Talking with a rigger on a site in Portland made me question my pre-lift checks

We were setting up for a tricky pick over a live rail line, and the rigger, a guy named Carl with about 30 years in, asked me a simple thing. He said, 'You ever have your oiler walk the whole boom path before you swing?' I admitted I usually just trust my view from up top. He told me about a time he found a loose grating panel right in the swing radius that nobody else saw. Now I'm thinking my visual check from the cab isn't enough. Do you guys have your ground crew do a specific walk-down for every pick, or just the complex ones?

3 comments

3 Comments

hayden_lane25d ago

Honestly sounds like overkill to me for every single lift. I mean, you're up there for a reason, you've got the best view of the whole operation from the cab. Adding another full walk down just bogs everything down, especially on simple, routine picks. Maybe it's just me, but trusting your ground spotters for the big stuff and using your own eyes seems like the right balance. If we walked the path for every pick, we'd never get anything done.

eva_thompson24d ago

Wait, you're saying you can see the whole operation from the cab? That's wild to me. There's always a blind spot, especially right under you or behind the load. I've seen guys miss a loose strap or a pothole because they thought the view was perfect. Two minutes is nothing compared to what could go wrong.

julia_anderson25d ago

Yeah, but that's how close calls happen, @hayden_lane. You can't see everything from the cab, no matter how good you think your view is. A quick walk isn't about not trusting your crew, it's about double-checking what they can't see from the ground either. It takes two minutes and it's saved my butt more than once on a "simple" pick. Skipping it to save time just isn't worth the risk.