Charlottesville with PCTree

Bridging dunnage is like leaving your dog in the car during the summer. Some people roll the windows up and leave for a couple hours on a 100 degree day, and have a black car. Some leave the windows down and come back in 5 minutes and have a white car, and when it's 100 they leave the dog at home. A little common sense goes a long way, and the blanket statement "no bridging" ignores that. Tell it to the house movers, you see the way they crib out entire homes? And they work UNDER the house! Obviously they do it right, if someone is breaking dunnage they are doing it wrong, again obviously.

I went back in this thread and looked again at the first picture of the crane's outrigger dunnage, and have to back up a bit and also chime in: that's a pretty good sized gap! And a good sized crane. 50 ton? My first thought was that he must have run out of blocks, then I saw the nearby pile, so not much excuse in this instance. My idea of leaving gaps, if any, is much less, 2 or 3 " and clearly not enough to worry about. But the times when I need to shore up very high, leaving that slight gap may make the difference in having enough to dunnage to get level before running out of outrigger travel. I was checking out the local fire departments 100' ladder truck a while back, and noticed that had similar out and down outriggers, but in addition they had a big pin they could pull so the pad would drop down (it was telescoped inside), then they put the pin back in (several holes) and THEN they hydraulically pushed it down. End result more over all travel so less dunnage needed when setting up on a slope. They didn't carry any, that didn't seem right.....
 
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Have to think some more about the telescoping outriggers....... Man would OSHA eat you alive if you modified your outriggers and they then failed!!
 
The literature I read was gaps shouldn't be more the 1/2 the width of the dunnage. This comes from 20 years in the fire department so bear with the explanation. The ladder trucks shouldn't be telescoping off the pin on the box outriggers. They are designed for max travel. Pushing off the pin won't give extra travel. The sheer strength of the pin is much less than the force or potential force exerted by downward pressure if a huge ladder truck especially if the have a 110' steel ladder plus a basket on the tip. There is no dunnage just a jack plate. These trucks do not work off paved surfaces. They are also rated for a small grade change. 10% I believe and if threats the case it's always over the center of the truck. No booming down grade or off the side at a 90 angle. Too much twist in a 37 foot truck frame. You set uphill first then the downhill side and level out with the down hill outrigger. If you can't do it with the length of outrigger fully extended then it's a no go and you use ground ladders or other methods. Hope that makes sense. I've taught aerial operator for a long time and can either answer or find the answer to any questions you might have about fd ladders. Those pins are only a secondary lock for a catastrophic failure. When you're set and pin you shouldn't lower weight on the pins. It needs to rest on hydraulic pressure not steel pins. Hope that makes sense.
 
Interesting Steve! Our local FF'ers are real proud of their ladder truck, rightfully so, a neat piece of machinery.

pctree; Agreed, OSHA would rightfully have a case against anyone making changes to a certified cranes outrigger system.

I am still getting used to the National's outriggers, they ride lower when going down the highway then the Manitex (not as good "off road") but the good thing is I seem to have more overall travel. Or at least I can raise it higher before running out of travel, as they start nearer to the ground.
 
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