Warning: That tree pickup took me 5 hours instead of 2 because of one dumb setup mistake

I forgot to level the outriggers properly on a soft spot near the driveway, and the whole rig started leaning by the time I had the boom up. Had to bring in a second crane just to stabilize it before bringing the load down. Anyone else ever get burned by skipping a ground check?

2 comments

2 Comments

olivia_barnes979d ago

Oh man, that's brutal. I did almost the exact same thing a few years back. Set up on a patch of ground that looked dry but had a soft layer underneath from a broken sprinkler line. By the time I had the tree halfway up, one side of the outrigger had sunk a good six inches into the mud. Took three of us with pry bars and cribbing to get it level again and then we had to redo the whole lift. Never skip a ground check, that's a lesson I only needed to learn once.

uma8969d ago

@olivia_barnes97 sounds like you two had the same kind of bad luck. I get being careful and all, but is it really that dramatic? Unless you're working with a massive tree, a little lean seems fixable without calling in a whole second crane.