Lifting people using heavy machinery is an inherently risky thing to do. If not done correctly, lifting equipment can become unstable and tip over, causing serious injury to personnel and damage to property.
Therefore, if you’re on the market for lifting equipment for sale or rent, you need to make sure you’re well versed in how to secure your lifting equipment properly onsite to ensure safe operation.
Correct Outrigger Deployment
To ensure stability of your lifting equipment, you need to fully extend the outriggers to their maximum length. This will provide the greatest stability possible, since outriggers are designed to prevent the machinery from tipping over.
When deploying the outriggers, it is crucial to ensure all of them are deployed symmetrically in all directions, covering all angles.
Also, when deploying the outriggers, you need to make sure the ground conditions are thoroughly assessed to be firm, level, and capable of supporting the weight of the equipment. If you deploy the outriggers on soft or uneven surfaces, they could sink and/or slip, potentially causing a tip-over.
If you are deploying the outriggers on softer ground, such as loose sand, it is important to use outrigger pads, mats, or cribbing. This helps distribute the load more evenly and prevents the outriggers from sinking into the sand, which can cause instability.
If you are going to use support materials like these, make sure they are large enough to handle the load and in good working condition.
Levelling the Equipment
Before you use lifting or access equipment, always ensure the equipment is level. Nowadays, access equipment comes with built-in levelling indicators to ensure it is level before extending the boom or platform.
If it is not level, adjust the outriggers as needed to achieve a level base. If the equipment is not completely level, you risk a tip-over throughout the operation of the machine.
It is important to continuously monitor the level of the equipment to ensure no slight shifts have occurred without notice. If some shifting does occur during operation, you might need to make slight adjustments to the outriggers to account for it.
Load Distribution and Weight Management
Aside from ensuring your outriggers are properly deployed and the machine is level, you also need to ensure load distribution and weight management are handled correctly.
This means the load should be evenly distributed across all outriggers and should not exceed the equipment’s rated capacity. You also need to be mindful of the boom and platform extension, as the further it extends, the more critical the balance becomes.
It is important to always operate within the load chart specifications and never exceed these limits. Overloading the maximum weight capacity can cause significant instability and become a major safety risk.
Sterling Access has a wide range of lifting platforms for sale and rent. Contact us now to find out more about our access equipment offerings and get your project off the ground today.
