A rigger in Houston told me something that saved my load

We were setting a big air handler on a roof downtown last fall. I had the load about thirty feet up, moving slow over the edge. My rigger, an old guy named Ray, keyed his radio and said, 'Your boom is breathing, kid. Watch the tip.' I looked up and saw it, a slight bounce I hadn't caught. He told me to stop, lower a foot, and let it settle. He said, 'The steel talks if you listen. That bounce was the crane saying the ground under your outriggers wasn't solid yet.' We spent ten minutes re-packing the mats. If I'd kept going, I could have dropped it. Has anyone else had a rigger catch something you missed from the ground?

2 comments

2 Comments

jake_dixon13h ago

Those old guys see everything.

park.tara11h ago

Yeah, I used to think that crane work was all about the numbers and the gear. Hearing a story like that, and what jake_dixon said about old guys seeing everything, really changed my mind. It's about listening to the whole job, not just looking at it.