crane tips over!!

[vash]

wow!!

[Zeke]

That was inexcusable. Someone looses their license.

[GH85Carrera]

Originally Posted by Zeke

That was inexcusable. Someone looses their license.

I don't know beans about cranes, but I have agree. The weight of the load was know precisely. The positioning of the crane was set up wrong is the easy comment. I hope those guys on the ground all got out of there.

[herr_oberst]

This is why crane operators make the big bucks. It looks so easy when everything goes right.

[Neilk]

In the YouTube video comments, someone said they all got out fine.

I am not too familiar with cranes, but as an armchair commenter, don't the crane legs spread out more? Looks like they are fairly close in.

[vash]

i work around cranes all the time. they still scare the crap out of me.

in all my life, i have never seen a crane sit on such a nice surface as the one in the video.

looks like his outriggers were out..they couldnt get closer because of the bracing on the wall already up. that in my opinion is where they effed up. they should have done the furthest ones first. moved the crane up to minimize the distance. then back the crane up as needed.

we require contractors to have a lifting plan, and a detailed meeting. there are some amazing crane operators out there.

[wilnj]

I wouldn’t rule out mechanical failures. It happens even with the proper controls.

Modern cranes won’t lift something they’re not capable of but if something shifts once the laid is in the air, all bets are off.

In this case it looks like the panel started to go away from the crane and once that momentum headed in the wrong direction there was no bringing it back.


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[vash]

looks like he was booming down to get the panel further away from him to reach the landing spot. once that happens, the moment arm gets long fast. he can get the load out way past the load charts in a hurry.
it's an amazing video. so happy nobody got hurt.

[brshap]

Originally Posted by wilnj

I wouldn’t rule out mechanical failures. It happens even with the proper controls.

Modern cranes won’t lift something they’re not capable of but if something shifts once the laid is in the air, all bets are off.

In this case it looks like the panel started to go away from the crane and once that momentum headed in the wrong direction there was no bringing it back.


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They will if you turn the key. This looks like the crane was overloaded, pure and simple.

You see the rear come up when he's at the max radius before setting the panel down. Once he sets it down and the CG shifts just a bit further out he's already lost it. Cranes are designed to 85% overturning so he was already out of chart before he set the panel.

[speeder]

Wait, was that the wall w Mexico?

[Mark Henry]

I did tilt-wall construction for a couple years as a youngin, we had a large panel (26 ton IIRC) pop it's anchors (one goes the rest follow) and crash down. Sure makes you check your shorts.
Cost the boss lots, shut down till everything inspected/repaired/replaced and you're still paying by the hour.

[sammyg2]

Originally Posted by wilnj

I wouldn’t rule out mechanical failures. It happens even with the proper controls.

Modern cranes won’t lift something they’re not capable of but if something shifts once the laid is in the air, all bets are off.

In this case it looks like the panel started to go away from the crane and once that momentum headed in the wrong direction there was no bringing it back.


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DISCLAIMER: I do not currently have an active crane license but was licensed in the past and operated cranes in the 80's while employed as a millwright.


There are two main parts of a load chart: structural and tipping.
There are also parts for "on outriggers" and "on rubber". There's over the front and over the side.
Lots of stuff to check before making a critical pick.

A trained operator knows the weight of the load and can calculate the radius and plot it on the chart whether it's over the front outriggers, over the side, on rubber, etc.
A crane like that is likely forbidden to ever pick on rubber, and rarely allowed to travel without breaking down the stick. Ground compaction etc. comes into play.

If a load is over 50% of capacity, a full lift plan should be developed and signed off by people who KNOW the weight and don't guess.
That prevents stuff like this from happening.

It's possible the operator had a load cell on the crane and was relying on that to tell him if he was over-loaded, but that would be wrong.
And an operator can over-ride anything he wants in the cab. it'll pick whatever he tells it to.

The operator in the video went past the tipping capacity of the crane. Pure and simple.
As he boomed down, the radius increased slightly and was enough to over-load the crane, causing it to tip. There was no load shifting or mechanical malfunction.

It's a Bragg crane, conventional stick, didn't see a jib. Bragg typically employs the best operators around but aren't cheap.
If it were a big hydro it's have all sorts of computers and alarms but it's a conventional.

He was on outriggers but picking over the side.
If I had to bet, I'd bet that was the problem.
From the video is appears that either he underestimated the weight, or used the load chart for over the front instead of over the side.

Scott Bragg is the prez and CEO of Bragg Companies, he was on the school board for St. Paul's Lutheran school many years ago when my kids went there.
We worked together on many occasions and are still members of the same church, next time I run into him I'll ask about it.

[vash]

nice name drop sammy!!

i am not a crane guy. but i thought with outrigger all out,the crane has the same capacity in a 360 degree circle? i didnt realize there were heavy sides.

[sammyg2]

Originally Posted by vash

nice name drop sammy!!

i am not a crane guy. but i thought with outrigger all out,the crane has the same capacity in a 360 degree circle? i didnt realize there were heavy sides.

You like that?

I was thinking about digging up my training certificates and licenses, I got them around here somewhere but figured that would be over the top.

The load around the crane depends on the crane. An RT (rough terrain) crane would likely have the same capacity over the side on outriggers, but a truck-mount like that would prolly have more capacity over the front.
The ones I've operated did but that was decades ago.

[widebody911]

Do they always video crane ops, or was this just a lucky video capture?

Props to the cameraman for not screaming like a little girl, or pointing the camera at the ground for the money shot.

[sammyg2]

Here's a pick of a truck-mounted crane and an RT crane for comparison.

Note on the truck mounted crane, the long distance from the pivot to the front.
Even with the outriggers fully extended they would not extend out the side as far from the pivot as the front ones.

Apparently, it's all about the maths.

[sammyg2]

BTW, I watched a 50 ton RT crane similar to that last one get dropped once.

It was at san Onofre nuke plant, we were overhauling one of the turbines (million and a half HP).

We had a small crane like that one up on the deck to make small picks so the big crane wouldn't be tied up, IIRC it was rated for around 250 ton.

When the job was wrapping up one of the last jobs was to fly everything down off the deck, including that RT crane.
There was about 150 people employed for the overhaul but we were down to the last 8 of us after lay-offs and we were on the rigging crew that day.
The head rigger wore an orange vest and his work was final, no one argued with him or you got the axe. He was an ex-navy SEAL also.

He gave instructions to rig and fly down the RT crane, and i said: Don't you want us to fly down the stowed jib separate?

He said no, just extend the outriggers and choke them with these 50' long endless 2" slings.

I asked what kind of softeners he wanted us to use, he said just get some old cardboard boxes and use them.

This would be a good time to point out that outriggers have machined beams with fairly sharp corners.
RT cranes also have designed and engineered picking eyes to use when lifting, but the stowed jib was in the way. so it would naturally be flown down separately.
And cardboard was NOT as approved softener material.

That's when I told him I was having stomach cramps and needed to hit the bathroom right away and left the lift site.

i went down a couple hundred yards and watched from the smoke pen as they lifted the crane and got it about 5 or 10 feet up, before it went BANG a couple times and his the deck. it blew out the tires, bent the boom, and totaled the crane. It also tripped unit 2 off-line which was a bad thing.

The next day we were called into the office one by one and interviewed by OSHA and the NRG.

They asked me what happened, I said I dunno, I went to the bathroom!

The head rigger and superintendent got fired from bectel and banned from working at a nuke plant in the US for a number of years, not sure how many.

And there were lots and lots of procedures and paperwork developed because of that incident.

[sammyg2]

Ironically, that happened in August of 1995. I'm sure of that.


I just saw this web site that said they dropped a similar crane 40 feet at San Onofre in 2001.
Evidently they did NOT learn their lesson.



https://www.craneaccidents.com/2001/06/report/crane-accident-at-san-onofre-nuclear-power-plant/

[brshap]

Originally Posted by vash

nice name drop sammy!!

i am not a crane guy. but i thought with outrigger all out,the crane has the same capacity in a 360 degree circle? i didnt realize there were heavy sides.

Generally all terrain cranes have highest capacity over the rear. Depending on manufacturer, some will have charts for +/- 10 degrees over the rear with higher capacity than the 360 degree chart.

[mdj930]

Obviously I wasn't there but it looks like pure laziness. Move the damn rig it's level ( the surrounding area). I do know some truck cranes are to heavy to drive with all the counter weights on and if that's the case break it down and move it, that's better than flipping it.
I was part of a crew that erected a link belt 250 ton conventional crane with 250 foot of boom and drove it about a 1/4 mile to hoist some HVAC units at intel in Phoenix AZ. so it's not unheard of.
Btw I have never seen a license for a crane operator.
CCO ( certified crane operator) maby that's what's beings called a license.
and a truck crane always lifts the most weight off the ass end.
Mike