Where is everyone #5

Time to put those extra horse to work!!

 

Oh and how ya feeling?? Better I hope.

 

How do u get into runnning a crane like that ? You have to start as the rig man and work your way up? I always wondered. Running a crane looks like a gravy gig. But im only looking at it from outsiders view of course

 

I imagine it would be a very boring job.

 

That’s where all that crap belongs!

 

I dont know. Its always fascinated me, looking at it from the outside.

 

I started as a driver. Dragging around counter weights, jibs and luffers. Then i was allowed to do some heavy haul and over size. One day the boss asked if I wanted to start running the boom truck and just kept moving up from there. We were not union. The union has schools and apprenticeship programs. In the union you’d be an operating engineer and can learn everything from a 5 ton carry deck on up to the biggest crawlers and Mobil cranes. Some guys also run excavators-and dozers and the like. I was offered a job running tower cranes but never had any desire to be more than 10’ off the ground! @Oscar the KW sometimes it can be boring especially on jobs where you take guys up in manbaskets to work on cell phone towers. But most of the jobs I went on were pretty fun. We had all mobile cranes though so we moved a lot. Also since we weren’t union one day I’d be an operator the next day I’d be a driver sometimes I’d signal and some days I would rig or be an oiler. It was always something different. Heck some days I’d spend all day in a wash bay cleaning cranes and trucks. But it all payed the same, and it was never boring!

 

And our company had top notch equipment. You can Google Digging and Rigging inc in Maryland if you want to see more. I have a lot of pics but don’t want to flood the thread.
Here’s the boom truck I started in... the international in the middle was the truck I drove on the daily and the one on the left was my brothers truck I stole whenever I could...and lastly that’s me being goofy down below on a...”questionable setup...

 

Great info ! If this trucking thing dont work out for me. I think working for a crane outfit would be my next adventure

 

$30k in labor, plus down-time....if it was me, I would be less afraid of a new(er) truck/engine combo just looking at the bottom line.