Used to think load charts were just suggestions, one near miss in Houston changed my mind

I always figured I could fudge a little on the chart if I was careful, then I lifted a 14 ton HVAC unit that was 3 feet past the radius limit on a Grove RT530. The crane started tipping forward and I barely set it down in time. Now I wonder how many operators actually stick to the chart on tight jobs?

4 comments

4 Comments

the_eric8d ago

Oh man, same thing happened to me with a concrete pump truck.

dylan4638d ago

Did the pump truck throw concrete everywhere too or was it a different kind of mess?

tessaperry8d ago

Used to think load charts were just suggestions" - man, that mindset gets people in trouble everywhere, not just on cranes. It's the same reason people ignore the weight limit on their pickup and end up with a blown tire on the highway... they think the margin is there for them to play with. Saw some of those same close calls with @the_eric's pump truck story, it's just a different machine with the same lazy shortcut.

the_miles8d agoMost Upvoted

Does anyone actually think the engineers put those numbers on there just for fun? Like they sat around hoping someone would call their bluff one day? That's what gets me about the whole thing, people treat load charts like speed limits or fire codes - things you can bend "just a little" until you can't. And yeah, @the_eric's pump truck story really drives it home, because concrete doesn't exactly give you a do-over when things go sideways. It's that same lazy logic of "well it worked yesterday so it should work today" that ends up costing someone their rig or worse.