Old timer told me to always level the floats before even touching the outriggers

I had this guy Bill, been running cranes since the 70s, tell me on a job down in Portsmouth last summer that I was wasting time by not getting the floats perfectly level first. I always just set the outriggers and adjusted from there. He walked over, squatted down with a level, and had me reset everything. Took twice as long but the machine felt way more stable on a tricky pick lifting HVAC units. Has anyone else had a old hand show them something simple that made a big difference?

2 comments

2 Comments

ivan821mo ago

That Bill sounds like he knew his stuff. My old foreman always said "never trust the ground" and made us check the floats with a 2 foot level even if it looked flat. Took an extra 15 minutes but saved us from a bad lean on a 20 ton pick once. Those little things from the old guys stick with you, man.

taylor.mary1mo ago

Yeah I learned that lesson the hard way on a wet job site. Took me a solid 10 minutes just leveling the floats properly but it kept the boom from sagging into a soft spot later. Saves a headache down the road for sure.