Last Tuesday was the worst day I've had on a crane in 5 years

Got called to a site in south Atlanta to set some HVAC units on a new warehouse roof. Simple job, supposed to take maybe 4 hours. First thing, the ground guys showed up late and the spotter they sent didn't speak much English. We got the first unit up fine but the second one we had to reach over a wall and the wind picked up out of nowhere. Swung that load like a pendulum for maybe 20 seconds before I got it steady. Felt like my heart was gonna pop out of my chest. Then the radio died halfway through. Had to use hand signals for the rest of the lift. Took until 6pm to finish what should have been a half day. Has anyone else had a job just fall apart like that from the start?

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kelly.robin1mo ago

Man I got a buddy who runs a rigging crew up near Nashville and he had basically this exact same nightmare last year. They were setting a chiller on a hospital roof and the spotter they sent was fresh off a plane from somewhere in central America, barely knew the hand signals himself. The wind caught the load just as they were clearing a parapet wall and it started swinging like crazy, almost took out a fresh section of roofing. Then the foreman on the ground kept yelling into the radio in Spanish thinking it was still working but the battery had died like ten minutes earlier. They finally got it set but it took them until almost dark and my buddy said he hasn't trusted a radio since without checking the battery three times first. Stuff like that makes you realize how fast a simple job can turn into a total circus.