When you hire a crane, safety should be one of your top priorities on the work site. There are many risks that poor use of a crane can cause, including falling loads and damage to people and equipment. However, another common risk of crane use is tipping. Cranes can tip over if the load isn't balanced well or if the surrounding terrain isn't firm enough to maintain a grip.
Here are 4 of the most common causes of tipping cranes and how you can prevent this risk from occurring on your work site.
Poor positioning of outriggers
Outriggers are used to keep your crane stable when operating on slippery terrain. The outriggers also come in handy when hauling heavy loads that may affect the balance of your machine. If your outriggers are poorly positioned, the crane won't have enough stability, and it might tip over under heavy loads.
You can prevent the challenge of tipping cranes by strictly adhering to your load chart. The chart is prepared by your crane manufacturer, and it stipulates maximum loads that can be hauled in different stability settings. In this way, you will know how to match the outrigger diameter with the load that you're carrying.
Extending the load too far in front
The boom of your crane is designed to support a certain maximum weight. This weight rating changes (it most often reduces) the further you extend your boom in front of the crane. This is because the crane's leverage reduces with forward-facing loads, and the crane may even tip forward under intense weight.
To prevent this risk, you should ensure that you properly balance the load on your boom according to the outrigger diameter, surrounding terrain and load weight.
Extending the load too far behind
The same way your crane can tip forward, it can also tip backwards. This happens when you extend the boom too far behind the crane. What happens is that the crane tyres (or the rear outriggers that have been set) turn into a tipping axis.
In this case, make sure that your rear-facing load is properly balanced according to manufacturer recommendations. You should also avoid straining the crane's load limit by getting too close to maximum specified weights.
Boom bounce
Your crane may also tip over due to excessive boom bounce. Boom bounce occurs when your crane's boom oscillates up and down under the tension of a load. There are boom bounce control systems that you can use to reduce the amount of bounce your crane's experience.
Reach out to a crane hire company to learn more.
Hi all! My name's Ed, and welcome to my blog. Like many children, my son loved construction vehicles when he was young. However, although he grew out of the toy trucks, he never grew out of his interest in construction. When, at 18, he announced that he was going to be attending a heavy vehicle driving course and applying for jobs in the field, I decided to see what all the fuss was about myself. As it turns out, the world of construction equipment really is interesting! Since I started looking into it, my son and I have bonded over many conversations about bulldozers and excavators. Now I'm sharing some of the things we've talked about here.