Almost 50 years in ,I skipped a critical step and now im hurtin.

Finished off some sheetpile and we were cleaning up. I was just setting a short chunk of 8" HP as a waler along the top of the wall for bracing to come later. Unhooked the bridle chain, turned around waved the operator to go up. Didn't grab the hook to clear it from the HP. Hook snagged by a fur and flipped the HP off the saddles. I stepped back prepared to slide and heels dug into the soft sand beside the crane. caught a root, tipped over and hit the crane headfirst. They helicoptered me to a trauma unit, kept me knocked out for 2 days. I don't remember any of it. Fractured skull, brain swelling, doc says I'm down for a while. So here I sit.Its been just over a month now.Doctors have been very good and say im mending well. Worksafe wrote it up as an accident, sucks that I know how easily I could have prevented it. As a crew we are always careful that the bridles clear the hooks, throw a hitch around the bridles so there aren't looking for teeth to take out. Thats just how easy things can happen. Can't say a lot about how and what not to do because there's curves thrown at you ever time you go out to work. Watch each other's backs and be careful guys!!

that is rough brother. Glad you have mended up enough to tell us about it.

Are you home now? How much time in the hospital?

Glad you're still here. Its crazy how fast **** can go sideways.

Spent a week in the hospital .Trauma and intensive care was very good ,so im told. beyond that the doc say says just rest and quiet so far. Doing some physio to regain balance,which is the most noticible challenge right now.

Tugger2, Sorry to hear but at least you are mending enough to let us know. Hope the physio goes good and gets things working better!

Ohh goodness Hope you recover well I always enjoy your posts

Wow. So thankful not any worse! Take care and mend. Follow dr to the letter!

YIKES!!! Glad you're still with us!

It can all get ugly in a hurry. Glad to hear you are feeling better. Do you have enough help to keep things going while you are down?

crane operator said: It can all get ugly in a hurry. Glad to hear you are feeling better. Do you have enough help to keep things going while you are down? Click to expand... Yes things can get ugly quick,quick enough that i can only go by what the boys have told me. Definitely getting better quick in some ways ,gonna take some patience for full recovery. As to keeping things going the next job was about a months crane work on a bridge ,had to let it go to another contractor. after that things were shaping up to be quiet. Ive been running with 2 guys ,ones a retired friend happy to stand down ,the other is young aprentice and hes starting at a local mill for a while. Im just going to pull in my horns for awhile and get better . My jobs have always been the unique ones often with gaps in between. The old conventionals are getting to be a hard sell for general crane work.

I thought of you as I drove across Iowa this month. A contractor there had a bunch of American 5300 crawlers and other old models working bridge jobs all the way across I-80. I did not post about equipment on my trip but I was paying attention, and seeing all those American cranes on the job pleased me.

skyking1 said: I thought of you as I drove across Iowa this month. A contractor there had a bunch of American 5300 crawlers and other old models working bridge jobs all the way across I-80. I did not post about equipment on my trip but I was paying attention, and seeing all those American cranes on the job pleased me. Click to expand... Finding people to put in the seat is one of the problems we have up here. And getting people sold on using them on a job is the other issue. Theres some jobs no matter how nice i have the machine running ,how hard i work to do a good job, i feel like im leaving with my tail between my legs. Just cant seem to please some people unless you have spent a millions bucks on a crane first. Yet the million dollar ones arent without issues . I speak from experience of the last time i had to rent a bigger hyd conventional .

the tree guy got a really nice one down in AL, and it did the electrical freakout and he had to finish the job with his old reliable. he got it fixed and it is a nice crane, but those old levers on valves ( or frictions ) just work.

I have a 4210 American 30 ton crawler i bought in 1996 .Its old and tired now just works in the yard.Picutre is from its marine days on the water rig. Over all those years ive put some injectors and a blower shaft on the detroit,done the vertical swing shaft , and maybe 3 friction and brake changes . Thousands of piles driven and lifts made . Cant beat that.

I wish I could cross the border and work up there but the roadblocks are too great, even if i could cut the mustard.

You would have no trouble cutting the mustard. I know what you mean about road blocks . We bought a pile of floats and piling out of the harbor at Blaine years ago. Pushed the fine line of working illegally under the watchful eye of the border patrol as we rigged our tows. You guys have some pretty interesting marine business going on down there ,ive thought id like to try out there to.

A little update.Made the 6 month mark and doing much better. Got my drivers licence back the other day ,that was a great milestone getting some indepence back. Ive been lucky enough to have an old friend take me out every week ,we would go have lunch and travel the bone yards of the Island looking at old stuff from back in our day (he retired from almost 50 years of hauling logs) so we can go look at stuff our wives wouldnt tolerate. Im about 60% capacity work wise . Still get dizzy when trying roll around underneath stuff,found that out changing the oil on my pickup the other day. The other impass im suffering is lack of smell ,doctors say its gone for good.Cant smell a fuel leak , coolant ,or a hot brake. I think im going to have to be careful around the shop with no warning system for bad smells. Business wise not sure whats next ,i had things pared down to a pretty simple operation before this,not sure how much less i can do and still make it worthwhile.I wasnt quite ready for full retirement before all this.I think workers comp will pull the plug on me just because i can drive now,i dont think they realize how demanding an owner operator conventional crane business is .Hiring people to come and run the stuff dosent work anymore . Thats the short version ,at least im up and and at it a bit and doing better every day.

Good to hear that you have your license and a bit more freedom. I know you are used to doing it all, but maybe now you can get a good apprentice or two and pass down the wealth of knowledge you have gathered over the years.

That's great news that your getting around better. Time will tell on the business side, things usually work themselves out.