Unpopular opinion: sometimes the old cranes are more reliable than the new ones

Had a luffing jib go out on me last Tuesday on a Liebherr 130 at a job site near Columbus. The computer system just froze mid-lift and I had to manual override everything to get the load down safe. Meanwhile my buddy runs a 20 year old P&H and says he's never had a single computer failure. Makes me wonder if all these new safety sensors are worth the headache when they fail. Any of you guys had something similar happen with newer vs older rigs?

3 comments

3 Comments

umac712mo ago

That bit about the manual override got me. It reminds me of how my stove's digital touch panel stopped working but the old knob on my toaster still turns fine. Seems like anything with a screen gives up before the mechanical stuff does.

luna_craig582mo ago

@umac71 but aren't you trading reliability for old tech though?

sanchez.blake19d ago

luna_craig58 nailed it with that "trading reliability for old tech" thing. My grandpa's truck is from 1987 and he can fix anything with a wrench and some duct tape. Meanwhile my 2020 model car just flashed a warning light at me and the dealership quoted me 800 bucks for a diagnostic. I guess sometimes the old stuff works better because it doesn't have anything to break in the first place.