Can we talk about those fancy new crane simulators?

I mean, my company dropped almost $15,000 on one for training and it feels like a total waste. The physics for swinging a load just don't feel real compared to being in the actual cab. Has anyone else tried them and found a good use, or are they just a flashy toy?

5 comments

5 Comments

parkerbrown2mo ago

They're way safer for practicing big mistakes.

phoenixw112mo ago

My old boss bought one of those sims and called it a "strategic investment." The only strategy I saw was giving the new guy a way to tip over a million dollar crane on a computer instead of in the yard. Sure, you can practice panicking, but you can do that for free by just telling him his coffee is decaf.

wyatt_hernandez1429d ago

Man our place had a sim for the excavators once. Cost like 80 grand I think. The idea was it’d teach the new guys how to level ground without tearing up the actual site. But what really happened is everyone just used it to see who could dig the fastest virtual hole. One kid got so into it he’d skip lunch to beat his own score. The old timers just laughed and said real dirt doesn’t care about your video game time. Simulators are just expensive toys. They don’t teach you the feel of the machine. You gotta actually dig a hole to learn that.

angela_harris29d ago

Whoa, that reminds me of when I worked at a place that bought a forklift simulator. The claim was it'd cut down on pallet damage. Nope. Just gave the warehouse guys a new way to argue about whose virtual forklift was faster. They spent more time racing each other on the screen than actually learning anything useful. Real world stuff, you just feel it in your gut when you're about to tip. Simulators can't teach that.

cole_baker2mo ago

Seriously, I read a trade article about this. They said the best use is for emergency procedures. Like practicing a runaway load scenario. You can crash the virtual thing a hundred times. No real damage. Lets guys learn the panic moves without the real risk.