Outriggers

[48"BAR PINCHER]

TMD

Ya they should all be on the ground and firmly. Raising them to lay on hot wires is total BS. The boom is supposed to be insulated and at distribution voltages like 4160V and higher the rubber tires are not insulators!---especially steel belted tires! Outriggers when set right take the weight off the suspension but leave enough tire contact to prevent slide outs---Maxi brakes don't work if the tires ain't on the ground. I had a brand new 85' footer Cornbinder from Penske a few weeks ago and it had prox switches wired into pressure sensors in the outrigger cylinders. It is supposed to make it trick proof so a minimum preset amount of weight must be on each rigger plus the rigger must be extended a minimum preset distance from the full in position before the master hydraulics for the boom would engage. It certainly was a pain in the ass. Most trucks are pretty stable at full extension even with half baked outrigger positions tho with the exception of the magic 45 of death off each back corner of every truck.

 

[treemandan]

I slid a 19 ton crane with four rigs down a steep new concrete drive while boomed out to about 75 feet once and it stopped before the primaries. lWe just were standing there gawking at it. no harm done...tree man's luck

Interesting.

 

[treemandan]

How come I never got any of that? LOL

You do! We all do! Its 1% skill , training and practice, its 99% luck. Not just any luck either, its dumb luck.

 

[Mike Cantolina]

you do! We all do! Its 1% skill , training and practice, its 99% luck. Not just any luck either, its dumb luck.

lol...........

 

[randyg]

Should start out with all four outriggers down firm. Off board side will sometimes lift a little, like an inch but a foot? Some times I think I have them both down on one side (I run both left at same time/right as well) and stop and lean out to check and see one still off the ground a bit, but never a foot. In the winter when there is snow or ice (snow turns to ice as soon as you put the outrigger down hard in it) I keep sand on truck. Sprinkle little under pads before you go skating. Every now and then, when way out to the side (in winter), a pad may slip just a tad and scare the poo out of me as just a tad means that the bucket drops a foot or so all at once. Never get used to that.

 

[ropensaddle]

Yes for sure they mean raising the truck 2 inches....not the tires. I went back and edited my original post where I said tires.

Speaking of seesawing......I've got boom trucks unstuck by seesawing and placing fill under the wheels. It takes some time but works well.

Lol not as well as my winch I don't spook if the counter weight side floats a little at full extension as it almost always will. I truely love air brakes for any lift truck I remember some very iffy cable braked units from prior drivers driving with brakes set!

 

[ropensaddle]

The outriggers ARE the brakes at this point.

If we are cribbing way up (you are saying blocking Rope) then I am gonna use full half sheets of 3/4 plywood so no chance of falling off.

My 75 foot Teco won't even work if rigs aren't all the way out (or almost). Remember, the farther out they are the more stance or stability you obviously have as they go out not just down..

With my 55' Hi ranger (it only got 2 rigs) they can be barely touching down and it is rock solid. It is a little toy compared to the big guy.

We are always floating main rigs on the crane tho. Sometimes (Like LXT says ...we use ballast in the form of big honkers on the bed.

That Teco makes me nervous at times.

Yes but a cranes riggers are designed to carry the load. Most buckets are designed to share load with trucks springs my high ranger has only two also with one that drifts I just use the lock off valve!

 

[beowulf343]

I wonder if the telephone wires and pole could support the truck briefly?

Yes.

 

[ropensaddle]

TMD

Ya they should all be on the ground and firmly. Raising them to lay on hot wires is total BS. The boom is supposed to be insulated and at distribution voltages like 4160V and higher the rubber tires are not insulators!---especially steel belted tires! Outriggers when set right take the weight off the suspension but leave enough tire contact to prevent slide outs---Maxi brakes don't work if the tires ain't on the ground. I had a brand new 85' footer Cornbinder from Penske a few weeks ago and it had prox switches wired into pressure sensors in the outrigger cylinders. It is supposed to make it trick proof so a minimum preset amount of weight must be on each rigger plus the rigger must be extended a minimum preset distance from the full in position before the master hydraulics for the boom would engage. It certainly was a pain in the ass. Most trucks are pretty stable at full extension even with half baked outrigger positions tho with the exception of the magic 45 of death off each back corner of every truck.

Many booms if fiberglass are hypot tested I have performed this test a portable transformer sends 100 kv to upper and 50 kv to lower if its inserted the tester is hook at pedestal and reads micro amps and I believe its 5 allowed leakage at 100kv barely enough to feel! Then the liner is submerged into a tank filled with water and a metal prod is placed into it and 100 kv is hooked to it and tester is hooked to metal tank same 5 micro amps apply. When you take the leads off with tested hot gloves you have to ground the prod and tank to make sure no residual static knocks you I tested for a couple months can't remember everything but I am pretty close!

 

[randyg]

TMD

Most trucks are pretty stable at full extension even with half baked outrigger positions tho with the exception of the magic 45 of death off each back corner of every truck. :

Since no one else mentioned, I guess everyone else knows. What is this "magic 45 of death off back corner of every truck"? I have not heard of this. Something to do with only one rigger doing all the work or what?

 

[treeclimber101]

Yes.

And How may I ask that you discovered that ?

 

[treeclimber101]

Since no one else mentioned, I guess everyone else knows. What is this "magic 45 of death off back corner of every truck"? I have not heard of this. Something to do with only one rigger doing all the work or what?

For me its the rear corner of the truck usually passenger side straight out trying to jimmy my way under the mid hole or under the phone lines where the truck is almost being pulled over backwards , the death part of it sounds a bit ominous but you usually close enough to the ground where the truck will only go about 2o or ft... lol

 

[ropensaddle]

For me its the rear corner of the truck usually passenger side straight out trying to jimmy my way under the mid hole or under the phone lines where the truck is almost being pulled over backwards , the death part of it sounds a bit ominous but you usually close enough to the ground where the truck will only go about 2o or ft... lol

The worst is straight out to side in the rear it has to lift truck motor tranny front end. Much easier to roll to the side.

 

[lego1970]

As others mentioned, I've always put them down enough to put some pressure on them and try to level the truck. Some of the newer trucks have pressure switches on the outriggers so if one comes off the ground like mentioned it won't allow the bucket to travel further in certain directions. Also as mentioned
I hate shoreing up a outrigger. That makes me more nervous then anything.
As a general rule if I'm doing off road bucket truck work and position the truck in a good lean, I'll fly the bucket (without me) in the area I'll be working and rock it real good to see if the outriggers come off the ground. I was in a bucket truck that tipped over but luckily I was only about 15-20' off the ground. The ground was soft and the outrigger slipped off it's pad and sunk in the ground. It was a slow decent so no harm done, however the results would be completely different if the bucket was high or had tipped over in some other circumstance. There are deaths that happen all the time from genie lifts, bucket truck, and other ariel lifts so you have to take it serious, especially if the outriggers are coming off the ground. The engineers do a great job designing a lift that won't tip easily but they can't compensate for poor judgement or lack of common sense. Also don't let a over zealous boss kill you. I've had two tell me everything was alright. Once during the time I mentioned above and the other time the boss said he had no problems doing a line clearance job 10 years earlier. What he forgot to mention is that he was in a 55' lift and I was doing it with a 85' lift. Didn't tip it but from experience, I could tell I was pushing the limit of the machine. Won't do that again to impress a boss.

 

[beowulf343]

And How may I ask that you discovered that ?

First year on the job, my foreman at the time tipped over a skidder bucket while between the lines. Lower boom laid on the cable and phone lines. Tipped one of the poles, and the lines were stretched pretty good. Was a ##### getting it tipped back over. Looking back on it, am surprised the boom was able to support that much weight.

Hated those skidder buckets. The outrigger pads were tiny and the rear had no forgiveness when it came to tipping. You could put down huge amounts of dunnage, but more often than not you were in a swamp and nothing would support the outriggers. The front axle would float, but the rear had nothing, the smallest tip had the tires off the ground. Still hate running buckets to this day.

 

[DK_stihl]

outrigger off ground

This is some footage of our truck.

http://www.youtube.com/user/gtenterprise#p/a/u/1/Iyha-UjClL4

 

[treevet]

This is some footage of our truck.

http://www.youtube.com/user/gtenterprise#p/a/u/1/Iyha-UjClL4

Thanks for the vid DK. My worry would be taking that boom out between the front tires and the front outrigs. (esp if your chip box was empty) Where you are is right over the front rigs.

I tipped over a small crane boomed over the space between the front rigs and front tires. Wasn't anything catastrophic....piece just touched down and we then cabled out and truck went back down.

But that is a perfect pivot point for tipping over.

It is all merely common sense involved IMO.

 

[treeclimber101]

This is some footage of our truck.

http://www.youtube.com/user/gtenterprise#p/a/u/1/Iyha-UjClL4

Actually I think your truck does much better than mine at that angle , I have seen mine lift at least 8" at times and stay about 3" off the ground ...