Grove AT635E

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  • #326
OK so this is what I did this weekend, followed Eds advise and put racks on the back for mats and cribbing. Im pretty happy with it 1.jpg
 
Looks good Paul. One inch thick or so aluminium plates might be something that you would find useful for your cribbing system.
 
That'll be a timesaver for sho.

Nice that your crane is out of the weather and you have a bunch of woods!
 
woodworkingboy said:
Looks good Paul. One inch thick or so aluminium plates might be something that you would find useful for your cribbing system.
Click to expand...

1" aluminium? Jeez, why not have the boom gold plated while your at it? Cranes round here use high density plastic, still not cheap but around a tenth of the price.
 
Tenth of the price, no way, at least in the states, unless maybe talking about the Chinese cheapos that they practically pay you to use. Thick aluminum plate does tend to be expensive, but the good plastic or composite pads cost as well. If you price it around you can stumble on some cheap aluminum stock. One outfit on the west coast is real cheap, but then there would be shipping. I think plate has applications where the plastic pads are less suitable, imo. Different kinds of aluminium plate affects price, and the stuff that machines well or comes looking pretty isn't needed. Might not go for 1", 3/4 or 7/8 would suffice, I believe. I've seen the plastic pads break, though deterioration from age may have been a factor. so far never metal. Weight is a downside,
 
Maybe not a tenth of the price, but certainly more expensive here. I bought plastic ones for my knuckle boom crane 5 years ago and they dont really show any signs of wear yet.
 
More expensive for sure, Peter. One thing on the plate, say if you wanted a 24" square pad, you don't necessarily have to have one plate the full size, two 12"x24" plates used together will work for a lot of instances. I think cheaper to purchase that way and also easier to find remnants being sold. Nice to have the larger plate too if the budget allows. Larger uncut plates is when the price shoots up, it seems, unless they are selling by weight.
 
Not Paul's crane but real close......minus one section of boom. Super tight set up on 1/2 outriggers. Not quite enough tip hieght since could not get jib on. Dead oak covered in hypoxylon canker....very brittle . Managed to pull it off without damage.......except for dent in crane....doh! Three inch limb just popped from the hypoxylon . Next time we will armor crane with mats....
Most pics were blind since tree grew up through stand of hemlock that was not being removed

I know you LOVE that AT crane Paul!!!! We were talking about having one more section of stick like your would have been way safer. Ain't no boom truck getting into that driveway....
image.jpg image.jpg image.jpg image.jpg image.jpg
 
I like how tight that style crane can get into. I wish we had such a beast around here on some jobs.
Although, most our issues with getting a crane in is more how much cribbing would be needed or would a bridge support the dang thing crossing a creek. I have one place that a load of chips and the mini attached to my truck is encroaching the limit of one such.
 
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  • #337
Y 1.jpg esterdays job, we were actually taking the dead oak down to the left of the picture, had to remove that 1 locust branch so I could boom under the top of the locust and back to the oak. Everything went to plan, setup to leaving in 3 hours, last 10' log was 2200 we were good for 2900.
 
Man that looks more and more like a rough terrain crane than an all terrain! It's gotta be nice how small of an area you can get it in.


Are you doing more operating or climbing these days?
 
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  • #339
I am actually pretty much just running the crane these days and am really enjoying it. I have just hired a new climber for 3 days a week so don't really need to climb much these days and Im finding I really don't miss it that much. If we have a big tree we cant get the crane to I will do those. Robby is pretty proficient at crane removals as I just fly him around but he really lacks at conventional climbing.

We can do so much work now I need to figure out how to get more big removals , just signed up for a state program that lets us know if jobs are going out for bid and I really need to update our website with videos of all the stuff in action...

Im putting a small window unit AC in the operator cab so this should be my most CHILL summer ever:lol:
 
Dang man, super cool. Wish there were 53 weeks In a year so I could take one to work with ya'll. Cox Tree RULES
 
2200 on 2900 capacity seems pretty tight to me but I only get the rare crane job. I know you know your shit Paul and I'm sure it's different if you're doing it day in and day out. Crazy looking machine and jobs. I'm jealous, I'd love to have a crane.
 
That is a beauty of a machine, Paul...would make a man money hand over fist here, I think.

I'm glad I went and got old and retired before I caught the crane owner/operator bug from this thread...might have made me do something dumb, had I been a younger fellow :D.
 
Should be a safety margin beyond the 2900 but I still cheat light as well Squish. Easier to pick in 2 pieces than stand a crane back up!
 
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  • #346
Squish the 2200 log was the but log so if it was too heavy we could have just set it down. I believe there is a 40 percent margin built in to the max load too. Fwiw when working with my old crane guy we regularly exceeded the limit and had the buzzer going off. Since I'm new to this I try to run at 50 percent
 
Have been on crane jobs where the lifting weight of the log exceeded the safe capacity. When the location allows, it generally gets cut with a low Humboldt type face so that it can slide off the stump and quickly rest on the ground standing. Then the log can get bounced in close enough to where an acceptable safe lift capacity exists. I'm not an operator, so I don't know if bouncing a log in towards the crane is a difficult maneuver or not, but it does work very well. Used it many times, and the crane ops seem quite comfortable with it.
 
Yeah, iv done that at 25 metre radius with a 6.5 ton butt log, cut above the root flare at around 1.5 metres......

Made for a very pale and sweaty palmed crane op.
 
It's all good, I don't do a ton of crane work, obviously different safety factors are in play than what I'm used to fingering out.
 
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