BOOM TRUCK MAINTENANCE SEMINAR - FREE

Each spring and fall Runnion Equipment Company holds a  FREE  Boom Truck Maintenance Seminar here at our Lyons, Illinois location.

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.

Face it, while they are a money and time saving tool to many industries, boom trucks are not cheap to buy nor are they inexpensive to own and operate. Add to this the fact that OSHA and all crane manufacturers require documented daily, weekly, monthly and annual maintenance and inspection procedures (the lack of which will find you paying hefty fines or voiding warranties); it is without a doubt in the crane owners’ best interest to make sure his people know what they are doing.

Greasing the boom - everybody gets a turn

Keep in mind as well, that the required inspections are designed to catch problems before they become critical. To that end, employees have to be able to recognize when an issue can be handled “in house” and when it is time to call the professionals. An additional bonus is that trained employees can better document and explain to our Service Manager and our technicians, just what is happening with their crane when they do bring it to Runnion for crane repairs, annual inspections or scheduled maintenance services.

Our Free Maintenance Seminar is always held on a Saturday usually starting at 8 am (donuts and coffee are served) and it runs until 11:30 formally or until everybody has their questions answered.

We always have our Product Support people at the seminar -



Product Support Dude



offering special pricing on the parts, tools and lubricants you need to keep your crane well maintained – (everybody gets a giveaway or two as well). It is always a good time filled with crane stories as there are many years of crane experience represented in the group from which to draw from.

Manufacturers’ reps for the cranes we sell also show up from time to time and make themselves available for questions.

While the seminar is free, we do ask that you call and register for the event so that we have an idea of how many people to expect.

To register;

Call Frank Fitzgerald at 800-824-6704 or email, frankf@runnionequipment.com

One more item to note - the first telescoping crane and the first knuckleboom crane customer to register get their cranes lubed for free (since we will use them in the demo)!

BOOM CHATTER – WORTH LISTENING TO

Have you ever wondered how some boom truck operators seem to extend & retract loads smoothly while others tend to shake loads so badly, bindings loosen or material falls off? – (both dangerous situations !)

Besides a lack of operator experience, the leading physical cause of that shaky boom is a metal on metal condition within the telescope known as “boom chatter”. Boom chatter can occur when; wear pads are missing – (possibly fallen out because of loose bolts or improper installation), wear pads have been worn down with use, or wear pads have been improperly serviced and are running dry.

Our experience has shown us that the leading cause of boom chatter is poor service or lack of service to the wear pads.

To be sure, some newer models of cranes include “self-lubricating” wear pads, but the fact is that all wear pads require lubrication in order to do their job and all wear pads also need to be inspected regularly to make sure they are in place and functioning as outlined in all crane operations and service manuals. (Be sure to note that the inspection and lubrication are considered to be the responsibility of the operator.)

All wear pads contact adjacent telescoping sections. When the factory installed lube wears off of the wear pads, chatter is the result. If you are concerned about longevity of your boom truck, it is imperative that you do not allow your wear pads to lose all their lube and run “dry”. It is equally important to use the correct type of grease on your telescoping boom assembly. In addition to chatter, dry wear pads can also tear loose and dislodge other wear pads causing irreparable damage to the adjacent telescoping section with metal to metal contact

The factory recommends that you lubricate your wear pads using a product with superior lubricity that functions throughout wide ranging temperature variations such as Mag I by Lubriplate which is a lithium polymer that maintains its lubricating properties between
-60 F and +300 F. There are other synthetic products available that will do as good a job as well. Stay away from petroleum based greases such as chassis grease which will actually cause rather than correct the chatter. In lower temps it has a tendency to gell up and grab, at higher operating temps, chassis grease may melt away entirely.

Manufacturers supply us with access holes for a grease gun needle in order to get lubricant to some of the wear pads, but the most difficult wear pads to lubricate and the most likely to cause boom chatter, are those on the inner tops of the telescope sections. These pads wear against the inside top of their adjacent sections during operation and lubricant must be worked into the inside top of the sections – no small project going against gravity!

Our Service Department has developed a three step process to get to these outer/inner top areas of the sections. The process requires an operator to extend, retract, boom up and boom down several times as our tech systematically applies the lubricant to the necessary pads in an effort to work the lubricant into the proper areas. If it sounds complicated, it is - don’t try this at home – call or email our shop and make an appointment. Better yet, make sure you come to one of our free maintenance seminars and we will show you how it is done!

Power Take-off (PTO) to Hydraulic Pump Connection - Out of Sight, Out of Mind

One of the most important (and most often neglected) components of crane operation and maintenance is the connection between the power take-off (PTO) and the hydraulic pump.

While you are swinging trusses with your National Crane 8100, an impressive 23 ton capacity, 60,000# GVW machine, or lifting a co-worker in a basket on the end of your National 1300H, be aware - the entire crane operation is utterly dependent on a rather simple looking, 7/8" - 1 1/4" thick, 18 inch long piece of machined steel with 1/4 inch splines; humming along under the truck engaged with it's transmission.

If the humming stops. So does your crane.

Most machines in use today use a direct mounted pump which eliminates the need for a drive shaft between the pump and the PTO. While this does provide a nice clean installation, it is not maintenance free. Pumps today require 200 - 450 horsepower to run your machine and this conversion of power to crane operation is accomplished through that 7/8" - 1 1/4" diameter "splined shaft".














New shaft and splines on top, well worn shaft and splines below.


To make matters more interesting, the connection is NOT lubricated by the PTO or the pump at their connection area. This critical connection must be manually lubricated and it requires hi-temp grease. Hydraulic systems can run 100 degrees over air temperature - a point that is sure to melt out standard chassis grease. Some PTO's do have a greaseable shaft, but most of the time there is no zerk or aperture to get to this connection. The only alternative is partial removal of the pump in order to get the lubricant to the point of contact.

Proper inspection and servicing of the splines on that shaft will greatly reduce the possibility of spline failure which WILL result in a complete loss of crane/outrigger operation - certainly at the worst possible time in the middle of a job. The splines are subject to wear under the extreme pressures and temps in which they work and at some point, with enough wear, the splines will be unable to mesh or may distort and thin to the point of snapping off. If the splines happen to give while your crane is open and working, you will not be closing it without help from a crane service company - most towing companies are not experienced or equipped to handle crane recovery.

Most manufacturers recommend inspecting and servicing the splines twice a year. Our shop technicians provide this service and we recommend it to our customers when they come in for their annual crane inspection. Our experience has taught us (and we highly recommend) shaft replacement at 80% + wear on those splines

If you don't know or can't remember the last time your splines were checked, get the maintenance scheduled for safety sake and to head off a sizeable repair bill. Crane repair, after-the-fact is always costly.