Securement Question

I'm not trying to be a know it all. My fleet manager doesn't know jack about usdot regs so my company made me do all the researching to make sure we were compliant. I know those articles top to bottom when it comes to flatbed and general and combination regulations. Unfortunately I'm very busy and can't act as fleet manager all the time so this place let's a lot of stuff slip thru the cracks. My #### is tight though. I worry about the other drivers here. We had one guy get sent out in a out of service truck and didn't know it. Management here rocks lol!

 

I was kidding. It was a good post and sounds like you know your stuff.

 

I was able to detect your humor

 

How come the hydraulics are sufficient to hold down a crane boom but not an excavator boom? I've never read anywhere that hydraulics where sufficient to secure the boom. I do know on our taxi cranes we did always tie off the block/ball to the front and no one bothered us, I have had them complain about a hydro on a lowboy because I didn't have the boom tied off. The regs say they must be lowered secured to the vehicle. For years we never secured excavator booms, I do now out of habit.

 

It has to do with the way it's secured. Hooking your over haul ball or block to the front or rear of the crane simply keeps the ball or block from causing damge. There is also a boom support on the crane when it is in tow(this is the key) unless it's a lattice boom large crane. Then it's all disassembled before travel The reason you have to chain down a bucket is because there is more movement in the excavator boom than the crane boom during travel. We Don't chain down the crane booms, right? There is more unsupported length from the excavator bucket to the point where the hydraulic cylinder attaches to the boom. Not to mention another boom cylinder to make it articulate. The crane boom has a rest to support what would otherwise be "unsupported" boom length

 

I understand to some extent, I'm bot sure an excavator boom resting on the deck moves that much if at all. However none of this is written law. Thew law says lower and secured to the vehicle

 

It does say that no doubt. I guess now I'm confused why you asked the question. I explained reasoning for chaining down an excavator bucket. Not the law. The dot cops will tell you an excavator isn't secure if you don't secure the bucket. I gave you the reasoning. I said in previous post "The usdot states all moving parts must be secured by mechanical restraint if the moving parts cannot be secured by the device itself." That is fact. For whatever reason or unwritten law or addendum if you can find one, an excavator bucket/boom can not be secured by the machine itself according to almost any dot inspector. That's all. It would change if construction equipment company's made a cradle for the boom and a securing device integrated into the machine.

 

I'm not being a jerk or arguing for the sake of arguing just a friendly conversation. The reason to chain down an excavator bucket is securing it from movement, but mostly because some bureaucrat that knows nothing about moving equipment said it needs to be.. An excavator bucket, stick, or boom barely moves if at all during transit. A crane boom is far more sensitive and does move in transit even in the saddle.

 

I agree with you 100%. Now I'm more confused hahaha. I'm not trying to be a jerk as well. I think the integrity of conversations gets lost in text.

 

I agree, your first post said "The usdot states all moving parts must be secured by mechanical restraint if the moving parts cannot be secured by the device itself" I would like to see where it says that.