Don't try this one at YOUR home....

[Gooserider]

(broken link removed to http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/article.html?Crane_wipes_out_house_in_tree_battle&in_article_id=773017&in_page_id=2) :red:

Gooserider

 

[colebrookman]

(broken link removed to http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/article.html?Crane_wipes_out_house_in_tree_battle&in_article_id=773017&in_page_id=2) :red:

Gooserider

Some days you should just stay in bed. :bug:

 

[Dune]

I hate when that happens.

 

[Corey]

"150 year old / 20 ft" - Either that is a bonsai tree on the loose or they left out a "0" Either way, kind of neat to see the old tree still had a few tricks to show!

 

[Gooserider]

"150 year old / 20 ft" - Either that is a bonsai tree on the loose or they left out a "0" Either way, kind of neat to see the old tree still had a few tricks to show!

I figured it was a genetic engineering project - cross an Oak tree and a Sumo wrestler... End up w/ something short, wide, and difficult to move....

Gooserider

 

[drdoct]

The funniest thing I can find with this picture is that on the side of the crane is..."RELIABLE". I bet that operator had to clean out his pants after that one though.

 

[johnn]

you know ,,those things come withpoundage charts and boom extension charts, along with angle of boom,,right up there in the cab,,most even have buzzers,,thats a lot of boom sticking out at that angle

 

[ta76ken]

Hey gooserider do you or did you repair televisions for a living. I have seen a logo like yours on repair tips.org

 

[littlesmokey]

What's really scary to me is the position of the truck. Hardest possible way to overload. What you figure they were doing, digging it up to transplant. Brits take their old oak trees real serious.

 

[Gooserider]

No ta76ken, I've never done TV repair, though I've done a lot of computer hardware work... However you may see my handle and Avatar in many other places, as I use "Gooserider" about 90% of the places I go on the net, and mostly the same avatar photo (which I created myself by mixing two logos and then adding the Italian flag background) - I came up with the avatar in an effort to explain the handle and discourage folks from thinking I had a fondness for unnatural acts involving poultry.... :coolsmirk:

littlesmokey, I agree, they did seem to have flipped that crane the hard way... It isn't a Brit thing though, as the article said it happened out in CA. My take is there are two possible explanations - one charitable, one not...

The non-charitable one is incompetence on the part of the crane operator - remember, you are supposed to let them CUT the tree down, not just pull it up by the roots...

The more charitable is that it was due to the tree breaking at an unplanned time / place, and putting more of a load on the boom than planned - say they had tied onto a branch figuring to just take it, and had a crotch snap and give them an entire leader they hadn't planned on... If the tree was old and partially rotted, this doesn't seem unreasonable. I know from reading the stuff over on Arboristsite that one of the big nightmares is planning a cut, sticking the saw in the tree, and discovering that the wood you were planning to use as a hinge is rotten... I know I have had the experience myself of under-estimating how rotted a tree was, starting the cut, and having it go over the wrong way when I cut the only solid wood in the trunk while doing the hinge cut...

Gooserider

 

[littlesmokey]

Just guessing again, cause I haven't worked with them for over 30 years, but a fifty ton (that's probably the minimum for the chassis) with the boom and jib fully extended can handle maybe 6,000. He had to be pre-loaded to raise the base what looks like 15-20 feet. He was blind to the lift and about 50 ft out. Take that operator and the crew chief out to the wood pile and beat them both about the head and shoulders. It's amazing no one died.

 

[Gooserider]

Just guessing again, cause I haven't worked with them for over 30 years, but a fifty ton (that's probably the minimum for the chassis) with the boom and jib fully extended can handle maybe 6,000. He had to be pre-loaded to raise the base what looks like 15-20 feet. He was blind to the lift and about 50 ft out. Take that operator and the crew chief out to the wood pile and beat them both about the head and shoulders. It's amazing no one died.

Sounds like you have more crane experience than I do ( >0 is pretty easy ) so I won't argue, I was just trying to figure out how it could have happened if not from incompetence... The times I've watched a crane take a tree down, they started at the top and took off a branch or two at a time. I figured if he had tied onto a top branch in what would have been a reasonable cut, and then had the trunk snap down near the base, it might have caused him to suddenly have far more load than he was planning on, hanging way to high in the air...

Whatever happened, I do agree, it is amazing that nobody got killed or seriously hurt...

Gooserider

 

[littlesmokey]

Just guessing again, cause I haven't worked with them for over 30 years, but a fifty ton (that's probably the minimum for the chassis) with the boom and jib fully extended can handle maybe 6,000. He had to be pre-loaded to raise the base what looks like 15-20 feet. He was blind to the lift and about 50 ft out. Take that operator and the crew chief out to the wood pile and beat them both about the head and shoulders. It's amazing no one died.

Sounds like you have more crane experience than I do ( >0 is pretty easy ) so I won't argue, I was just trying to figure out how it could have happened if not from incompetence... The times I've watched a crane take a tree down, they started at the top and took off a branch or two at a time. I figured if he had tied onto a top branch in what would have been a reasonable cut, and then had the trunk snap down near the base, it might have caused him to suddenly have far more load than he was planning on, hanging way to high in the air...

Whatever happened, I do agree, it is amazing that nobody got killed or seriously hurt...

Gooserider

You have the experience with the trees, so I guess we're even. Last biggy I worked on was rigging an historic steam locomotive at about 146,000 lbs. give or take a 5-10 tons. Four cranes, eight sets of slings and 200 ft of rail. From earth to a flat bed. I did not, repeat, did not operate one of the cranes, I was hiding out hoping it wouldn't be my rigging that broke loss.

I can see that operator in my eyes. HOLY> As it ran down both legs and filled his jeans. The boss was probably saying the same thing running for the back fence. Mind you all in slow motion.

 

[John the Painter]

Somebody should've lost their job on that one.