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Tried a lattice boom vs a hydraulic truck crane for a tight site in Nashville
Last month I had to set steel in this cramped lot near Music Row where a hydraulic truck crane just couldn't fit without blocking the whole road. I switched to a lattice boom crawler and it made all the difference - it set up in half the footprint and had way better reach over the building next door. The hydraulic felt easier to run but the lattice boom actually got the job done without having to close the street. Has anyone else found themselves stuck between the two on a tight urban job?
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elliot_roberts17d ago
Wait have you tried running a lattice with just a partial counterweight setup for those super tight spots? I did a job near downtown Atlanta where we had maybe 3 feet of clearance on each side of the crane and pulling off the back counterweight let us squeeze in next to a parking deck. The truck crane just wouldn't have worked there at all without taking up two lanes of traffic. Yeah the lattice takes longer to rig up but once it's set you can practically pivot in place and still hit your picks. Totally worth the extra setup time for those urban nightmare sites.
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ward.anna17d ago
Elliot_roberts you nailed it with the partial counterweight trick. I did a similar job in a tight spot near downtown St. Louis where we had maybe 4 feet of room on one side and a brick wall on the other. Pulling off some of the back counterweight let us slide the lattice boom in like a glove, while the hydraulic truck crane we had on standby would have needed the whole street closed for hours. The setup time is a pain but once you have it leveled out you can swing to your picks without ever worrying about outriggers hitting parked cars or a curb. Running the lattice feels like more work upfront but it's a lifesaver when your site manager is breathing down your neck about traffic flow.
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Man I gotta say I'm sitting here reading this like... is it really that tight? I've worked plenty of urban jobs and yeah you get some close calls but closing the whole street for a hydraulic truck crane sounds a little dramatic. We did a job near the Nashville fairgrounds last year with a 90 ton hydraulic and we had maybe 5 feet to the curb on one side. Ran the outriggers tight against the sidewalk, put some plywood down and flagged off one lane for maybe 45 minutes total. The lattice boom guys I talked to said their setup took almost 3 hours just to get the boom assembled and the counterweight on. For a one day pick that's a lot of time burned. I dunno maybe I just get lucky with my sites but I feel like people talk up the lattice boom like it's some secret weapon when really it's just old tech that has a place.
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