Hit my first 100-ton lift last Tuesday and found out something wild about the crane's counterweight

I've been running a Liebherr LTM 1050 for about 2 years now, mostly doing small jobs. Last week I had to lift a 95-ton concrete vault near a sewer line in St. Louis. I was looking at the load chart the night before and noticed the counterweight setup actually changes the crane's capacity by almost 40 percent depending on the radius. I never paid that much attention before. I just always set it to the max counterweight and went. But now I'm wondering if I've been wasting fuel and setup time for nothing on smaller lifts. Has anyone else messed with different counterweight configurations to save time?

3 comments

3 Comments

robin59125d ago

Did you ever try running without the outriggers at all like @lewis.finley mentioned for a flat pad job?

kelly38525d agoTop Commenter

The notebook idea is actually genius, I started doing the same after my back gave out on a 90 ton job last spring.

lewis.finley25d ago

Man I had the exact same wakeup call about a year ago running a Grove GMK5250. I was lifting a 67 ton transformer near a substation in Ohio and decided to actually read the load chart for once. Turns out I could have been running a lighter counterweight on at least half my jobs that past six months. I started keeping a little notebook in the cab with the key radius numbers for my most common lifts. Now I run the bare minimum counterweight for maybe 3 out of 5 jobs and the time savings is real. My crane cycles faster on setup and I burn way less fuel on the transport trailer. Plus my back thanks me for not bolting on all those extra slabs every single morning.