monkeybusiness

Superb bit of kit - looking forward to seeing vids of this in action!

I’ve just had great service for a radio control setup from a firm called RED who specialise in recovery equipment. My needs were less complex than yours but I’d definitely give them a try. (Edit - just seen Will’s recommendation above posted as I was typing. I gave up on Approved after trying to place the order multiple times over 12 months!!! Their poor service was the only reason I happened upon RED).

Used to, wouldn’t again, tread carefully.

You will end up with chip and dust everywhere. It’s bad enough with vehicles with external chip boxes - I’d think very carefully before attempting it personally.

If you can get down Rhuallt hill without using your steering wheel I’d love to see a video of it! Accelerating out of a snake is all well and good in theory but unless you have unlimited power and unlimited road there is a good chance that it’s just going to end in a faster crash IME. There is a technique for pulling a snaking trailer straight whereby you time your braking as the trailer pendulums back into line with the tow vehicle (hard enough on the brakes to force the trailer brakes on, but come immediately off them as it passes through the straight line) - unfortunately there is no way of safely practicing this and getting it wrong can make things worse... Correct loading and safe speeds are the best way to avoid the issue altogether though.

Cheers Al - looks a really handy tool! Little bit too old for me unfortunately, but will undoubtedly do someone great service!

Only had one real issue with an IWT - 12 foot tipper with cage sides (approx 8m3) full of wet split logs. Down a long bendy hill on the A55 (dual carriageway) it got all out of shape, eventually flipped on its side (lifting the pickup’s back wheels off the floor) and stuffed me into the central reservation. The whole thing lasted for nearly a mile, and my trousers, the entire seat cushion and half of the carpet got chewed up by my bum-hole (it was absofarkinlutely terrifying!). Fortunately it started snaking far enough before disaster to allow everyone following enough time to hang back and watch the show... I’m 100% certain this incident was caused by low tyre pressure in one of the rear tyres (it ended up popped off the rim), possible overloading and too much speed which became impossible to shed. Other than that one incident (which in no way can be blamed on the trailer, it was entirely driver error) my experiences of the towing behaviour of Ifors is entirely positive, and I have towed a lot of their trailers carrying a lot of weight a lot of miles. If you load them wrong (basically zero or negative nose weight) then they can snake, but so will any trailer. I’ve yet to find another manufacturer who can offer anything comparable that will take abuse and still sell very second hand for strong money either!

Any pics/details of age/mileage/payload etc?

I’d have a chat with your insurance company and see what they think. Is is there a written lift plan? If not, how did you spec the crane for the job? If the worst were to happen I’d suspect your driver would be in a lot of trouble - the problem is that his insurance probably wouldn’t pay out as you are paying crane hire not contract lift which would subsequently leave you in deep doo-doo too.

Read this. You will need to arrange for a contract lift with a crane company (ie they arrange the lift plan and insure the lift). The technical guide in the link is a work in progress and is already very good - it would be worth sharing it with whichever crane company you look to use as some of the suggested techniques (riding the hook etc) are generally considered a no-no in crane work.

Surely the crane fed Heizo needs to be £750 plus a day?

Are they an arb supplier from the north by any chance?

Not very often it’s used as a 3/4 tbh. Apparently it’s exactly the same internally as the 1/2 inch driver anyway. I only went for 3/4 inch as I’ve got a big Bahco socket set that is essentially a full-body workout to use for anything - at least now I’ve got this I’m more likely to open that particular box to find a suitable tool when necessary!

If they love you very much then they’ll get you one of these - pull the trigger and the world turns until the nut comes loose!!!

Talk to Midland Road Springs about upgraded leaf springs - they can be made so that extra leaves don’t come into play until loaded.

Pretty sure it would have been quicker without the peroni... Looks mint, good work!

Hi Paul - without wishing to derail this thread not everyone is on Facebook, would it be worth sharing the crane technical guide on Arbtalk as a thread too? (I’m fairly surprised you didn’t tbh). I’ve just seen it/read it/done the survey as a result of following this thread and think there is a fairly significant omission regarding tensioning before cutting. Looks very well thought through otherwise though, sorry if I sound negative!

I’d imagine you only need 6kva for startup - probably drops off quite a bit once running.

Oh, bugger!

It seems to be difficult to get the diesel Land Cruisers from Japan - they’ve all been petrol when I’ve looked.

G-couplers are brill, but can be too big to get on some nipples. You then need 2 guns or accept that you are going to get messy swapping the coupler for a standard one. Saying that, a short flexible grease hose with a nipple on one end (to attach to the g-coupler) and a standard connector on the other would solve that issue. I’m going to get a couple - can’t believe I hadn’t thought of it before!

There’s a new Makita grease gun out (but not in the UK yet) that looks really good!

The Makita is mega if you already have other tools running their batteries. Not sure about (as in I don’t have any experience of) more budget options I’m afraid.

Check valves mate - they have to be fitted if the machine is used for lifting operations.

Does it indicate low oil pressure? Check connections to the pressure switch (and make sure there’s oil in it!)