That fancy load cell system I thought was overkill? Total lifesaver today

Been running a Liebherr LTM 1050 for about 3 years now, and I always figured the old-school pressure gauges were fine for figuring out loads. My foreman kept pushing this new wireless load cell setup from CraneWerks, told me it was $1,200 but worth it. Told him it was just a gimmick, no way it beats my eyeballing method. Cut to this morning, we had a 14-ton section of HVAC ductwork hanging at a weird angle over a new building in downtown Nashville. Wind was gusting bad and I couldn't get a clear angle on the load. Threw that cell on, and it showed I was actually 400 lbs over on the radius. Caught it before a real bad swing. Any of you guys had a safety tool you ignored at first that ended up saving you?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_wendy1mo ago

Are you kidding me? Fifty foot-pounds over?

drewr151mo ago

Wait was he actually mad when you busted out the torque wrench and proved him wrong, or did he try to play it off like he knew all along? Kinda sounds like he knew deep down his "feel" method was sketchy but didnt wanna admit it. Did he finally cave and start using the wrench after that?

kim_ramirez31mo ago

It's funny you mention that, because I had a similar thing happen with a torque wrench of all things. I'm not a crane operator, but I do a lot of the rigging and mechanical work on my husband's old farm equipment. He swears by these cheap hydraulic jacks and a pipe for torque. I kept telling him to just get a proper torque wrench, but he said it was a waste of money for "guys who know what they're doing." Well, we were putting new bolts on a manure spreader's PTO shaft last week. He was tightening by feel, and I just had a bad feeling. I grabbed his little click-type torque wrench from the garage, set it to the manual's spec, and sure enough, his "tight enough" was about 50 foot-pounds too much. If we'd snapped one of those bolts out in the field with a full load, it would have been a nightmare. Sometimes the old way is fine until it isn't.