So excited because I got moved to the taller crane on the job yesterday. It's not often I am on a modernized crane. I love the spacious cab, the anti-glare coating on the curved window, and specifically the trolley camera!

Here's a couple of photos of our concrete pickup point. As an example of how difficult our job can be, I am three hundred feet (sorry for the Imperial - craning in N.A. is just like that sigh...) away from picking up 14,000 lb buckets, ten feet from an active roadway. I have to put the empty buckets down beside buses, cars, pedestrians, cyclists, and people, (sometimes rando joggers actually IN the site) and not hit anything. On a typical afternoon I do this up to a hundred times.

#towercrane
#mydayjob
#ygk

@rightsprung this is cool!

If you don't mind me asking, how does the load moment indicator work? What does it show you?

@jpab

It is!!!

The LMI gives me a readout of my trolley position, hoist gear, weight of the object on the hook, wind speed, and the load moment (weight at distance producing strain in the tower and jib) and the percentage of the limit cutoff.

@rightsprung Thank you for posting this. A few years ago I decided that if I could learn one heavy equipment job I wanted it to be this thing you do. I have no idea how any of it works, I just think it's a really unique and special set of skills that only gets applied in really complicated circumstances.
@coreysnipes @rightsprung huh - I’ve had similar thoughts. I really like big things, and jobs that are impactful but require care and attention, and heights.

@coreysnipes

Oh you're very welcome! I take it for granted after twenty years, but I think it's important to post more than just the views sometimes so people know a bit more when they pass cranes :)

@rightsprung Very nice! Thanks for sharing. Please send more pics, if you like to.

@rightsprung
Oohhh, that's amazing!

With a cable that long, how early do you have to give control inputs to bring the bucket to a stop at the right location?
Or how long does it take to correct for sudden gusts of wind?

Or is stuff like this already engraved in your muscle memory and you don't even really think about it?

@LeoDJ great question! I don't even think about it any more. It's a long, long pendulum and a balance between leading the load and following.

@LeoDJ

Wind is definitely terrible for us. Again, constant compensation, and lots of 'tricks', like torquing the tower before applying swing brakes ... it is part of the craft, and all operators handle it in their own way.

@rightsprung

Totally stupid question, but does it have a cup holder? 😆

@rl_dane hahaaa yes, off to the left. Microwave. Slippers. Used to bring a kettle to make tea but its just more to carry up now...