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Had a main hoist brake start slipping on a tower crane last Thursday
We were lifting a 3,500 pound concrete bucket about 80 feet up. I felt the load drop maybe an inch when I stopped, and the brake was hot to the touch. My lead hand said to just adjust it and keep going to hit our pour target. I shut it down and called the mechanic, which put us behind for the afternoon. In my experience, you never mess with a primary brake, but some guys think a minor adjustment on the fly is fine if you're watching it. What's your rule for something like this? Do you stop the job right away or try to manage it until a planned break?
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xenawhite6mo ago
Good call shutting it down. A hot brake and a dropped load mean it's already failing, not just out of adjustment. That bulletin rosek44 mentioned is a good reference, but the Tacoma thing was in 2006, not 2012. The lead hand was wrong to push for the pour target. You can't manage a primary brake failure, you can only hope it holds.
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rosek446mo ago
Ever read that old safety bulletin about a hoist brake failing during a micro-adjust? You did the right thing shutting it down. A hot brake and a dropped load are your two big red flags to stop work.
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