A Bigger Crane (laugh 'til it Hurts)

http://www.methodshop.net/tech/articles/biggercrane/index.shtml ^

[Straight Vermonter]

A Bigger Crane?

Sometimes it's just better to leave some things alone.

Date Created: 10/30/2004

Last Updated: 12/12/2004

Authors: A. PERRY

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OCT 2004 - An unfortunate parking accident in Galway, Ireland sends a small white hatchback into the cold bay waters of Roundstone, Co. What happens next is the exciting part. Makes you wonder if any of these guys ever had the right tools for the job.

1) With a submerged car in the water, Walsh's Recovery is called in to help fish it out.
2) The crane starts to lean forward
3) Oops! Make that two vehicles in the water.
4) Maybe they should have used a bigger crane.
5) After the Walsh's Recovery crane takes a drink, they decide to bring in the big guns. Michael Long's Truck & Crane Hire sends over a Palfinger crane and plucks the hatchback out of the water with ease.
6) The catch of the day.
7) Now it's time to pull the Walsh crane out of the water.
8) Oh no. The Walsh crane is starting to go down!
9) Time to hit the pubs. Hope the guy with the white car bought the first round.

In case you were wondering, no one was seriously hurt. Just a few bruised egos.

[Publius6961]

A bigger crane?

[SouthernFreebird]

Hmmmmm those cars in the back ground keep changing.

[Keith in Iowa]

The last two photos are suspect at best...

http://www.snopes.com/photos/accident/crane.asp

[Lunkhead_01]

I hate to ask if the Irish guy in the white vehicle had been drinking.

[Snagglepuss]

Denny Crane

[Vermonter]

If you look at the people in #4 and then compare them to themselves in #9, it becomes obvious this was Photoshopped.

Don''t feel bad, I posted it about a week ago and someone found it in my copy then

Merry Christmas...... and stay warm ;-}

[HuntsvilleTxVeteran]

"Hmmmmm those cars in the back ground keep changing."


Everybody knows it only takes a few seconds to find a crane and rig it to lift an object in the water. LOL

[Fiddlstix]

BTTT

[SouthernFreebird]

Yeah but the red car is gone then reappears in the last photo. Look closer.

[Paladin2]

Better setup. Looks like lifting over the side is not good. Better to go from the rear, but that would have taken mmore maneouvering to get set-up.

Also a good example of benefits of being able to do some quick math/physics on the back of an envelope.

[HuntsvilleTxVeteran]

So the guy in the red car came back from lunch.

[Elsiejay]

The tree branches are not present, then they are present . . . .?

[chronic_loser]

sorry. faked. these were on instapundit yesterday.

[Straight Vermonter]

Oh well. I got a laugh out of it anyway.

[laishly]

Notice the incongruity in the background. Observe the red car and white dingy by the red boat when the first crane is working in frames 1-4. Then notice they are gone in frames 5-8 and the red car is replaced with a black van when the second crane is working, but the red car and white dingy return in the final frame 9 when the second crane hits the drink. Who put this together? Dan Rather?

[backhoe]

I ran John's Wrecker Service here from 1991 to 1999. That type of knuckleboom crane recovery is popular in Europe ( recall Di's car being lifted? ) and they are trying to introduce them here, with some success.

You'll notice the first truck in the water has a tilt-bed body-- what we call a "rollback wrecker" here, so it is not merely a knuckleboom crane-- it's a type of wrecker.

This type of crane does not have a counterweight, so its lift is limited by the weight of the truck it's attached to, to distance the steadying legs ( outriggers ) and the lever-arm of the extended boom. Obviously, the farther you extend the arm, the less it can lift safely without tipping.

It's strictly a numbers game- you have to know the weight of your truck and make an accurate guesstimate ( not hard to do with experience ) of the load's weight. The fulcrum is the point where the outrigger contacts the ground.

The first truck, if it had outriggers, did not seem to use them, and is cattywhompus to the load. That waterlogged little car was heavier than they thought.

The second truck probably should have tried winching the first truck so it was parallel to the wall, rather than perpendicular, minimizing the need to extend the boom.

But an even bigger crane would have been better to start with.

[ThreePuttinDude]

The one constant in all the pictures, would be the blue van, and the silver car.
They seem to be in the same spot in all the pictures.

Just an observation.


Merry Christmas


TPD

[Who dat?]

The first truck, if it had outriggers, did not seem to use them, and is cattywhompus to the load.

I don’t know if the sequence of pictures has been modified or not….

But yes, we’d always try to lift fore/aft rather than over the side even with outriggers… though in our case the outriggers made it pretty stable side-to-side. Lifting over the back was considered better, even then.

[KoRn]

Mark



lol