Tight quarters,check. Buildings to fly over? Check. Load buzzer going nuts? Check. 35 tons in your lap? Check. Guys swarming around you in tight quarters, next to buildings, with 35 tons in your lap with the load buzzer going nuts and something goes POP??? Total rear end pucker time... Cool as always Jimmy!! NICE JOB!!!

I'm a retired safety officer from the COE and always enjoyed working with the cranes, you are a very diligent operator we need more like you.

We had a crane company come and place some chiller units in the penthouses on our high school roof.had to clear the building and parking lot.operator slid those units right onto the pads.great respect for these operators.

Just amazing to watch! The skill it takes to do this is something to appreciate.

Oh yes that Thurman and oil is real heavy , kool the cooper in it it massive, the box fins are Thick , nice good job, thanks BigAl California.

Great video Jimmy and some fine operating on that job. Fascinating to see the intricacies of your work and hear you narrate the sequence of events. Hope you had a great 4th, and now it's Happy Birthday time! Doesn't get much better than that. Enjoy your weekend, work safe, and many more birthdays for ya.... Doug@ the "ranch"

Great on site , I get the same butterfly's with heavy, high picks, working the chart. Good job. Be safe. Did many years in a blacktop/quarry operation with an old P&H friction rig.

Fellow crane operator here, I love the videos and enjoy learning from someone who has been in the industry quite a while!

That was awesome, and so are your operating skills. Thanks for the video.

I work on cranes every day I really like your videos. I understand what you do every day.

Good operator, slow and steady. It’s nice to see someone who knows what he is doing. I too am a crane owner/ operator and have lifted many transformers although not quite as heavy as that one. Working in substations is always interesting, I have had to work in live substations and can assure you that has extra pucker factor involved, but working with good linemen makes it safe. Lift plans, pre lift meeting and communication is everything. No crane operator wants to hurt anybody or anything, we all want to go home every night, great job!

Just an old timer saying thanks to ya for posting. My legs have gone awol so you’re my window to world. Top man, you’re good.

I was right there in the seat with you clenching my teeth when you where bringing that load into yourself while booming up over that switch tower on your last pick. Excellent work.

Great video, thanks for sharing. You make it look so simple (but we know its not thanks to some of your other videos). Suspect it is a lot like flying an airplane. On the surface, it looks pretty easy. You move a control and it goes up/down/left/right/etc. What the general person does not see is all of the things going on in the background to know how far/when to move that control, and when not to... Nice job.

I love watching cranes! Last weekend there was a track-replacement job near me, and they were lifting 40 ton track panels at 19 metres. (dingalingalingaling etc). Wonderful machine to watch; Kirow KRC1200 with the extending counterweight at max. gross weight is 111 tons, with 254kW (340HP) diesel. You don't see the load start or stop moving, it is so gentle. Have a look at it, you'll fall in love!

My first time watching you work the crane and slow and safe is the works. I never got to work a crane like you. I worked gantry cranes on the railway moving overseas containers. They run on 4 big earthmover tires and would lift 80,000.

I've been on the ground setting transformers inside the building surrounded by walls where the crane operator couldn't see us at all. We had to guide him in completely qith crappy radios. You don't realize how much every member of the crews lives depend on him at the time. But if that guy makes $1000 an hour imo he's worth every penny.

Another great video Jimmy . Another great job done safely .

Sweat on the brow pick for sure, heat or no. 😁 Thanks for the video. 👍

I dig you ticking off the weights as they come. Electrifying video!!

Great job Jimmy, you must be back in town now... Trust y'all had a great Independence Day.

Nice work. I'm not a fan of electricity myself. I've seen it burn two semi trucks to the ground from my asphalt days. Now we do enddump work for a major electrical contractor. So lots of substations. I hope my spotters are having a good day because my life is in their hands.

Maybe you could mount a camera at the rear of the main boom looking right up the boom should show the boom deflection well that people can appreciate what your dealing with. Great job Jimmy all the way from the north of Scotland.

Appreciate you letting us see that Thanks buddy

You are right,nothing I hated more in a hydraulic crane is lifting something pretty heavy high above the ground. At the mill I work at we keep our spare transformers in a building with removable roof sections. Putting the spares back was the worst. Booming down with load 24 ft up getting farther from the centerline.

OKS !!! Lots of coffee/donuts on this 1 !! HAHA Great job for ALL crew with the HOT temps !!! Again ,,Thank Goodness Not a windy day !! Those power lines sure make things interesting !!! ''KEEP IT SAFE ""

great job. Hi from Denmark

nice job Mike 👍l worked for the second largest power utility in North America for 35 years so I know what's what. that whole tank is full of copper windings around iron cores filled with oil and big porcelain insulators.

It boggles my mind that you can basically out rig the crane. Great job as always

The ol the thing that looks crazy is going over the building, kool thanks y’all BigAl California.

robots in the skies ! LOL! Thank you so much for describing all of the angles that you had to swing those transformers around to. I hope you had a good Fourth of July. Also I saw something the other day that made me think about you. I was going with my mom to target, and they had 4 small man baskets replacing some Maine feeder lines on the side of the road, and I thought maybe your crane truck could’ve got that done a lot faster. Because there was only one working and all the rest of them were sitting there doing nothing.

Looked like your rigger was being a little impatient, LOL Cranes never seem to move at the pace everybody wants but the lift went nice and steady. Nice work.

Nice job.

Great job Jimmy. Glad to see something in my line of work. Being a Lineman in Fl. it is good to see an operator take the time to see and know of the electrical hazard and know about looking for working grounds in the work zone. One Question, Did the utility go over there "Tailboard Brief "with your crew or did you just did your own?

friction cranes no swing brake r load scale hold load with foot brake. Boom down hold load.. Then breath..swing left . Intense Nice Job I did alot of transformer s.

Did they clear the building in case something were to happen? God for bid... Great job Jimmy.

Great video as always! I'm not judging I always take things on a case by case , but I caught myself not letting the cowboy brain bucket guy out of my spacial awearness zone. Old habits die hard lol. I trust you and your family had a great 4th take care sir.

Always good to see a video from you Jimmy hope you had a great Birthday?

Yep!

That time of year jimmy iv been doing a lot of them with heat here in northeast

I’ve recently discovered your videos, and they are awesome! I recently watched your rigging videos. And didn’t you mention how their is a ratio of 10 to one for sling diameter, and the diameter of the load? Wouldn’t The sling wrapping through a hook be well under the 10 to one?

That was great! Say, if you can, would it be possible to have a side picture of your LSI showing the extent of your boom deflection? I’ve heard from a fellow operator that the boom deflection can be as much as 8’ for 160’ boom and 40k load.

Totally agree with you on heavy stuff up high....very unnerving. Is it possible to show in insert screen view of your LMI during a lift. Would be cool to watch it as you manoeuvre the crane. Just a thought.

Hey Jimmy! Been watching your vids for awhile now...anywho I just started my own rigging business here in the lakes region of NH. For now I only have a 30 ton manitex but once its paid off I'm looking to go to a gmk 3055. I do mainly large tree removals around massive mansions around here but I'd like to get into the bigger stuff. Just wanted to stop by and if you ever have any tips for running a crane business (not sure if you do) im all ears :)

Looks like fun

1st Always wanted to do that. 🤜🤛

How many feet of deflection did you end up having on that first pick?

What are the counter weights made of?

Another job well done. I liked when you were telling us how much weight you were picking. What can they be made of that is so heavy?

be nice to have the adjustable tilt cab on that huh.

Just curious. Were the transformers dry or did they still contained the cooling oil? Nice job.

I have some sneaked video of a lift where i'm at, I'd love for you to see, I think they went way overboard on the crane size, Mike looks a little to comfy with this work, man if that thing broke loose he'd be smashed

Interesting, the two guys guiding it are not wearing hard hats, but the other guys no where near it are 🤔😊. Nice job. I’d be needing a change of undies after moving those 😆

Wow! What's your heaviest pick?

Great video, I was doing some math on the first pic of the 77k lbs/38.5T xformer, it looks like the Tadano 180 with the counter weights was a 4.75 to 1 weight ratio for the first xformer load you pic, is it typical for a 5 to 1 ratio for heavy lifts. I'm looking to place 48,000 lbs/24T 40'x 8 (320 sqft) loads 50' up onto the roof of a proposed data center in Africa and would like to know what size Hydraulic crane is needed to complete this task 8x?

How often is the given weight of a pick off? Are the weights usually on the equipment or from Mfr . published data..

That's quite impressive. I'm a Truck driver and the truck weight is usually about 76 to 80,000 when it's loaded, but it's about 70' long. What is boom deflection and Radius mean..?

Nice job bud. I'm assuming that building was closed for the time being.

That is one hell of a nice crane! How much boom deflection did you wind up with? I did some work in a transformer station. They asked, "does all this stuff make you nervous? If it does we're sending you home." They grounded my rig every place I set up. I did eventually get used to all the humming, after a while!

Missing safety latches on those hooks! Like how their inverted good lifts!

What is the ticking sound? Is that your cable counter for how much cable you have ran out?

Who does the rigging on these jobs? Your company or the client?

Interesting first location there just North of Polk street on East side of Washington (U.S. 65). Very familiar with this city. Lived there when I was 4+ years old. (59 years ago). Now live just 30 miles East at Brookfield. Second location appears to be just to the South of the Guard Armory on West side of Washington (U.S. 65)...or...Just North of what "used" to be Cooke Equipment Sales. Out of curiosity, was this lift on or about 21 June 2019? Ken

What is the clicking sound of varying speeds that I hear?

Was wondering if it was going to turn into a rodeo lol. I will show myself out now.

Did they drain the oil on the big transformer? Perhaps no. Once they refill with oil they have to pull a vacuum to remove any moisture in oil and then back charge with dry Nitrogen gas a few pounds. A lot of time and expense to refill with oil. Anyway, the higher you suspend it the higher the suspense... Great job!

How much you get a hrs by jobs

Hey man, next time you get a steel job can you post it on here

Sure looks like the left rear hook was opening up a bit compared to the other 3. Something about open hooks with no retainer clips to keep the slings contained that scares me.

Were the cowboy hats some of the guys wearing hard hats?

i would love to learn how to rig this.

So that was the signal for how much weight, not hurry up I want to go to lunch.

peace of cake.

is that other fellow with the tag line wearing a cowboy hat?

At 11:00 it appears the right side foundry hook closest to the crane is facing the wrong way where it could possibly slip on the orange sling? Is this a concern for you?

don't get into that bus bar Mike.

them are just babies jimmy I trucked 80ton and 100 ton transformers up the ice roads in northern ontario canada on a 100 ton rgn quad axel king float and super dog mack into the Indian reservations in northern ontario canada plus the generators to provide electricity to these places done that 14 years plus we built all the ice roads and bridges to.

the stressful part is the oil in side that baby is proboly pcb contaminated oil let money on that

I noticed in all the videos I’ve seen you operate. you work over the front why is that? The distance to your rear is only 16 feet the distance over the front of your cab is roughly 28feet. Which would get you a little closer to whatever you’re picking every foot counts. Plus if you work over the rear you have all that weight keeping you down on heavy pics from the lowers motor. Just an observation.

Bout a 10 pucker factor.

The signal man needs to be retrained or fired. He spent the majority of the pick standing under the load or adjacent to it. Any one of those sling legs fails he is squished. One of our members was crushed and killed when a generator pick went wrong, the sling broke and the generator rolled on top of him because he had a hand on the load instead of using a tag line. Excellent video and excellent operator but the signal man is a tool and a liability. Be your brothers keeper and look after the guys on your crew that took the short bus.