That talk with a old timer about load charts got me thinking

I was on a job last week down in Houston, setting steel for a new warehouse, and this guy who's been running cranes since the 70s comes up to me during lunch. He starts telling me how he never really trusted load charts the way they're taught now, says he always figured in a extra 10% for mental buffer and went off feel more than numbers. At first I thought he was crazy, you know, with all the safety stuff we have to follow. But then he showed me a few things about how the ground was settling different than the charts assumed, and I realized he wasn't being reckless, he just learned in a time when you had to read the whole site yourself. Made me wonder if we rely too much on the book and not enough on our own eyes these days. Has anyone else run into old timers who do stuff that seems off but somehow works?

2 comments

2 Comments

hall.nina1mo ago

My uncle ran a 50-ton P&H through the 80s and swore by tapping the ground with a steel rod before setting mats.

william_henderson1mo ago

@hall.nina smart trick, bet it saved plenty of guys from punching through a hidden void.