I keep seeing new guys setting up their outriggers wrong on sloped ground

Was on a site in Charlotte last week and watched a kid try to level his boom truck with just the outrigger pads stacked on some 2x4s. He had the whole machine listing to one side bad. I had to tell him to crib underneath properly with hardwood blocking and keep the floats flat against the ground. He argued it would hold but I showed him how the load chart works different on uneven surfaces. Anyone else run into operators who skip the basic cribbing steps?

2 comments

2 Comments

anderson.gavin1mo agoMost Upvoted

That kid with the 2x4s under the outrigger pads, did he actually see any load charts or did he just guess? I'm wondering what kind of boom truck he was running and how much weight he was trying to lift before you stopped him. I once watched a guy on a 50-tonner try to set up with just three outriggers fully extended because the fourth was over a buried utility line, and he swore the load chart had a "three-corner pick" note that applied. Turned out he was reading the wrong model year manual. What tipped you off that he was about to make a big mistake besides the listing?

elizabeth_bailey261mo ago

Three-corner pick, that's a new one. I'm still stuck on the 2x4s though. My question is, what kind of ground bearing pressure was he expecting from that setup? Nobody ever talks about the math on that. You can have a perfectly level crane and still punch right through asphalt if you're not spreading the load right. Those little pads just concentrate everything onto a tiny spot, and wet grass or soft ground won't care about your load chart one bit.