Back in the day, we never used to rely so much on the load chart alone.

I see a lot of new operators just look at the chart and think they're good to go. They forget about the ground. I was on a site in Tacoma about 8 months ago where a guy set up on what looked like solid fill, but it was just a thin crust over mud. His chart said he could lift it, but the outriggers sank 6 inches on the first pick. We used to walk the site first, feel it with a bar, and know the history. Now it's all about the screen in the cab. Has anyone else had to stop a lift because the ground wasn't right, even when the numbers looked fine?