Riding The Crane Hook

[monkeybusiness]

59 minutes ago, Mike Hill said:

You are telling fibs. 

Lol! 

[Mike Hill]

Just now, monkeybusiness said:

Lol! 

Indeed Mr Businesss.

[monkeybusiness]

To be fair, I did used to shout about it so I suppose I was fibbing earlier.

 

 

If you watch that video and listen really really carefully you still won’t hear any alarms going off, even though that 60 tonne Tadano crane was working right on the limit of its straight-rigged radius. The crane was ‘good’ for 2 tonnes at that reach so we halved it in the lift plan and still had 4 trees out for dinner time (2 forwarding trailers of timber plus all the woodchip, so whilst not the biggest they weren’t tiny trees either).  

 

On any large dismantle the first thing I look at is getting a crane to it nowadays - they earn me far more money than they cost. Crane jobs have become pretty normal to us here as we use them whenever the job will allow. 

[Gary Prentice]

5 hours ago, AA Teccie (Paul) said:

Albeit from 2014, but article writers are the main authors for the forthcoming (poss. end of year) Cranes in Arbor. technical guide, see http://www.hse.gov.uk/treework/articles/cranes-in-arboriculture.htm checking out the 2nd image.

 

Cheers,

Paul

 

What's your personal opinion Paul? I can't help but find it strange that the practice is acceptable (not saying I wouldn't do it if the chance arose).

[Rich Rule]

It was touched on before...

 

It is probably really expensive to LOLER a crane.  That happens once a year.

 

If they get caught lifting a climber then surely it is classed a PPE and has to be done every six months.?

[stihlmadasever]

32 minutes ago, Rich Rule said:

It was touched on before...

 

It is probably really expensive to LOLER a crane.  That happens once a year.

 

If they get caught lifting a climber then surely it is classed a PPE and has to be done every six months.?

Never thought about it that way rich.

Good point

[AA Teccie (Paul)]

1 hour ago, Gary Prentice said:

What's your personal opinion Paul? I can't help but find it strange that the practice is acceptable (not saying I wouldn't do it if the chance arose).

Personally I think it's the lack of branches directly below that makes us twitchy but I do agree with your comments concerns.  That said I'd feel absolutely fine with the anchor point strength, a not uncommon failure point in many accidents apparently. 

Cheers n hope you're well Gary

Paul

 

[Tom D]

Cranes can be lolered for lifting (like rigging kit) or personnel (like climbing kit) the crane that we usually hire in is lolered for personnel as it is owned by a steel errection company and they have a man basket that they use on it. I have ridden the hook on this crane. FWIW it’s a 60 tonner and costs about £500 for the day.. bargain!

[roseyweb]

Cheers for your input 

be nice if there was a hse guidance on it 

 

a 60t crane around here is £650 bargain  + addons

 

[monkeybusiness]

This was yesterday’s job - 3 trees (including a mature oak) to be removed and one reduced in an immaculate garden with relatively tricky access into the property from the road. Obviously no mess to be left anywhere in the garden/on the drive. There is a stack yard at the property that is rough and ready and is where the logs were to be stacked

 

As ever, first thoughts turn to a crane (this is our second crane job since I was called out as a fibber on this thread, but hey ho!). Where can we safely position a crane? Where are we landing the material? How big a crane can we actually get to the job? All of these questions need answering to be able to understand if a crane can be deployed safely, and a lift plan subsequently drawn up.

 

The only suitable crane pad was the gravel drive - the Indian stone driveway behind the crane wouldn’t have taken the weight (well, it might have but I certainly wasn’t willing to find out definitively one way or the other...). It was possible to position the crane’s slew ring 40m from the centre of the furthest tree (we would need more than that for the far side of the crown) providing the crane was backed in to position and also right over to one of the lawn edges. No problem - bogmats and crane pads on the lawn to allow outrigger deployment on that side. (This crane wouldn’t have reached if centralised on the gravel, but we knew that before the booking was made as the crane specs were referenced during planning). We were limited to this particular 100 tonne Tadano due to its size (it’s only 4 axle and is basically an 80 tonner on steroids) - nothing bigger would have got in the drive.

 

So - we got our site measured up, our lift plan drawn up, the site prepared, the crane positioned and rigged, the trees removed to the stack yard and processed (70m from the furthest tree to the stack yard incidentally - a pretty decent lift) and everything packed down and away, with only minimal sawdust to tidy up from around the trees. Zero mess, zero fuss. And the whole purpose of me telling you this is because we had a decent sized crane working on its absolute limit and not once did the alarm go off (which I put solely down to correct planning and execution).

 

Oh yeah, and there was a helicopter too (which is the real reason I wanted to put this pic up!).