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Rigger from the old school told me to trust the tagline, not the load chart. Still arguing with myself about it.
Talked to this guy Ernie at a job site in Tacoma about a week back. I was running a 50 ton Grove and had a tricky pick, swinging a steel beam over a school roof. I had my load chart out, doing the math on the radius, daisy chaining my slings, all that. He comes up and just watches for a bit. Then he says, 'Kid, the chart tells you what the crane can do, but it dont tell you what the wind is doing to that beam. You trust the tagline guy, you'll never drop anything.' He walked off. I did the pick my way, brought it down fine. But now I keep second guessing. Is there a point where you just go with the ground crew's feel over the numbers? I've got 8 years in the seat and I still dont know if that was old man talk or real advice. Anyone else run into a veteran like that who made you question your whole setup routine?
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kai_knight11mo ago
That bit about the wind doing things to the beam hit me. I've had tagline guys save my bacon more than once, but I've also had a guy who was so sure about his "feel" that he had me lifting a load that was clearly past the chart, and it got hairy real fast. I guess my take is the chart is the law and the tagline is the gospel, but I'm just a sinner in the seat trying not to crush a gymnasium. The old timer might be right that the numbers don't feel the gusts, but my wallet also doesn't feel good when I bend a boom because I trusted a hunch. I still do the math every time, but I've learned to listen to the ground crew like they're telling me the winning lottery numbers, and then I double check those numbers anyway. My wife says I overthink everything, and she's probably right, but overthinking beats under-slinging any day.
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