19.08.2023
Mixed emotions
Spotted on a social media feed aphoto from a site in the UK, two mega boom lifts and a fully rigged All Terrain crane working together on a tall structure. A beautiful sight for the eyes to see such fantastic machines working in concert. Until.. that is, you look at the ground under at least one of the booms.
Clearly this occurred somewhere in the UK on a major construction site, where a JLG 1500AJP articulated boom working right alongside a new 186ft XCMG XGS58 telescopic - both rented in from Hire Safe Solutions which runs a large super boom fleet. They are working in concert with the crane, which is rigged with a fully extended six section boom and full bi-fold swingaway extension.
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The ground underneath the XGMG is clearly not the best - in fact it is downright dreadful - so a quick and dirty attempt has been made to ‘level it up’. In spite of this some ……. Hard to find the right word, nutter springs to mind - has found it acceptable enough to go up 56 metres, knowing that this is below?!?!
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Perhaps worse than that some site manager and or safety person has allowed it, or at best not seen it. For those that might say well at least it is the rear of the ‘lift’ - on these big booms rearward stability can be the worst situation - when the boom is left elevated and the telescoped in most of the weight transfers to the wheels under the counterweight.
Certainly, one for the Death Wish series - hopefully this job has finished and nothing bad happened. Just in case we will of course alert the machine owners.
It's good to talk
Southern Red. I think the issue does lie where the image came from(which has now been deleted). It came from the hire company.
Ronaldo
Hi 7583
i work for a crane manufacturer and can tell you 100% it is just go check your spec sheets! maybe not for your knuckle booms but telescopics yes
Jimmybuller
Unfair to comment on the cranes base when you can't even see it.. But always Nice to see the haters out in force again, when it isn't the focus of the post. 👀. 100% hirer should be getting a rollicking , anything Ariel treat as a crane and make sure a suitable base is made !
7583
@ronaldo . That section isn't counted when counting boom sections
Ronaldo
To 7583 looks like you have overlooked the base section base plus five telescope elements six in total.
7583
On a lighter note. I only count 5 sections on the crane
Southern Red
Come on Vertikal, its a bit unfair showing the hire company's name so prevalently when you know full well its not their responsibility to ensure the machines are being used correctly.
If you're going to feature a company name then state the main contractor who is allowing this to happen on their site. If not, then highlight the safety issue and blur the company names out of it.
This could be any one of us in the industry having our reputation questioned due to the uncontrollable behavior of one of our customers and personally I expect better from one of our industry's leading trade press bodies.
Eric_L
No need for mixed emotions, that's just bad and unsafe.
And as for people blaming the rental company, and/or the site safety officer, what about the operator(s) ?!?!
And I'm guessing the photo on social media was showing off their handy work ? C'mon, tell us who shared it ;)
Red
........not to mention the personnel who went up in those lifts.
Were they not well trained, and did not see the hazards of the inadequate set up of the lifts ?
Or were they told to "Shut up and get up" ?
Crane lads
LTD. you have lost us what's been happening?
LTD
“The safe choice”
Not what has been happening over the last week!
......
Exactly @Harry Sharp. and who is to say a rep was even asked to do a site survey? If a customer needs to go up 50 meters, they most likely know what machine they need without asking. Are Hire companies supposed to put expensive equipment out at low rates, do site surveys, and then be responsible for how the customer actually uses the machine??? Health & Safety Manager on the site to blame, but the camera angles may have made it look worse than it actually is.
Crane lads
Who's for say that the crane isn't set-up right. Yes the boom lift is set up bad and the operator should get a rollicking but i would be surprised if the crane wasn't rigged up 100% safe.
Harry Sharp
Can’t blame the Rep. The Rep might have advised to not operate the machine on such ground.
Tractorboy
Accident waiting to happen! This particular company regard themselves as industry leaders.
Shortbutsweet
Surely the hirers have a responsibility to make sure the ground is safe for their machines!!I would imagine this
has been surveyed by there rep!