The photo of Mr. Mike's (very nice looking) Reed is very much like the photos of every one else's pump in one respect; the lack of dunnage under the pads.

I know that pour, and thousands others just like it are accomplished every day with out any dunnage. My guess is that no more than 10% of the setups do have the specified correct dunnage to decrease the ground pressure of an outrigger to the limit charted in ACPA literature. Why is that? Is the chart wrong? Are we as operators lazy? Do the company owners enjoy the exposure to the extra liability? I don't have an answer.

So............ the ACPA writes a spec, or probably to be more correct, the CPMA writes a spec which we as an industry completely ignore. I DON'T GET IT????????

When the inevitable happens and YOU are the one that is responsible for the injury or death of another human, what then? It is then way too late to mend your ways. When the widow and children of the man you killed are awarded $7,000,000.00 and your insurance company cancels you and your company goes out of business, and then you are tried in criminal court for involuntary manslaughter, WHAT THEN? There is no 'what then' for the dead guy, and your 'what then' could be a new role as a groupie for the CRIPS................ not really as pretty a picture as the ones posted on the website.

Some of you are saying, "Get real Bob. What is your problem?" I say to you that it is NOT MY PROBLEM! It is not even my fault.

I agree that 99% of the time your pour will go just fine with just your pads. We have all seen that. That other 1% is the problem. During that 1% your exposure is 100% and your chance of a 'happily ever after' ending is @ 0.0%

Roll the dice, DO YOU FEEL LUCKY???

Bob, I really love your liberal point of view on everything. Everyone is wrong everyone is lazy,,blah blah blah. A guy is proud to have his machine up on the mans web site and you find it right to take a shot at his set up. U rip the guy from a picture, you do not know the whole story, you only have a very bad picture to look at, You sir are a ASS.  Go back to work and back door your operators, a liberal is a liberal first. Got 5% of the story and rushing to throw someone under the bus. 

Ouch!

Is there any one on here that has lost a pump over the years? The post a while back with all the pumps down was a good reminder. It does happen !

Dear putz63

I think your being way too hard on Bob and here is why. Bob has dedicated the last few years of his life to dealing with the safety issues of our industry, in fact Bob was one of the first guys to ever put standards down on paper working with the ACPA over 20 years ago or so. Bob has talked with many people who lost a love one because of poor set up, power line deaths and so on. The two most preventable causes of death on a Pumpers job is staying away from power lines and using the correct amount of dunnage.  Even at the world of concrete the manufactures did not use the legal amount of dunnage under there pumps. If osha walked around I think that every manufacture would get finned. Bob is not being a prick, Bob cares about you and the people who work around your pump. Bob has spent 100’s of hours with me working on safety issues and he did not get paid one cent for it.

This site and Bob and many others take ever opertunity to point out what should be obvious. We as an industry do not use the proper dunnage under our pumps and he is right when he says that you are criminally liable if some one gets hurt.  

Here is my personal rule.

If someone can do something that is wrong and could kill someone than I can at least point it out. We have an obligation to this industry and to the ones we love to do what we can do to be safe. I would rather be a safe ass than a dumb ass or a lazy ass or a ignorant ass.

I personally would consider Derputzmeister a friend, cool guy and I am glad he is on this site. Smart guy and knows his stuff, but I can tell from the picture that he did not use enough dunnage and he did put those men at risk. Do it long enough and someone will die, I have seen it many times and so has Bob that is why he is so passionate about it. Not because he is a jerk but because he does not want harm to come to you or those who work with you.

Don’t be hard on Bob he is the Real Pumpers best friend.

To all pump operators, most especially Mr.Mike & Putz 63.

I may well be an ass. Who isn't? We will ALL never agree about everything. To have someone get pissed off at me for pointing out a safety violation is, in my opinion, giving the wrong impression to other readers of the site. I full well expected Mr.Mike to post something about the fact that the photo in question to be a 'beauty shot' and not his typical setup. The reason I picked this individual is he strikes me as a good, careful operator and he could take the pressure of some constructive criticism. I am however surprized that a Putz 63m operator would be the one to chomp an extra hole in my butt over this. If you run a 63 then I KNOW that you are one of the people that uses dunnage every day. You, of all people know how risky this job is. It is OK to ask as much of your fellow operators as you give every day.

As for my (constantly) bringing up dunnage, ground pressure, safety straps, safety glasses goes, I make no apology. I bring it up in this forum to keep the idea in front of you all. Everyone is learning every day. I want you to learn that the safe way is the right way, and ultimatley the cheapest way to go. Every one gets paid when they are on the job. When you take an extra 10 or 15 min's to set up and move both you and the company for which you work is getting paid. As for the customer; you are doing him a favor whether he knows it or not.

Sorry some of you were upset with my post, I expected a little back and forth.

As far as being an ass?????????? perhaps, but a well meaning one. Don't get mad . . . get right.

Todd i agree we should all be SAFE. But come on, The Reed picture only is a snap shot. Sorry but I just did not think that this guy needed to be ripped in this post by some guy, To devote a whole post to blasting someone who was excited about seeing his pump on a web site, thats just silly. Also Mr.Bob rips the A.C.P.A all the time, And really i am sick of it, They do what they can, the rest is up to us as manangers and owners. I am sure the Reed was not going to flip over anytime soon!

  Sorry to come down so rude on you Bob, but you just sound like a typical office person. I mean really, I remember when the picture of the BROTHERS pump was up around some power lines, Bob and the rest of you jumped the gun and threw the guy under the bus. only having a bad picture to go of off. I am just tired of you holy-than now people, and your attitude.

These two pictures say it all.

The bad and than the good.

I am not passing judgment on anyone, i just want us all to be as safe as possible and our industry as a whole does not use enough dunnage, its a fact and nobody is pushing it more than this web site and Bob is part of that. If anyone thinks we are wrong please chime in. Lets talk about this. We can do it with out insulting each other and bring up awareness. This is a great tree of posts.

Over 75% of my typical working day is spent on the jobs with the operator. My failing would be the inability to be an 'office guy'. I care about the operators and their co-workers, and that is where I spent my time. The accident rate at XXXXXX pumping has gone WAY DOWN during my tenure. That was what I was paid for, that and educating both our operators and our customers on how to make sure everyone goes HOME at night, not to the emergency room.

As far as the ACPA goes......... It is the shining light in our industry. Do I wish it had more candle-power; hell yea! Call the ACPA and ask Jan if Im a believer. I help whenever I am asked. It surprises me that you think I am anti ACPA because I want it to do more and better. (I love my father but I do not always agree with him)

And for a manager to think that anytime a boom is deployed over an outrigger that has less than the ACPA recommended ground pressure is OK is very disturbing. That is the complete oposite of what the ACPA stands for. If you want to stand-up for the ACPA then demand compliance with their standards. If this is a problem with me, that is fine, but don't make the argument that that photo is anything other than out of compliance.

so that you know:

Hon discharge USMC 1968 - went to work for a cons't co that leased a pump/ i was the set-up, clean-up, drag hose guy - moved to Colo 1971 got a job running trailer pump/changed companies a couple years later to get a boom pump - have spent my entire working life in the concrete pumping industry.

I have:

drug hose - run pumps - turned wrenches - managed - sold - safety guy.

I have been helped by a lot of people, I think it is my duty to help others. sort of a "Pay it Forward" thing.

When I began to run a pump I would have loved to have this site to look at and learn from. I think my time I spend here is well spent......... I know it is well meant.

I enjoy your in site Bob. Thanks!! It is kind of like my old high school teacher that would write RESPONSIBILITY on the board every day. We would get mad but eventually the message sets in. Thanks again! keep up the good work! 

Bob,

I am right their with you. I belive in Dunnage 100%. A few years back I was working for XXXXX out of Keller TX. I was setting up on some ground near central Texas where the bedrock is like 4 inches under the top layer of soil. So I thought I don't need to use dunnage. I will just place outrigger pads down, and it will be fine. Well As soon as I unfoled and swung the boom around it started going down I dropped the second section into the ground and used thta to hold the weight of the boom and then went back and threw a ton of boards under the pad. Come to find out their was a big hole under that very spot that the home owner had back filled with loose dirt a year or two before. Yiu could not even tell by the looks of it. "Soil conditions are like a box of chocolates. You never know what you are going to get". It's funny until it happens to you!

Russ

You know everyone who flips a pump has that same kind of story. It's not even funny. Nobody just says, "i did not use enough dunnage" they all have a reason why the pump is on its side, i have 50 pictures of it and love it when you guys send them in to me with you story, We should tell those stories its good for everyone to hear and maybe people will start to use the right amount of dunnage.

Todd

That's kind of where I was going with that story. I was very lucky the pump did not go over. But, it scared me enough not to ever let that kind of thing happen again. My bad judgement could have cost lives or allot of property dammage. These days I always find those "extra boards" and even put those under my 4X4's for added security.

P.S This happened while I was trying to set up fast, moving from one job to another. So don't loose your judgement when you are under pressure. Always be safe!

Russ

I love the "box-0-chocolate" analogy.

Even with the book qualified, correct dunnage the box-0-choc' is still a viable rule. About a year ago...Nov or so there was a (friend of Todd's) pumper that was found 10% liable for an accident similar to your story. He HAD dunnage but the jury said he did not have the required ammount. Imagine what the % if reward would/could have been with a 'pad only' set-up.

Hey BOB,

I just noticed you said former Marine. Same here-you definitly are a man I could trust.

Go Green!

Russ

SEMPER FI

*****HOLD ON******* I think you all "Bob" are talking about "derputzmeister". He has the reed on their website not me. Get it right. Ok argue on. :) Mr mike

sorry man, I was reading a post by you and got (as usual) confused. ;~)

Mr.putz63,please tell us who you work for,or which company belongs to you ,so we all can cancel the pours that we had you set up for Monday......

Mr.bis...  Thankyou for your kind words. Ours is the company that is growing everyday, That most operators WANT to work for because we treat them like adults. We pay at the upper end and buy new equipment. Also we have had  ZERO accidents since a hose whip about a year and half ago. So, before you go running around with your I'M perfect banner on your hopper, please take the time to be safe like we are.  See you soon sunshine.

Can't we all just get along????? OK....everybody big hug.........:)

From what i can see none of the pictures on the reed website have proper dunnage. Maybe you should take up your problem with the website as a whole instead of just one person. If you really wanted to make a diffrence you would contact Reed, and other websites

just out of curiousity what is the best dunnage to use?

i dont understand how the word liberial and BOB WAS USED IN THE SAME SENTANCE(ha ha) would a liberal say put your pads any way you want just like the liberal learders say spend my tax money any ol way         liberalism is a mental disorder