Unpopular opinion: Most operators don't check their swing brake adjusters often enough

I ran a Liebherr LTM 1050 for about six years before I figured out I was overlooking the swing brake adjusters. One job in St. Louis back in March I had a load start drifting mid-pick and nearly hit a parked concrete pump. That's when the old-timer foreman walked over and showed me the adjuster was two full turns loose. Now I check them every Monday morning before the first lift. Has anyone else had a close call from something that simple?

2 comments

2 Comments

ellis.victor1mo agoTop Commenter

You ever see a boom truck drop a load because of something stupid like that? My buddy runs a small rigging outfit out of Ohio, and last summer he had a 10-ton HVAC unit start swinging real slow on a hospital roof job. He thought it was wind or the taglines messing up. Turned out his swing brake adjuster was so loose you could spin it with your fingers. The brake shoes were barely grabbing the drum. He caught it just before the load smacked into a plywood enclosure full of workers. He said it scared him bad enough that he now checks those adjusters every single morning. I think a lot of guys just trust the machine and forget the little parts that wear down over time.

luna_green1mo ago

Oh man, that's the kind of thing that keeps you up at night. I've seen the same exact issue with swing brakes on older cranes where guys just assume the mechanism is fine because it's not making noise. But looseness like that creeps up so slowly you don't notice until the load starts drifting. One thing I always tell folks is to physically grab the adjuster and try to wiggle it during your pre-start checks. If there's any play at all, don't run it until you've tightened it down and checked the shoe clearance. Your buddy got lucky, but that kind of scare is a good teacher.