Austin Western 410 SR crane side wheel on shipper and extension.

I bought a 1971 Austin Western 410 SR crane last year and it did not come with any operating manuals etc. I have been gathering manuals and literature that definitely helps but there are unique options not covered in the materials I have. One of those unique features is a Pulley wheel mounted on the side of the Shipper. It has about 30 ft of 5/16 “ cable with an eyelet and appears to be a motor in the housing that is connected to the wheel. Does any one know what this would be used for ? Also it has a boom extension and it would be great if someone could walk me through the steps of how to get that In place. Scratching my head on how the main cable makes the transition from the main boom head point out and onto the extension. Please see the attached photos. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

That's a tagline winder to keep things like clam buckets from spinning.

This takes me back a long long time ago so a little old age fog may come into play. The army had the 410 and 220, both had an extension that was pushed out and pinned using the hydraulic extension. The reverse procedure for retracting it. The fly jib wasn't carried on the boom and had to be fitted separately. We roaded the 410 on a job we were doing and on a long straight down hill was good for 60mph. The brakes on that thing were terrible.

Note: Looks like your wedge socket connection is improper at the end of the rope connected to the hook.

cranesafety said: Note: Looks like your wedge socket connection is improper at the end of the rope connected to the hook. Click to expand... Good spotting. Wonder how they saddle a horse.

Jared, Thanks for the quick response on the tagline winder. Now just got to find the controls for the motor. The previous owners painted the whole crane and even the interior of the cab and covered over all the instrument control tags. I had to scrape the paint off the idiot lights to see what they indicated. Guess they ran out of masking tape. Do you know anything about getting the red boom extension swung out and engaged . Looks like the two cables on the side get pinned into the boom head. One manual said that the crane came with a detachable long bar to assist with putting the extension in place?

cranesafety said: Note: Looks like your wedge socket connection is improper at the end of the rope connected to the hook. Click to expand... The hook setup is definitely not original. Unfortunately was like that when I purchased the crane. Thanks for pointing that out.

Tones said: This takes me back a long long time ago so a little old age fog may come into play. The army had the 410 and 220, both had an extension that was pushed out and pinned using the hydraulic extension. The reverse procedure for retracting it. The fly jib wasn't carried on the boom and had to be fitted separately. We roaded the 410 on a job we were doing and on a long straight down hill was good for 60mph. The brakes on that thing were terrible. Click to expand... Ha Ha! I hear you on the brakes. I drove the thing up a mountain road 3 miles at 8-10 % grade in some spots. Holly crap . Definitely not ever bringing it off the mountain with those brakes. The Detroit Diesel was mad at me cresting some of those hills but made it. Thanks for the information on the extension. Might be more apparent once I start the procedure.

Yeah, the ones we had were manual over torque converter so no retarding from the engine. The manual extension I mentioned could be totally removed and the sheeve block would then be fitted to the hydraulic extension

JakeBW said: Jared, Thanks for the quick response on the tagline winder. Now just got to find the controls for the motor. Click to expand... I don't know about a motor. The one I've been around a little bit was a spring wound inside the tube. The name Tag-o-Matic sticks in my head. @Tugger2 likely knows more about it.

The red jib extension should have a keeper pin that gets installed in the notched end that is on the big pins on the boom head. Once those keeper pins are in you should be able to boom up far enough to release a storage pin on the bottom of the jib extention allowing it to swing out and around 180 degrees as you boom back down. The long bar that is missing I would assume helps to get it swung around to its final position so that the cables can be reattached. It sometimes just works to boom back down to like -5 degrees and let the jib tip sheave roll out and around on the ground. Sometimes it's necessary to get a skid loader/forklift to help lift it into position. It sometimes just depends on where you're set up and the terrain around you. The turnbuckles on the cable have to be unpinned from extention and pinned to the top holes on the main boom head. Then it looks like the hook has to be removed from the cable so it can be pulled out of the lower main boom sheave and run out around the jib extension sheave. As it's been mentioned the cable ball connection is wrong. Assuming the wedge socket is the correct size for the cable, the cable clamps are completely unnecessary on the live side of the cable. A quick Google search should be able to show you the correct way. One thing to remember when you go to stow the jib extention is to make sure to return all of the storage pins and then remove the keeper pins in the boom head when its stowed so you don't damage it when you go to extend your main boom again. This style of A-frame jib can also be dangerous if you run the ball up into the jib it can flip the jib over backwards if you're boomed up high enough.

Sorry for the crappy picture edits. I was just trying to give a little bit of a visual of what I was trying to type.

Here is the basics of a wedge socket connection. Note that any of the pictures that look like the live line and dead end are clamped together they are actually using the piggy back principle with two saddles so it doesn't actually clamp the live line.

This is great information. From your instructions it’s starting to make some sense. The mark ups on the photos are helpful. Thanks for taking the time to walk me through the procedure and line me out on the correct way to fix the hook block. If I had to replace this block component with something closer to the original setup, is there a model/ vendor you would recommend?

JaredV said: I don't know about a motor. The one I've been around a little bit was a spring wound inside the tube. The name Tag-o-Matic sticks in my head. @Tugger2 likely knows more about it. Click to expand... I’ll try to pull the cable out and see if it has a spring winding mechanism. Thanks for the info.

To be honest I've never had to buy a block or ball they've always just came with my cranes and boom trucks. I spend time on cranenetwork.com searching the for sales but I see places like Exact crane sell a lot of new overall balls and hook blocks. You might be able to find a used something on cranenetwork.com as well. Another place you can find new hardware is a place like lifting.com. You typically need some weight on your hook for the winch to be able to let line out properly, which is the reason for an overhaul ball. Also I don't know what size cable you have or what it's rated for but I would guess it be in the 6,000lb to 8,000lb capacity so if you want to lift over that you would need a hook block of some type to double up you're line. I'm not real familiar with a Austin western but from a Google search I see a lot of them for sale online have what is known as a dead section of boom and those don't seem to have the jib extention. A dead section or power pin as Grove calls it is just a section of boom that isn't able to be telescoped while in use. Instead it's has a series of pins that have to be removed and installed to extend it into position. That's why a lot of the pictures you see online it looks like one section of boom is stuck out. It's hard to tell from your pictures but I don't think yours has that third boom section.

Thanks for the website info. I’m mostly lifting timbers for my saw mill but Would like to be able to move heavier stuff so I’ll search around and see if I can find a hook block. The cable is close 5/8”. My boom has one telescoping section. No pins to pull. Here is another picture with the boom extended.

Ex-military machine maybe? I've heard one or another of the service branches would spec only one telescoping section.

The outriggers on the ones we had were pretty much ornamental, couldn't lift the machine to level and would be off the ground when the load came off the hook. So be CAREFUL.

JaredV said: Ex-military machine maybe? I've heard one or another of the service branches would spec only one telescoping section. Click to expand... It does appear to have green paint under the yellow so you might be right.