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A 30-year vet in Houston asked me why I swing the boom so fast, now I feel dumb
I was running a 60-ton on a tilt-up job in Houston last month and thought I was smooth until Ray, who's been operating since '93, told me I was swinging like I was late for lunch. He said the load was swinging past the tagline every time because I was stopping the boom too hard, so I started easing off the lever about 10 feet early and letting the momentum do the work. Cut my load sway in half and my tagline guy actually stopped cussing at me. Any of you got drills or habits that helped you smooth out your swing, or did it just come with seat time?
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anthony_wells8d ago
Man, I gotta disagree with you on this one. Easing off the lever early and letting momentum carry it is how you get a load drifting on you when the wind picks up or the guy on the tagline trips, and then you're chasing it instead of controlling it. The old timers I learned from always said the smoothness comes from your left hand and your feet, not from letting the crane do the work, meaning you feather that lever the whole way through and match your swing speed to the load, not the other way around. Ray was right that you were stopping too hard, but the fix isn't coasting, it's learning to slow down before the stop and then bring it in soft with a little counter pressure. That way the load never gets ahead of you and you're never depending on momentum to save your butt. Seat time helps for sure but bad habits get baked in just as fast, so I'd rather drill the brake timing than trust the swing.
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