The truss being lifted in the pic about a week ago weighed 142 pounds, which is much lighter than the lifting capacity of the truck. the specified limit of the truck is 376 pounds which is much lighter than the truss.The truss was tied off in two places using saftey pins. I'm positive that the pipe full of concrete weighs much more than one truss.You guys need to get a life instead of bashing people for what you think is a wrong. Any experienced operator could have done the math but i guess there's not many of those around. Get a life people!!!

sounds as though you are the unexperienced one, I do not care what it weighed its a concrete pump not a crane I am pretty sure if thats what you wannabe you might find you a job doing so, and we do have lives its called concrete pumping safety something undoubtebly you know nothing about. Read your op manual ,you can read hopefully, it clearly states nothing is to be lifted except the length hose specified and if you didnt wanna get ripped dont put your stupid ass pics up.what a dumbass.PUMP OFF!

Grass Hopper. Give us a couple more weeks and we will have some very good info for you. Please never lift anything with your boom. If the manufacture sees your pictures you will void your warranty for sure.

 There was some schwing 24/4 and 16/3 ( Think they where called vario or something) about in europe where they mounted a winch/crane on the boom for lifting the pipe racks on and off the truck, have seen some on imported pumps in the uk.

There are a 101 diferent things you could do with a  placing boom but pumping concrete is what it was designed for, should you ever have an accident gfb , then if your not usin it for its  purpose then you'd better have very deep pockets, or at worst, enjoy prison food!  Its a bit like drivin your truck down the highway at 80 mph- yes its capable and so are you  but theres always the other guy.......

The weight isn't the concern. Too many what if's and what could happen's to be trying this. Not just from a safety point but from an insurance and proper liscencing aspect as well. I know you were trying to help and to also keep busy but, you stuck your neck in a noose and if the wrong people find out, then the door below your feet could get opened and nobody may be there to cut the rope.

good luck

You are right slinger, more right than you know or more right than grass hopper knows that is for sure. I am even seeing quotes from pumpers that list the cost of lifting stuff with their boom. That is just crazy and it will come back to bite them.

There was one piece of equipment made for this it was a Versa-Placer it pumped concrete and was a crane plus a man basket but no one makes them anymore.

Last time i checked , roof truss wasent listed in the op manual !! Maybe thats because you cant pump concrete through it!!

Seriously how much did you make from that job?? I really hope it was worth it ..

Your the guy who has the fatal accedent , then asks "WHY ME???" and then spews out the shit like "it wasnt my falt" .. good luck to you , you have no respect for yourself or more imporantly the people around you , people like you make me sick, If its that light why not lift it by hand?? its a piss ant roof truss ffs .............  

grass hopper, i know you think we are all jerks but safety matters. As i look back over my life i have done some crazy stuff and felt it was safe or at least safe enough. As time and wisdom is added to my life I realize how stupid these things were. My hope is that you can learn from the wisdom that is shared on this web site. Nobody likes to hear they are wrong, I understand that. I hope you at least reconsider using your boom as a crane.

yep,me too.

you can't use your boom as a crane, or can you? ...you may not use a screwdriver as a prybar or a chisel, you may not open your beer bottle with a lighter, there are many rules big or small. some are wrong but most of them are right. how do we get all those rules and why are they made.I guess the reason is that there are people taking to much risk or are not busy with their work and make mistakes. so then we decide to make a rule for that matter. not for the reason that we all were doing something wrong, it was just because someone wasn't paying attention. please don't get me wrong, safety is for me the most important thing. all I meant to say is that when someone is calculating the risks and know what he is doing he got my blessing. Like my old man said: as long as you know there is danger, danger is gone

Grass Hopper, rather than take any crap from all of us here, why not call the manufacturer of the pump and ask if its OK to use the boom as a crane if the weight of the load to be hoisted is less than the placarded weight limit on the tip section. If the manufacturer gives you a thumbs up, then we all look real stupid and pump owners have found a new revenue stream. If you get a thumbs down, you look real....well, you know. IOW, prove all the naysayers here wrong with engineering facts from the mfgr. Let us know what you find out. Inquiring minds want to know.

If the owner of the pump I operate told me to lift something,I would reply "Where da slings"

Where da load chart?

The top here says there are 3110 people signed up for this website. If you could get people to honestly answer who would have done it and who wouldnt, even with a weight of 142lbs, How many would?  I wonder what the true answer would be. Would you do it? Most say no, the ones that would say nothing, but no one wants to say they would and go against the grain on here

BE aware of those around you...watching.  The different trades - rookie foreman etc...  At the next jobsite, they'll need a generator lifted and say: "hey, at our last job, a very experienced operator was lifting trusses - so this generator should be a snap"

There's always some little project-manager-in-training that will dupe some inexperienced pump operator into doing something stupid...all because he saw it done on another job he was on.  Even though the truss was only 124lbs and all precautions were taken - it won't matter.  He just sees the pump lifting something....something that could save him some time waiting for the real crane.

My favorite is when the placers get a vibrator stuck in the wall and suggest chaining the motor to the end of the boom to try and pull out... (have actually had this request several times, does this mean that someone out there is actually doing it?)

I have pulled on 2 vibrators, but with the second last section.  Saved the motors, but the whip and heads are cast into structures.  LOL!!  I told them both times what would happen. 

I've been asked to lift power trowels too, no sir, no can do.  It's a concrete pump, that's pretty much all it does, there ain't a machine out there that does it better.  It makes a damn poor snow plow too, BTW.

Want your dentist to take out your gall bladder?  Whaddayamean, NO?  Why not, they're both doctors?

In the first post grass hopper states that the pipe full of concrete weighs much more than the truss which weighed 142lbs. There's no doubt about that, but the weight of the pipe is spread along the entire length of the boom, not hanging from one point. (or even two for that matter) Also when you suspend something from the end of the boom, be it with rope, sling, cable, or even clamped on properly, no matter how good you are you will get some side to side swinging action. Thats why the pump manufacturers specify only a certain length of hose to be suspended from the tip. The boom isn't designed to withstand as much lateral force as a crane.

and how many of us of had a stupidly long tremmie or 2 to 4 rubbers hanging off the end of the boom when it only states a single 5" pipe 4 metres long.

cretepumper2

 well said.

I'm not a professional boom pumper like most of you but a good friend that was long ago say not to hang anything other than the tip hose off your last section that means no reducers like 5 to 4 and then the rubber hose, that also would mean air cuff's its not designed for anything you can think of.

big ed no disrespect but reducers and a specific approvrd length hose is an acceptable practice , there is alot of things I've done that I wasnt supposed to do , my biggest problem is advertising this as if hes proud of it, its the same as you pumpin sand and water yeah you can make it happen but  what consequences will your equipment suffer down the road yours mostly mechanical bad for you not so dangerous on the other guys what hes doing will have consequences down the road ones that may just get someone hurt maybe maybe not but why take that chance ?

pugd2 I agreed a pump is a pump nothing more,and should be used as writen.

How is pulling vibrators out of the wall better than lifting trusses? Do you know how many pounds of force it took to break said vibrator? I would guess not, but I'm no engineer!

Squirtsoutmud,

I agree with you on that one. BOTH are wrong.The day someone shows me the sheet that you can lift anything but a hose, I will keep pumping the way I am. Safe and not lifting shit heavier then the hose I'm soppose to use.

biged,

None of us are professional at this. We are all concrete pump operator learning everyday. Some have been doing it longer then others but still learning.Some know more then others but still learning.Just do what is right by the book and common since,And listen to all but do as others.Just be smart.You will know what is right or wrong.

Just my thought

Ruck

I didn't mean to endorse the practice of pulling vibrators.  With the results I had, in essence, you might as well grab the sawzall right away, and either cut the form where it's jammed, or cut the vibrator shaft.  I didn't pull from the tip section, it was the 3rd of 4 on a Schwing 36.  The third was vertical also - folded the 4th.

I don't know what the pull was, but it sure didn't take much to turn the construction of the vibrator shaft into spaghetti.  3 big guys couldn't do anything with it, so I'm guessing it would have been more than 1000 lbs of pull, and likely less than 10,000.  Anybody know what the rating of a vibrator shaft is?   LOL

The boom didn't drop much as I put tension on, not like filling the pipe system with mud. 

What happened was, the vibe man was pushing it down to the bottom of the forms instead of letting gravity take it.  Pushing will usually steer the vibrator head into trouble.

I cant belive this topic is still going!!!!!!!

Every op man ive ever seen says " The concrete placing boom must NEVER be used as a crane"

That means pulling vibrators, lifting truss, lifting choppers and all kinds of other shit!

Do you guys really think were setting a good example to people who come here looking for good advise?? 

1 four meter hose hanging off the boom is the limit!

We all know it , so why is everyone talking about all this other shit?

ANYONE WHO IS LOOKING FOR GOOD SAFE ADVISE PLEASE DONT LOOK AT THIS THRED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Drew, dont act like your Mr. perfect! im sure you have lifted 2 hoses.

I know lifting things with the tip other than your discharge hose is wrong, but when I looked at the original post all I could think of is " what if a sling broke or you bumped the wall or even a gust of wind came up? " Bottom line is if something went wrong (and it might not even have anything to do with the pump) and somebody got baddly hurt there would be an investigation and the first thing they would ask for is your crane certification and proper liscencing.

And there you have it, a lawsiut so large that I wouldn't even want to think of the outcome. For that operator, his company and those involved, these people would be paying for the rest of their lives and working for free ( if anyone could afford to hire him ). I know the lifting with your boom is a bad thing but there is a much larger picture here at least in my mind, but hey that is just me.

The reason people are talking about it is because things like this happen!, even if you have never seen it or heard about it, so dont go on making it look like its so unbelievebly crazy, wake up!! its been going on for years, and i bet at least half the operators out there have done things they re not supposed to, dont be to quick to judge, yes those things are wrong, so we teach people not to do them and explain why.  If you look at the reactions of most of the people here, safety seems to rule supreme, so when a new guy reads the reactions i say he'll think twice and make the right decision. Learn from your mistakes, and the mistakes of others and strive to be the best operator you can be, later

Yawn,a much better topic

Mmm... beer

nah, try this, it even comes in a gasoline can

Sorry, but it is the boom hose full of concrete that weighs  376lbs.  So if your boom is in close ar flat out there is still 376lbs. of weight in that 5" hose. Now that being said asking your manufacturer will get you a solid "no" answer.  However get a service tech or engineer alone and off the record you will learn some amazing things about how these machines are designed, which is why if I had my own outfit it would be with the big two manufactures not a newcomer.