There's a growing interest among crane owners to establish standard operating procedures for using outrigger pads for "everyday" lifting scenarios. This involves an evaluation of your equipment and typical jobs to select the right size and type of crane and outrigger pad. Establishing a culture that incorporates this type of strategic planning mitigates risks, minimizes liability and improves overall safety. In the past, outrigger reaction forces (the loads applied from the outrigger float to the ground) were not readily available. This led to assumptions and the development of rules of thumb. Today, crane manufacturers provide this information, and it is very reliable. In many cases, crane manufacturers have built sophisticated online calculators that generate outrigger reaction forces for any crane condition within the specified chart. Crane pad selection should be based on both the equipment loads and the planned or actual ability of the ground to support it. There are no rules of thumb that take both the equipment loads and the ground conditions into account. For these reasons, using rules of thumb for selecting crane pads should be viewed as potentially dangerous, and their use should be avoided.
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