Shoutout to the guy who showed me a better way to level a crane mat last Tuesday

I was setting up for a job in downtown Nashville last week, fighting with wooden mats on uneven ground like I always do. Been doing this 8 years and I thought I had it down - block and shim, block and shim. Then this older operator walks over, watches me for a minute, and says "you're making this harder than it needs to be." He showed me how to use a simple string line and a level to find the high spots first instead of guessing. Took me from 45 minutes of sweating to 15 minutes with way less frustration. Why did nobody teach me this in the training program or at any site I've been on? Has anyone else picked up a basic trick years into the trade that made you feel dumb for not knowing sooner?

2 comments

2 Comments

michaelcoleman1d ago

12 years in and still blocking and shimming the hard way... 25 minutes is fine if you don't mind wasting 10 minutes extra every single setup. That string line trick saves more than time too, I've seen guys blow out their backs crawling around with shims when they could've just leveled the high spots first.

jake_mason301d ago

Honestly I gotta ask - is it really that serious? You went from 45 minutes to 15 minutes and now you're acting like somebody cracked the Da Vinci code of crane mats. Tbh I've been doing this for 12 years and I still block and shim the old way, takes me maybe 25 minutes tops. Maybe you were just overthinking it from day one. Not every trick is some trade secret, sometimes it's just common sense you could've figured out if you slowed down.