Watched a guy run a Grove RT on a tiny residential lot in Nashville last week

I was in Nashville visiting my cousin and we walked past this house where they were putting in a pool. The lot was maybe 30 feet wide with a power line right overhead. This operator was running a Grove RT540E like it was a toy, setting a 4 ton limestone slab maybe 6 feet from the foundation. He had maybe 2 inches of clearance on each side of the boom. I stood there for 20 minutes watching him set up his outriggers on cribbing that looked way too small for that load. Made me realize I rely too much on having wide open job sites. How do you guys practice for tight spots without actually being in one?

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allen.quinn1d ago

Looks like 2 inches of clearance on each side" - buddy that's not a job site, that's a game of Operation with an 80,000lb machine. My guess is that operator either started out in a circus or he's been doing this so long he can feel the boom clearance by the way the hydraulics groan. Truth is you don't really practice for tight spots unless you're willing to piss off your neighbors. I've seen guys run drills in empty parking lots with cones and string lines pretending it's a house foundation. But honestly the real learning happens when you screw up once and the boss makes you redo it with the jib folded. Just find a buddy with a smaller crane and a sketchy backyard, volunteer to spot for him, and watch how he handles being six inches from a fence. That'll teach you more than any simulator.