That fancy load cell system I doubted actually saved my bacon today

I was putting a 12 ton HVAC unit on a 7 story roof in downtown Denver this morning. My foreman wanted me to use this new load cell setup from the rental yard, and I told him it was just extra crap to fail. I have been doing this for 15 years and I trust my boom angle and the feel in my levers. Well the wind kicked up around 20 mph halfway through the lift and the load started swinging. That little digital readout showed me I was over capacity by almost 800 pounds on the near side. I corrected quick and set it down smooth. Turns out the wind was pushing the load harder than my gut told me. Has anyone else had a new piece of tech prove them wrong on a tricky pick?

3 comments

3 Comments

wood.faith1mo ago

You got a buddy named Dave? He runs a crane for a steel crew out of Omaha. Last summer they were setting a big chiller on a hospital roof and he was bragging how he don't need no load cells, been doing this 20 years. Wind came up weird around a corner of the building and his gut said he was fine but that cell system screamed at him. He was actually 600 pounds over on the far side. Said he ate crow right there in the cab and now he uses em every time.

jade_jenkins1mo ago

Did your buddy Dave buy that cell system the next day?

piper7791mo ago

Kinda sounds like the machine caught a one-off gust that wouldve been fine in any other situation. People have been running cranes by feel for decades without dying, right?