Can we talk about rigging down a load with a stuck latch?

Last Tuesday I was on a job in Memphis, setting steel beams on a new warehouse. Had a load about 4,000 pounds suspended, and the latch on the shackle wouldn't open after I set it down. Spent a good 20 minutes trying to work it free with a hammer and a pry bar before it finally popped. Turns out a bit of grit from the site had jammed it. I learned to always give shackles a quick check before they go up, even if they look clean. Anyone else run into a simple thing like that holding up the whole flow?

2 comments

2 Comments

kevin2181mo ago

That stuck latch thing happens way too often, it's like life always finds a simple way to stall you.

the_lucas1mo ago

I mean, that little bit of grit totally gets overlooked until it's the one thing holding everyone up. I've had a 2-inch piece of gravel jam a shackle on a 12-ton lift before, and it took us a good 30 minutes with a torch and a sledge to get it to budge. It's wild how a tiny dirt speck can turn a quick job into a whole ordeal. Makes you want to run a q-tip around every latch before it leaves the ground, even if it feels like overkill.