Posted By Richard
My company are soon to be using HIAB's, i would be gratefull if anyone could offer some advice on safe systems and Risk assessments and any issues/probelms you have come across whist using this piece of machinary.

Thank you in advance

Posted By Edward H
Apart from the previously mentioned, very significant issue of operator competence [try to ensure that any training/ assessment is done in a realistic scenario, not in a nice clean, level, concrete yard]; here are three issues that have caused problems [inc fatalities] in the past:

If the outriggers/stabilisers are manually extended then it is important that when travelling they are correctly locked in. There have been several instances of vehicles driving round a bend and the outrigger beam sliding out under centrifugal force and scything adjacent vehicles.

Lifting without fully deploying the outriggers. In tight yards or when unloading at the side of the load, there is a great temptation on the operator to only partially extend the outriggers. Often you will see HIABs working with the outrigger jacks down but not extended. The Rated Capacity Indicators and other safety devices fitted to the crane all assume that the outriggers are fully deployed and will allow the vehicle to overturn if they are not. Similarly all of the safe load information provided on labels and in the handbooks assume full deployment, legally if the crane is used other than in the recommended configuration then there is no applicable Rated Capacity and you are instantly in breach of LOLER.

Working on slopes. There are two issues here: firstly it can overload the crane; and secondly jacking down the outriggers can take the weight of of the braked wheels causing the vehicle to slide downhill.

Have fun !!!