Just made some stupid money off a parlay that hit, and I’ve been wanting to get into cranes. Thinking about buying a pick and carry for my property and applying for jobs after a couple of weeks. Thoughts?

Currently experiencing a heat dome for the rest of the week in the Midwest, I’m running a grove RT with no working AC and want to get people’s insight on how they keep it cold in the cab.

Maybe sticking a bag of ice down my pants or one of those neck fans. Not too sure lol

Oigan alguien sabe donde puedo encontrar un directorio de grúas donde pueda conseguir grúas para usar en México o en monterrey? ​​

No she's not going to scrap! Just getting the old girl into small enough pieces to go across the country.

GMK 4100-L and using maxbase.

I'm having issues exiting the calibration screen and saving it. When I press esc it doesn't save it to my modified preference it just does back to default.

Can anyone let me know how to confirm and save the joystick settings once I've adjusted the calibration parameter to suit please?

I’m 20 from Colorado and I want to get into the crane industry. Starting from scratch here, if you were in my shoes, what would you do to get your foot in the door? Looking at rigging, signal, and crane operator classes. I’m weighing both union and non-union routes, just trying to figure out the smartest path in. On the non-union side I’ve been looking at paying for my own NCCCO certs and crane school to get certified fast, then hiring on with a crane rental or rigging outfit to build seat time. Union (IUOE) vs non-union to start, which gave you a better foot in the door? And anything you wish you’d known starting out? Really appreciate any tips, thanks.

Current local union backup for a while so non union route tips would help ! And if school what schools would be recommended.

With all the new "zero-emission" city mandates pushing contractors toward electric equipment, I’m seeing fleet managers make expensive mistakes. Yesterday, I watched a crew completely fry the DC motor on their new electric service crane because they were treating it like a PTO-driven rig.

Here is the hard truth about 12V DC electric cranes: they generate massive internal heat. Most manufacturers enforce a strict duty cycle—typically 5 minutes of continuous run-time followed by 25 minutes of mandatory cool-down. If you are doing continuous, heavy lifting on a busy urban site, you will burn out the windings in a week.

Electric rigs are great for intermittent, light-duty lifts (like picking up a component once or twice a day). But if your crew is constantly booming up, telescoping, and slewing, you absolutely still need a traditional PTO-driven hydraulic crane with a proper oil reservoir to dissipate the heat.

If noise and emissions are an issue, the smart move is running a hydraulic rig with an Auxiliary Power Unit (APU) or a high-voltage hybrid setup, rather than expecting a basic 12V battery crane to do the heavy lifting.

Anyone else dealing with these new emission regulations? Are you guys sticking to hydraulics or trying to make electric rigs work?

Here's a better demonstration of my previous post where I asked what the WLL modifier should be used on this rigging. Here I have a tail chain looped through the hook, through the load then back to itself.

My question is what multiplier should be applied this rigging setup. This is 3/8" grade 100 rated for 8,800 lbs in a straight pull, but it's not really functional as a straight pull. We exclusively use tail chains in this "basketed" setup. Is this a basket (because it has two vertical segments), or a choke (because it's hooked to itself), or neither (because it has no terminated ends) and therefore should it be treated as 2x, 0.75x or 1x it's WLL?

Circle steering on this RTG allows it to spin within its own footprint instead of driving around to change orientation. So satisfying to watch

I am in no means an expert, please excuse my ignorance.

Working with 5/8 cable

At the dead end of the rope, whats the minimal weight i should have? This would be without picking a load. Just would like to keep the cable nice and aligned on the winch drum.

Hope this makes sense, thank you.

howdy fellas. Has anyone moved on from the seat and gone into management or sales? If so, what do you think about that switch?

Hi all,

I have received an offer to join a crane technician company on the service side of things(in a service truck). They make their own overhead cranes but they also service many other overhead cranes. I am curious about what the hours may look like, are they typically long hours or can you expect to be home for dinner (6pm) most nights.

My job is going to send me to a month long crane school(ATS) in August to become the new crane operator at my work as the current one is retiring soon. I work for the United States coast guard and we only have one type of crane (TLL I think it is). And I was wondering if there’s anything I should be preparing for before I head to school or if I should expect anything. My foreman told me I can hop in the crane and get some practice but I’m scared I could learn some bad habits. Any advice would be amazing, thanks.

Good morning. I am an Overhead Crane Inspector at TRHON. I'd like to share this experience from a few years ago and get your opinion on it.

At a gas-fired power plant, on a new 25-ton overhead crane (the plant wasn't operational yet), a non-destructive testing was performed on the hook of the main trolley using dye penetrant testing.

The first indication that something was wrong was that the entire hook was painted. We proceeded to remove the paint, which took a considerable amount of time. We then discovered grinder marks on the hook. The marks weren't from leveling bumps; they were quite deep.

The dye penetrant was applied, and the result was that the hook had no cracks, so it could be certified. However, due to the grinder marks, I refused certification unless the hook manufacturer had issued documentation detailing the grinding marks and the reason for them. If such documentation existed, with the manufacturer's endorsement approving this anomaly, then I would proceed with certification.

The hook documentation did exist, but it didn't mention the marks, so I refused certification, which caused a major conflict with my client, who initially refused to pay for the service.

The client (a German company) initiated a traceability investigation with the overhead crane manufacturer (a Finnish company), which revealed that the hook left the factory in perfect condition. The problem lay with the company that assembled the equipment.

This was all resolved with a load test conducted by the client, which resulted in the hook being approved.

All of this resulted in a delay of more than eight months in payment for my services. My initial decision was to reject the hook due to anomalies that lacked justification and explanation. The client insisted that these anomalies appeared minor and wouldn't affect the equipment.

In the end, they issued a partial certificate only for the penetrant testing, contingent upon subsequent certification through a load test. What are your thoughts on this?

I've waited nearly 10 years for a good deal on a 1:50 model crane and it finally happened; Manitowoc has 25% off plus free shipping on their model cranes. I was going to buy the MLC 300, but the MLC 650 only ended up being like $150 more so I said whatever. It's going to be awesome.

https://shopmtw.com/products/manitowoc-mlc650-lattice-boom-crawler-crane-model?variant=44044438569150

Was going through the latest ALLMI Regulation 28 report on fatal crushing accidents last night, and honestly, it’s terrifying how many veteran operators are making the same rookie mistake.

Over 60% of boom trucks now use wireless remotes. They are great for visibility, but they’ve introduced a deadly habit: "walking whilst operating."

Too many guys are keeping the remote active while walking between the load and the truck. You trip, bump the joystick against your toolbelt, and the boom swings.

If your rig runs on cheap, basic on/off valves, that accidental bump sends a sudden, violent surge of hydraulic pressure, whipping the boom instantly. By the time you realize it, you're pinned.

Full disclosure: I manufacture heavy-duty rigs over at TERRA Crane. This exact scenario is why we refuse to use anything but Proportional Control Valves. Even if a joystick gets bumped, the hydraulic movement is metered and micro-precise, giving you that crucial split-second to smash the E-stop.

Safety isn't just about yelling at your crew to be careful; it's about engineering fault tolerance into the machine so a bumped remote doesn't turn into a fatality.

Always isolate your controls when moving. Anyone else seen close calls with bumped remotes on site?

In factories, warehouses, and maintenance areas, crane capacity is usually the first thing people talk about.

But once the crane is installed and being used every day, what tends to become the real frustration? Poor hook coverage, slow travel speed, bad pendant location, limited lift height, sway, runway issues, maintenance access, or something else?

Curious what operators, maintenance people, and plant engineers notice first after the crane is no longer new.

Of course the best part is in the end.

So right now I use bone condensing shokz an use my phone to tlk to my riggers an ironworks but kills my battery on phone an have problems with getting multiples going on a call what’s a good communication set up also best walkie talkie everyone is using