Old crane hand named Ray told me to stop choking up on the boom controls

I was on a job in Tacoma last spring moving some HVAC units onto a rooftop. Ray, this guy who's been running cranes since the 70s, kept yelling at me to lighten my grip on the levers. I thought he was just being a grump but after about an hour I tried it and the swing was way smoother. Has anyone else had an old timer change how you handle the controls?

3 comments

3 Comments

foster.wade1d ago

Started gripping them bad boys like I was holding a baby bird and my boom sway dialed way the hell back. One old timer in Seattle told me the same thing, said I was fighting the hydraulics instead of letting the machine do its job. Felt weird at first not having a death grip on those levers but man it made a huge difference in my pick accuracy. Now I barely hold the controls, just kinda guide em with my fingertips. That old school wisdom really does stick with you once you try it out.

taylorcarr15h ago

Yeah the baby bird grip is a game changer. I had the same problem for years, white knuckling the controls, and my loads were all over the place. An old guy in Portland told me to rest my wrists on the armrests and just use my fingertips for fine control. Took a solid week to unlearn the death grip but once I did my cycle times actually went down cause I wasnt fighting the machine. The hydraulics really do smooth out when you stop squeezing them to death.

west.alice1d ago

My buddy Dave on a Boston job last fall said the same thing and his crane stopped bouncing like a trampoline.