Old timer Bob told me to run my luffing jib slower and I brushed him off

Bob's been on this site for 40 years and said I was swinging too fast on a 60 ton pick last Tuesday. I figured my new Liebherr could handle it, but I nearly jackknifed the jib when a gust hit. Has anyone else had an old hand's advice save their bacon?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_jason19d ago

Yeah I used to be exactly like you man. I had a 100 ton Grove and thought I knew everything about swing speed because the computer said I was fine. Then this old timer named Jimmy, been running cranes since the 70s, told me to slow down on a blind pick and I basically ignored him. Next thing I know the load starts oscillating like crazy and I'm fighting the boom trying not to tip. He just looked at me and said "computers don't feel the wind." That stuck with me. Now I actually listen when the graybeards talk because they've got that gut instinct from years of almost wrecking stuff.

charlie_stone7219d ago

That's exactly what I read in an old crane safety manual from the 80s my uncle gave me... it talked about how the old guys could "feel" the load through the controls in ways that no computer could ever replicate. It said that experience taught them things like how a load will pendulum in gusty wind or when the ground starts shifting under the outriggers. Jimmy sounds like the kind of guy who saved someone's life just by speaking up, even if it bruised their ego a bit. That line about computers not feeling the wind is something I'm gonna remember, because it's true on so many job sites where guys trust the screen more than what their hands are telling them.