Showerthought: the rigger who told me to trust my gut on a 60 foot pick in Reno was right and I hate it

Wren Ross · 2026-10-16T14:50:03.657125+00:00

Three weeks ago I was setting a 4,000 pound AC unit on a roof in Reno and the rigger kept telling me the load chart said we were fine but something felt off. I walked the load up slow, felt the boom flex more than it should on a 60 foot radius, and set it right back down. Turns out we were on soft ground near a freshly dug trench and the outrigger pad was sinking about an inch an hour. We cribbed it up with 4 layers of oak and made the pick clean the next morning. Any of you ever call off a pick just on feel and have the numbers say you were wrong?

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Showerthought: the rigger who told me to trust my gut on a 60 foot pick in Reno was right and I hate it | Crane Operators - Talk Freely