic with the insurance company)

My personal favorite crane story was the one where the dealer dropped one of our 100 ton link belts off of the ship into the ocean while unloading it in Hooston. The salesman was very apologetic and bought us a fancy azz meal at a wonderful place somewhere around downtown Houston that I wish I could remember the name of. Boys and their toys.

[mgrist]

I flipped from Rod-busting to rigging on the Daniel engineering complex in Greenville SC for about a year. The Crane's operators quit picking up our steel because our foreman kept putting helpers out to run the lifts and they didn't have a clue how to signal the Crane when he was blind. I was the best at it so I got tranferred so to speak. I was in no way a Journeyman but I was good up top. Glad I didn't have to put a crane together.

[wacojoe]

The moments of force with that long of a boom must be terrific and multiply greatly as the angle drops. I never thought about sophisticated instruments to help operators until Dave mentioned it, but that sounds so rational now.

[CactusCurt]

I saw a ok quality video of that big blue thing. The sound is crazy. That thing was popping and graoning and making all kinds of noises. You can just see a flash of a person jumping from the cab as the boom starts going down. If i recall correctly, the crane in the background that you see struck and knocked over was the one with the men in a basket. You can see it destroyed in an instant.

I loved that part of my job but it could get a little spooky at times. Some memorable ones were walking across a 50' long walkway (but it had handrail) that connected the two sides of the then Cooper River bridge. It was something like 350' off the water below. Another that stands out was the ride up the elevator to the 80 somethingth floor of the new world trade center building. This was the rickety thing bolted to the outside of the building. Orange safety fence kept you from blowing off the still open floors at the top. Makes my toes tingle to think about that.

[Mike]

Not happening for me!

[wacojoe]

What exactly was your job, Curt? Sounds interesting beyond mine.

[UTAH]

My wife failed to get me to go up in a hot air balloon. No way would I do a crane.

Hunter

[CactusCurt]

What exactly was your job, Curt? Sounds interesting beyond mine.

I was what you might call a regional manager for a large multinational construction company. I and our former business was an acquisition. One of the very good things we did was to have quarterly meetings (multiple meetings for different business streams) at our local operations across the country. We were all egocentric megalomaniacs who were anxious to show off the cool stuff we built to our peers. Some of us also did Europe several times a year as well. I was on an airplane and in hotels pretty much every week. That got old after 10 years.

[mgrist]

I was headed in that direction but right in the middle of my big break and big money my wife and I got divorced and the judge awarded her $3600.00 a month alimony. Didn't get to the child support because I kind of told the judge he was ignorant among other things and got 30 days for contempt of court. They came and told me that if I'd apologize that the judge would drop the charge, I cussed the bailiff out also. I quit my job gave one of my trucks back to the bank, I was able to get out from under the 11 acres I had bought a few months before and let the bank take my RV that I was going to live in while I built a house. I'll leave out the middle but I ended up at a $12 an hour job paying a $100 a week combined alimony and child support. The kids did well, I still took care of them but if I'd have had to give her the money to take care of them they would never have seen a thing. I only did like 17 or 18 days on the contempt charge, it was a nice break in the middle of the worst time of my life.