Stopped by a job site in Toledo last week and something felt off about the outrigger setup

I was driving through Toledo dropping off some equipment and saw a crew setting up a 50 ton Grove on a residential street. The outrigger pads looked like they were sitting on old plywood with some kind of grass underneath. I pulled over to chat with the operator, turns out he was a new guy just filling in. The ground was soft from rain the night before, you could see the pad starting to sink on the passenger side about a half inch already. I told him to call for cribbing mats or at least some wider steel plates before he lifted anything. He brushed it off saying it was just a quick pick for an HVAC unit on a roof. Has anyone else run into operators skipping proper ground prep on smaller jobs like this?

2 comments

2 Comments

black.margaret17d ago

That half inch sink was already telling him the whole story. Seen too many guys think "it's just a quick pick" means they can skip the basics. A 50 ton crane with a load on it will punch through soft ground fast, no matter how small the job. Took a 30 ton crane over in Columbus a few years back because of that same attitude, operator got lucky nobody was standing near the outrigger when it went. They had to bring in a bigger crane just to lift the first one out, cost the company a fortune in downtime and repairs.

sandra71517d ago

That Columbus job cost more than my first house.