My rigging angle was off for 6 years until a random wind reading changed it

I've been running a 120 ton Liebherr for a while, but last month on a job near the port in Norfolk, I watched a rental operator set a load using a much steeper boom angle than I do. I always kept mine around 70 degrees because that's what my old mentor said, never thought about it. Turns out my usual angle made the pick swing way more in crosswinds, and that guy's load barely moved even with gusts at 20 knots. I pulled up the load charts after and checked the radius difference, it was 8 feet less drop at his setting, which cut my cycle time too. Now I'm second guessing every lift I've done, how long did it take you folks to really figure out your sweet spot for angles?

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the_tara21d ago

That "that's what my old mentor said" line hit home for me. I ran the same boom angle for years because the guy who trained me did it that way, and I never once pulled the charts to see what I was giving up. Then I watched a guy on a wind farm job keep his load dead still in gusts that had me chasing swing, and it bugged me so much I went home and ran the numbers. Took me about a month of small picks to stop overcorrecting and trust a steeper angle, but the cycle time alone sold me. Funny how one lift you watch somebody else do can undo a habit you never even knew you had.

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