Who does your annual crane inspection?
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Why should I have my boom truck inspected by a dealer like Runnion – I can get it done cheaper by an inspection service??
Runnion Equipment Company can offer you choices - something you don't get from the inspection service guys with the clipboards. You can decide on our full service, top-of-the-line annual “OSHA Inspection Service” or you can choose our basic “Annual Inspection”. You can choose to do the easy repairs yourself or you can have us do all the repairs. You can choose to have the inspection done here at Runnion Equipment Company or you can have it done at your location. You can choose from several optional dealer services that we offer to keep your crane in top operating condition and you can also choose to drop your crane off and use one of our
chase cars (subject to insurance requirements), or we can arrange to send a driver to pick up and drop off your unit.
It’s no secret, boom trucks are getting more and more complicated and the new OSHA standards are strict. Current inspections are required on all government jobs and General Contractors, Construction Managers and site owners are developing their own requirements for cranes operating on their jobsites which can be even more restrictive. Cranes are high profile and OSHA is very active in regard to crane safety. At Runnion, the
factory trained technicians who inspect your cranes are also the same people who operate and repair your crane. They will recognize things that are going wrong with your crane that others may miss - things that need to be addressed and acted on before they turn into major issues.
Runnion Equipment Company has inspected thousands of cranes during our 35years of business. Our technicians know boom trucks and can draw from 10 to over 25 years of repairing and operating cranes here at Runnion. We take pride in the fact that
Runnion Equipment Company is the oldest National Crane dealer in the country and that we are classified as a National Crane “Elite” dealer. The unique “Elite” designation is awarded by the factory after careful scrutiny - it requires regular factory schooling by our technicians and our Parts Department personnel as well. Among the requirements, we are also expected to maintain a large amount of stocked parts and to be able to provide emergency field service. National Crane wants to make sure that customers are receiving professional service, timely turnaround and equipment that is fixed properly as per factory recommendations. To maintain our Elite status, we go through a compliance review twice a year. We invest time and money in our Product Support people and our diagnostic tools in order to provide you with the solutions to your crane problems.
YOU CHOOSE THE LEVEL OF SERVICE YOU NEED
1. OSHA INSPECTION SERVICE
The premium annual “
OSHA Inspection Service” offered by Runnion Equipment Company is a thorough, invasive, diagnostic “physical” and operational test, which includes preventive maintenance aspects. This is the same service that we perform on our own rental fleet each year. It is designed to get your crane in top operating condition and to give the crane owner detailed information that is needed to make decisions about the equipment he or she owns.
To that end, included as part of the premium service, when we complete the in-depth inspection, diagnostics and operational tests, we are able to provide the owner with a detailed written estimate for the repairs that are required in order to correct the deficiencies noted. The estimate will include a section listing optional items such as suggested factory recommended maintenance that is specific to your machine and its’ current life-cycle and you will also be advised of “Runnion” suggested items which may include developing issues that were discovered by our technician and you may wish to address now, or upgrades that can improve the performance of your crane.
The “optional” items on the estimate are just that – “optional”. You decide.
The repair items that are necessary to correct operational and safety related deficiencies are required and MUST be completed (by you or by Runnion) within 30 days of the inspection date before we will issue an Annual OSHA Inspection sticker.
Once the necessary repairs are made, you will receive our detailed OSHA Inspection report that notes the deficiencies our technicians found during the inspection process and the dates that the deficiencies were corrected (by you or by Runnion). This is the paperwork that must stay with the crane; it is the paperwork that OSHA will want to see when they inspect your crane.
This premium OSHA Inspection Service includes hands on and “covers off” investigation and maintenance items that the independent inspection companies would never attempt. Your machine will have its mounting, rotation and gear box hardware checked for proper factory torque values; we will measure deflection and condition of the rotation bearing, deflection and operation of the boom and related components including the wire rope. We will
separate the pump and PTO in order to check the spline wear and put them back together with hi-temp grease applied and you will be advised on the percentage of wear on this most critical of all hydraulic components. In addition, the boom and outriggers will be thoroughly greased, a new factory hydraulic filter will be installed and gearbox fluid levels will be checked along with a full operational test of all crane functions. While the cost of our OSHA Inspection Service can run from $600 to $1,000 - in the end, the low price of a “walk around”, “clip-board” inspection will long be forgotten should a preventable accident or breakdown at a critical time find you in court.
Keep in mind that when we affix the Runnion Annual OSHA sticker to your machine, we are certifying that your machine has been inspected as per
OSHA Subpart CC, 1926.1412(f), all deficiencies found were corrected and it is operating as per factory specs as of the date of the inspection sticker.
2. ANNUAL INSPECTION
The basic inspection service that we offer is our “
Annual Inspection” which is our low cost, “inspection only” alternative aimed at those customers who feel that they thoroughly maintain their cranes over the year or that their crane has had little use over the year, or for the customer who may simply wish to have a competent third party opinion on a piece of equipment they are interested in buying or selling.
You may find a lower priced inspection service – but you get what you pay for. At $350, our low cost alterative is a better value than any cheap inspection offer around.
With this basic “Annual Inspection” option, one of Runnion’s experienced, factory trained service technicians will set up, operate all functions and visually inspect your crane for up to two hours. When he has completed his inspection, our technician will brief you or your operator on his findings, issue an inspection sticker for your crane and furnish you with a report that documents the operational and safety deficiencies that he noted as well as required general maintenance items that need attention.
This service is an operational and visual inspection and therefore no greasing, torquing, or spline service is done on the equipment. Since our technician performs no mechanical investigative work or diagnostics, no written estimate of repairs is offered with this option.
In some cases, we may be able to give you a range of possible repair costs, but due to the nature of the equipment we work on, it is common sense that what may seem to be a simple fix on the surface can actually be a complicated repair once we have an opportunity to trace the cause of the problem – particularly with foreign or older machine models. While some items, missing safety stickers for instance, are an easy fix and we can give you a price over the phone, our Service Manager may prefer not to estimate the cost of correcting operational issues without getting the crane into our shop in order for our technicians to do more investigative work.
Finally, if after reviewing the inspection documents, you decide to upgrade to our full OSHA Inspection service within 30 days of the basic inspection, we will apply the cost of the basic inspection to the full service option. You won’t pay for the operational and visual inspection twice.
3. AMONG THE ADDITIONAL SERVICES AVAILABLE
Note again that either of our inspection services can be performed at our facility or yours (as long as you have a secure area with space enough in which we can fully open up and service your crane safely without interruption). Certain major component repairs may
have to be conducted at our shop for safety and efficiency. If you are concerned about dropping your crane off at our facility and losing an operator for a day, remember that we have courtesy cars for our customers to use as well as a pick-up and drop-off service. We also will discount our
rental units for customers who need to replace a piece of equipment while we work on theirs – we can swap cranes so you don’t lose any time. The OSHA inspections on our rental fleet are performed annually so you can be assured that your rental unit will have a current OSHA sticker and will be accepted and able to work on government job sites.
For your convenience, while your equipment is at our service facility, besides repairing and rebuilding telescoping and knuckleboom cranes, Runnion can coordinate dielectric testing on your bucket truck and annual DOT and Safety Inspection services to be performed on your chassis.
Basic chassis service can be handled here in our shop and for more in- depth service, including transmission and engine work, truck painting, tire repair and body upfitting; we have several truck dealer and independent truck partners in the area to which we can shuttle your unit, allowing us to be your one stop shop. We will coordinate the repairs for you so you deal directly and only with us.
Runnion Equipment Company is a full service, traditional equipment dealer that has been helping our customers for over 35 years. Our
Safety Seminars and Free Maintenance Seminars are designed to help crane owners avoid headaches and expensive repairs. We own and operate our own fleet of boom trucks; we are intimately familiar with telescoping and articulating cranes.
In short, we can provide a range of inspection services and upgrades that the “clip-board” guys cannot.
We like to hear from and we listen to our customers’ requests and suggestions in regard to services and products that they would like to see us offer, so
feel free to contact us or stop in to visit anytime – we can keep your boom truck working the way it was designed to and we can save you money.
The basic inspection service that we offer is our “Annual Inspection” which is our low cost, “inspection only” alternative aimed at those customers who feel that they thoroughly maintain their cranes over the year or that their crane has had little use over the year, or for the customer who may simply wish to have a competent third party opinion on a piece of equipment they are interested in buying or selling. 
Basic chassis service can be handled here in our shop and for more in- depth service, including transmission and engine work, truck painting, tire repair and body upfitting; we have several truck dealer and independent truck partners in the area to which we can shuttle your unit, allowing us to be your one stop shop. We will coordinate the repairs for you so you deal directly and only with us. 
Customers from Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Wisconsin make it a point to send their operators and maintenance people to take advantage of the opportunity to hear from our Shop Superintendent, meet our Product Support people and to get some one-on-one hands-on time with our Technicians, learning the correct steps and proper products with which to maintain their truck mounted cranes. We cover a lot of material for both telescoping and knuckleboom cranes.
As members of the ILMDA (Illinois Lumber & Material Dealers Association) 
Finally, we are all familiar with the old saying that begins with “All work and no play..etc,...”, so to keep things even - make sure that you don’t miss the Texas Hold’em Tournament and be sure to take advantage of the blackjack tables. It is all for a good cause as a free-will donation of $25 will go to: 
