Reference your article Two hook tussle (Mar99, p52), as a mobile crane driver with 26 years’ experience I would like to comment from the operator’s point of view.
It seems relevant that although it is legal in the UK to use two hooks on one crane, in Germany the hire companies seem to take the opposite point of view. I agree with Peter Oram and Dennis Eckstine that it is potentially dangerous to pull lines out of vertical. I have seen damage to a cat head when a load has been side shifted.
If it is safe to use two hooks at once, why have the manufacturers not fitted a dual read out on the safe load indicator so as to be able to see the load on both hooks? The weak link is the operator; the buck stops with him. With the increasing amount of pressure put on operators, this is one he does not need. That is why in my opinion this practice should be banned. At the end of the day, to quote my manager, “you have two hooks but one SLI”.
AJ Blanks Mobile crane driver
Quinto Crane Hire
Chelmsford,
Essex,
UK
On page 19 of your March issue you have published a photograph showing erection of a down comer pip by tandem lift using two cranes. This photograph is of a blast furnace of an integrated steel plant under advanced stage of construction by Larsen & Toubro for our clients Ispat Industries Ltd. For your information, the entire blast furnace was refurbished and erected by Larsen & Toubro, including this engineered lift.
ES Mohansunder Senior deputy general manager,
Larsen & Toubro Manapakkam,
PO Box 979,
Chennai 600 089,
India
