Climbing crane with a brake winch vs friction winch - night and day difference

I ran a 60 ton Grove for 2 years with a friction winch setup, always fighting load drift and having to feather the brake on every pick. Then I hopped on a Liebherr LTM 1055 last month with a disc brake winch, and man, I should've switched sooner. The control is just way smoother, especially on those tight picks where you're setting steel between columns. Anyone else notice this difference between brake and friction setups on your jobs?

2 comments

2 Comments

alicec862d ago

Hold up man, is it really that big of a deal? I ran an old Grove with a friction winch for like 4 years and sure it drifted a little but you just learn to work around it. Feathered the brake on every pick too but thats just part of the job. I hopped in a Liebherr with a disc brake a few months back and yeah it felt nice, but I wouldn't call it night and day. More like a minor upgrade. Unless you're doing super tight steel setting every day I think youre overhyping it. The old friction stuff still gets the job done.

averywright2d ago

alicec86 I get what you're saying and you're not wrong but it kinda reminds me of how people swear by manual transmissions one day then try a good automatic and suddenly it's not even close. once you get used to the better thing going back feels like a chore.

-1