Took me 4 hours to figure out why my crane kept drifting left

I was on a job last week setting steel for a new warehouse outside Denver. My Terex RT turned left on its own every time I tried to swing a load over to the right side. I checked the fluid levels, looked at the swing brake, even called a buddy who runs a shop in Phoenix. Nothing worked. After 3 hours of head scratching I noticed a small rock stuck in the control pedal linkage on the floor mat. Pulled it out and everything worked fine again. That little pebble cost me half a day and made me look like a rookie in front of the ironworkers. Has anyone else run into a dumb little thing like that throwing your whole operation off?

2 comments

2 Comments

hannah_williams12d ago

Did you check the floor mats first thing after that, or did it take you another couple of hours to think about it? I had a similar thing happen with a forklift a few years back where a piece of plastic from a pallet got wedged under the brake pedal. It made the thing lurch forward every time I tried to stop, and I spent a whole afternoon swapping out brake pads before I found it. Felt like such a fool when I pulled that little shard out and the forklift worked perfect again. Sometimes the stupidest little things cause the biggest headaches, and you feel like a rookie even when you've been doing this for years.

the_jenny12d agoMost Upvoted

Oh absolutely, @hannah_williams, I wish I could say I checked the mats right away but no, I spent a good hour Googling "sensor errors" and messing with the dash first. You're totally right that those tiny things make you feel like an idiot, but I think sometimes we overthink because we expect the problem to be something complicated. That forklift story is a good reminder that the simplest fix is usually the right one, even if it feels too easy.