Disagreeing with the old hands who say you can't trust the load charts on newer rigs

Amy Martin · 2026-09-23T11:05:07.004855+00:00

I keep hearing guys with 30 years in say the electronic load chart on a newer rig is just a computer that will lie to you, and that you should run 10 percent under it no matter what. That advice made sense on the mechanical gauges, but on a properly calibrated system it costs you capacity you paid for and pushes you into a longer boom or bigger crane for no reason. Last spring in Wichita I picked a 14,000 lb HVAC unit off a truck with a chart that showed I had 800 lbs of room, and the old hand on site wanted me to swap rigs just to feel safe. We did it in one pick and the chart read dead on when I checked it against the onboard scale after. The thing nobody says out loud is a chart you don't trust is a chart you haven't had calibrated, and that is on you, not the machine. Get the zero and the angle sensor checked every year and stop leaving capacity on the table. How many of you actually verify your chart against a known weight, or do you just keep taking that 10 percent haircut out of habit?

Vivisector

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Disagreeing with the old hands who say you can't trust the load charts on newer rigs | Crane Operators - Vivisector