We don’t use our office in Calgary much, all our training is done on site and this one in particular was based on showing the operators how to use the crane on a slope, we measured the slope and it was 11 degrees, far more than any knuckle boom is rated to work on…unless you lift properly.
Many operators we work with tell us that areas around Edmonton have few hills, but the ones they do encounter are not the 5-7 degrees that knuckle boom cranes are rated to. But we teach operators the best methods to deal with slope work, and once they understand simple geometry, well the rest is quite easy.
How to properly work on a slope using a knuckle boom crane
What we tell everyone is be sure to use wheel chocks, ensure the park brake is fully functional, lift the load carefully off the ground, then lift to clear the deck, retract the boom instead of working on the side (far too many do), and then place the load on the deck, rack the crane and job well done.
There is more to the chapter, but too many operators lift the wrong way (truck on the side slope) and that is recipe for disaster.