That day at the Port of Seattle made me rethink my whole boom angle setup

I spent 15 years setting my boom angle by feel and gut instinct, never once using a load chart for positioning until a senior operator walked me through a near-miss with a 40-ton lift last July. He pointed out my jib was 5 degrees off, which changed the radius enough to risk a tip-over on that concrete panel. Does anyone else rely too much on feel instead of checking the chart every time?

2 comments

2 Comments

pat_hart8d ago

Oh man, I feel that pain... I had a similar wake-up call back in '19 on a sewage plant job. A guy named Mike showed me how just a couple degrees threw my whole radius off, and I was swinging a 30-ton pipe section. Started taping a little cheat sheet to my cab door, right by the boom controls. Now I glance at it every time before I lift, even for small stuff. It's a pain at first but it becomes second nature faster than you'd think.

drew_thomas98d ago

@pat_hart is right, that cheat sheet trick saves a lot of headache. Funny how that same blind spot shows up everywhere though, like setting up a ladder at home or even adjusting the garage door tension spring. We just get in a groove and stop double checking the obvious stuff.