PSA: A job at a high school in Portland changed how I set up my crane picks

I used to just eyeball my weight estimates for tree work with a crane. Did it for 12 years and never had a problem. Then last spring I took a job at Grant High School in Portland taking down a massive 80 foot red oak. The crane operator flat out refused my pick plan and made me use a load cell on every single cut. I was EMBARRASSED at first but after the third pick I saw my estimates were off by 300-400 pounds on some sections. That was a real wake up call for safety. Has anyone else started using load cells since that OSHA memo about crane accidents came out?

2 comments

2 Comments

daniel51112d ago

And that's the thing with crane work, the math doesn't lie but our eyes sure do. I've been using a load cell for the last six months on every single job, and I'm embarrassed to admit how often I was off by a couple hundred pounds just guessing. Once you see the real numbers on those big hardwood limbs, there's no going back to eyeballing it.

oscarcooper12d agoProlific Poster

Also a good reminder about density, since oak is way heavier than pine even when they look the same size.