I finally stopped leveling my crawler crane tracks by eye

An old operator named Hank watched me set up on a job in Tulsa last month and just shook his head. He said "Son, you're chasing grade all day because your tracks are off by 3 inches." I always figured I could feel it out, but he made me break out the transit and check. Now I spend 15 minutes getting those tracks dead level and I haven't had to touch the outriggers once. Anybody else get called out by a veteran and actually listened?

3 comments

3 Comments

wyatt_mitchell261mo ago

Learned that lesson on my second job and still skipped the transit for twenty years.

wyatt_hernandez141mo ago

Hank's a good man but he's full of it on one thing - you definitely still need to touch those outriggers, just less often. I watched a guy in Odessa get real confident with his perfectly level tracks and then the ground settled 4 inches under his right rear pad halfway through a pick. He was chasing grade again before lunch. Tracks give you a solid base but they don't stop the dirt from moving underneath you. That transit habit is gold though, I started doing it after a foreman made me look stupid on a pipeline job in '08 and never went back.

-1

henryp401mo ago

Same thing happened to me on a job out near Midland a few years back. Ground looked solid, tracks were set, then the afternoon sun dried out a patch of caliche and the whole back end dropped about 3 inches. Had to re-level everything mid lift which is a nightmare with a load in the air. I'm not saying you gotta baby sit the outriggers all day but checking them every 20 minutes or so after the first couple picks is just smart. Saves you from looking like a fool in front of the whole crew.