Old timer told me I was swinging the load too much

Been running a Terex for about 3 years now. This older guy, must have 30 years in the seat, watched me set some steel beams last month in Portland. He just said 'you're fighting the load, son, not working with it' and walked off. I was pretty mad at first but I thought about it. Turns out I was using way too much boom swing to position things instead of letting the trolley and hoist do the work. After 2 weeks of forcing myself to use less swing I'm setting loads maybe 25% faster with way less bouncing. Has anyone else had a piece of criticism that totally changed their setup routine?

3 comments

3 Comments

evahenderson6d ago

Three years in and you're just now figuring out boom swing?

gibson.morgan5d ago

Has anyone actually checked if their boom swing is even set up right in the first place? I spent almost two years thinking mine was dialed in until a buddy filmed my swing from behind and showed me the boom was tilted way too far to the left. Felt fine to me, looked okay on front-facing video, but that hidden angle was killing my consistency. Your mileage may vary, but I'd bet a lot of folks with longer experience still have a small setup flaw they haven't caught either.

diana_kim665d ago

Three years and you're just now catching a boom tilt issue? That's honestly wild to me. Like, I get that front-facing video can smooth things over, but two years feeling fine while it's messing with consistency the whole time? That's the kind of thing that'd drive me nuts once I knew. I had a buddy who ran a crooked sight post on his bow for four years before someone pointed it out at a 3D shoot. He was dead certain it was straight until he put a level on it. Makes you wonder how many other little things we're just blindly trusting.