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Just found out that most crane operators check their brakes wrong
I was reading through a safety bulletin from OSHA last week and it said something like 1 in 3 crane swing brake tests are done with the load still partially suspended. That blew my mind. I’ve been doing this trade for 7 years and I always thought you could just tap the brake pedal and listen for a click. Turns out you’re supposed to fully lower the load, set it on the ground, then test the brake engagement with nothing hanging. I asked my foreman about it and he just shrugged and said that’s how everyone does it. Has anyone else here actually been formally trained on how to do a proper brake test or do you just go by feel like most guys I know?
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brian_ramirez19d ago
Yeah Cora that video sounds insane. I always braked by ear till now.
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hart.cora19d ago
Whoa, that's wild, I had no idea. I've been doing crane work for about as long as you and I always just did the tap and listen thing too. A few years back I got sent to a formal safety class and they made us actually do the full ground test, and it felt so wrong at first because everyone I knew just did it the other way. But they showed us this video where a brake failed because there was still a little tension on the cable, and the whole load swung like a pendulum. Now I always set it down, even if it takes an extra minute.
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james_singh719d ago
@brian_ramirez that video's on YouTube. Cora it's actually cable tension not the brake itself that's the issue.
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