A tragic accident took the lives of two utility workers over the weekend. Please keep their families in your prayers.



http://pro.wxtk-fm.tritonflex.com/common/page.php?id=2971&is_corp=1cs.dll/article?AID=/20140414/NEWS/404140318

Very sad indeed but what caused the truck to tip like that with the boom almost verticle and only about 500 +/- pounds on the end of the boom in a basket?? Looks like they should have pulled the truck in and boomed out over the cab instead of backing in and working over the rear.

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Dain

I'm a kid at heart, so I will play with any model construction vehicle from 1:87 scale to 1:1 scale!!!!

Age is a state of time NOT a state of mind!!

Dain .
The way these things are engineered there's no room for error.

Get a man basket out far enough by the manbasket chart and a 200lb guy adjusting his tool belt makes the whole thing sway.

I can tell you when I ran an Elliot, the manbasket chart was riveted to the basket, that chart was not at the operators station. What good is it to the guy's in the basket?

I've said it ever since Ive ran one ,Elliot should have stuck to sign trucks.
Thet units they make can pick and do their work, but the tolerances for error are right there. A guy has to be every bit an operator to command one of these. If the chart said 3000lbs ,I said 2000lbs , always nice to favor the side of safety ,and because not evey lift is going to be this photo perfect operation, its always good to build in your own cushion.
That may make me lame is some peoples eye's , in know myself and my machine ,the one thing I cant bank on everyday is the crew ,in rental its never the same way twice.

The LMI is great ,it was a Greer unit. perfect LMI system ,with ,at least the one I ran ,it had a very bad flaw.

When you did run the machine out and tripped the LMI ,it would stop immediately ,the bounce was determined by how fast you were operating.

However
When the stop bounce occurred ,you couldn't get your hand out of the function before ,the load went up ,and then that split second to get out of the function the LMI gave the function back because the weight decreased ,the boom would be allowed to go back down.

This could very well cause a whipping condition ,that could over turn the cranes on the second bounce ,with out warning. its gone. A guy shifting his work pulling or lifting ehile I was operating could cause this as well

That LMI should have had a 3second delay before giving the function back. Just give the operator depending on dexterity ,hand eye coordination , reaction time ---time to stop the function .

Im not saying this is what happened here.

But if I had to place a bet..my money is on a very well intended and functioning LMI system

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Q-Ball a wolf in Jesus skin ---the sorcerer of reasonable commentary





I smile & wave

Sometimes I think life is just a rodeo,
The trick is to ride and make it to the bell.

Boom trucks aren't cranes. Period.
They are toys.

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thou shall not over-moderate!!!

It just looks to be a very flimsy carrier for 140' of boom. Sometimes contractors will bid on jobs that stretch their resources to the limit and beyond. A legitimate 100'+ bucket truck is a very pricy piece of equipment. Even here at the biggest electric utility in Alaska, we can only reach about 80'. This is a 105' capacity bucket truck in use by one of the state's electrical contractors-

Video here with short clips of the truck being removed:

http://www.wcvb.com/news/2-workers-killed-in-bourne-crane-accident/25449088#!EpheM

This is so tragic. Both guys were 34, still young, and one of them had two young kids. Just awful.

I'm sure I'll get ripped apart for this but here it goes anyway. The carrier has nothing to do with the crane except as counter weight. the crane itself has its own subframe which dictates its strength.
If you go out in the manufactures test area you will see boom trucks being tested with no truck under them at all it is a complete unit that just clamps to the frame of the truck . It is figured into
the load chart as counterweight but the strength of the truck is erelevant to the crane. I do totally agree that a boom truck is no crane and I personally hate running them and most crane operators
hate them to. As far as handling a man basket I believe you are never aloud to exceed 50% of the load moment and you are required to make a test lift and take it to its max radius for I think
five minutes, I would have to check the exact protocol but there is a procedure. Still a tragedy.

Man, I just can't imagine. With the jib on, these things can reach 215'. I absolutely cannot imagine that much stick in a 40t boom truck. "Not particularly windy." I don't know the specs for running this thing maxed out with wind, but it can't be much. Especially up 200', how often is there no wind? Couple that with what lotsa crane has mentioned... Try feathering those controls. The whip action out there at the tip would be astronomical. We rented a 150' manlift recently and that thing would sway all over the place with a slight breeze.

RIP to the men

Im not going to rip you apart.

I know how the charts work for manbasket work.

By the letter ,I even have to remove the ball and hoist line for basket work.
And it looks like the operator did his diligence, I don't see a hoist line any where or a ball

The truck as counterweight , if got down to nickels and dime's , how much fuel was in the tank ,how big was the fuel tank ,

Hypothetically speaking
Say it had a 200gallon fuel tank , between both side's , that almost 1500lbs of fuel ,up towards the front of the machine ,
approximately 20feet from the pin, 20x1500= 30,000lbs of torque

Now we get into this whole conversation , of wet truck vs dry truck.
Was it a 6cyl Cummin's engine or a V8 Cat.
Im sure the truck was speced . but manufactuer's do like to strip it down and keep it cheap.
The truck as it is pictured isn't a highway truck ,obviously its a city truck ,it doesent have saddle type fuel tanks.
Im guessing it probably only had a 150liter tank.


And yes , sometimes maximum capacity was based on a full tank of fuel.. I cant remember the model Manitowoc ,but I can remember the old hands talking about the fuel truck not arriving before a heavy lift.. it made difference.
I ran a grove truck mounts for years ,the old TMS models ,If I had a heavy pick over the side ,it was the side that put the fuel tank behind me and the tank was always full, on a steel erection ,fueled everynight. The crane could do its work with a 5gallon can back there , but that 200gallons of fuel took the soggy feeling out of a capacity pick.

Insp720.
What you say is the rule here as well tie to the basket.
Im leary of that and given I worked on a farm for 5yrs ive seen equipment tie up in some pretty tight knots.
I know the rule ,it is law , But I often ask that the men tie of to the boom head ,on a boom mounted basket ,Its not going anywhere ,the basket can leave. and drop out from under them , and I still have a chance to
mitigate anything else. Its a careful process ,I don't want the basket hanging of the men.
Most guys know the rule, and follow it it. that's their choice and I respect that .
Its a personal choice ,I feel better knowing if it was to go wrong ,I made every effort.

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Q-Ball a wolf in Jesus skin ---the sorcerer of reasonable commentary





I smile & wave

Sometimes I think life is just a rodeo,
The trick is to ride and make it to the bell.

Hell, a port o potty will flip over a crawler crane if you do it right.. The first picture, the jib is erected, that's a ton of stick.. Get those two guys bouncing , boomed down just a tad too much, and that truck is going over.