Truck Crane + Heavy Tree = Damaged House...

there are a lot of facts we do not know about this. The operator may well of been within the safe operating load rating of the crane. this could be a freak accident, a mechanic may of replaced the bolt with the wrong one during P&M maintenance. the truck should of flipped over before the mounts broke,

 

Lindenhurst then Holtsville

 

On a positive note now they have an air conditioned garage

 

As a former crane operator and a mechanic I can say a couple things
1. The operator "sheared" his shorts!
2. That (IMO) was definitely a mechanical failure. Cranes are built to take WAY more load than they are actually rated for. That chassis should stand up before the turntable ever breaks. If I had to guess I would say it was metal fatigue of the main pivot structure, likely at a weld. They'll probably come down on the mechanic that last serviced/inspected it. Well, OSHA will come down on the operator too.
It could be that this was a culmination of several/many overloads...then this was just the straw (log) that broke the camels back.

I'm not familiar with smaller truck cranes like that one but most larger mobil cranes made in the last 20-30 have LMI (Load Moment Indicators) computers that keep you from picking or putting yourself into an overload situation...unless it was bypassed...then OSHA will definitely hang the guy

 

There are so many factors when running a crane.
But there is always a chart in the cab that tells you what the crane is rated for. And that rating is always less than what the crane is actually capable of.
Looks like the crane might have broke on the first lift as there are no logs in the front of the house.
I'm going with some kind of operator error. ( causing a mechanical failure)

That house looks really deep front to back. Its hard to believe a crane truck could reach that far.
I also have to wonder if they were using the crane like a wrecker and trying to drag the log till it was close enough to lift it. That would really stress those bolts. (or weld)

 

Oof. I bet that made for some interesting noise as it was coming down.

Not to mention the fact that I would have hated the been in that house when that thing hit that garage. Gott-a-mighty talk about loud!

 

What should have happened before the mount bolts broke... 1:59 (Youtube link) ... and, what operator error looks like.

 

thats a really interesting video. Definitely operator error when the truck lifts off the ground like that.
Again, reaching the back of a house is a long reach. But that hot tub would have been a very light load.
As soon as the video started I noticed that the crane should have been backed up about 30 more feet towards the garage. That probably would have prevented the error. You always set up as close to the lift as you can!

 

"Failure"

That's a big crane to go over with a load that light (figerglass pool). He was boomed out pretty far, but I wonder if that crane wasn't properly ballasted for the load/reach.

 

I thought the same thing but the video doesn't show the area where the counter weights are long enough to see if they are there

 

Lighter cranes like both of these shown probably don't use counter weights like the big multi ton cranes do. But, maybe. You're right, he could have backed up a little closer. The 80' crane I used to run was not as big (lift cap) as either of these but it used the one "counter balance" it did have... the entire weight of the truck when lifting straight off the rear. You know you got hold of a liiiiiiiiittle too much, when the truck is jacked up like that... ... I wonder if the tub landed right where he wanted it...

 

Duh! They probably filled the pool before setting it...

 

I think the reason he didn't get closer to the house was he didn't want to break the concrete driveway. Dumb move there, Driveway $10 per sq. ft. New house $300+ per sq. ft.
I know when my man, Tony helps us with the crane he has front of the truck as close to the house as possible so the whole truck acts as a counter-weight. And many times the bell is going off and I look at him and he gives me the thumbs up and we keep going. But, Tony is a structural steel guy and he is quick at his math to make sure he has got capacity to spare. We also make damm sure we are solid on the outriggers. I give him all my micro-lam drops for cribbing up the outriggers.