Modern Outrigger Advantages
Having extended reach on an outrigger has become necessary as forms have stuck out further and further on jobs. When working decks were just a foot wider than the floors, it wasn’t much of a concern to have decks that stuck out 10’ past the floor line. You could get by. today when we have 3 and 4 feet of overhang, it’s encroaching on the working space of the decks that are shallow. It takes added crane time and everyone finds themselves being careful for good reason. When you consider decks are making 40 lifts on/off a floor, that time loss starts to add up. If it’s a minute per floor at a cost of $500 per hour, that’s $330 a floor lost just due to slowing down. $13,200 is what that adds up to on a single 40 story job that loses just one minute over 4 lifts per floor. If we were to extrapolate that out over the life of a deck at say 25 years, That’s a savings of $330,000 returned on one deck without accounting for inflation.
Deck capacities are up to 11,000 lbs while extended out at 17’ with Eichinger. This means you can sometimes double up on your lifts. Drop off a mast forklift on floors to deal with shoring collection and speed that up. If you can cut down on the number of cycles needed, you can save five minutes that allows you to get other work done and avoid over time expenses.
Drywall is a great example of how the short decks cost money. Where even a free deck is too expensive. Below is a picture of drywall coming in that is 12’ long. The deck is 8’ long. This means that they have to work it in to the building as close as possible. Then when it’s landed, it still hangs out of the deck structure. This means it needs to be packed in while the deck gates are opened and the fall hazard remains exposed. This is not only a risk, it’s expensive. If you take this $195 loss at 10x per floor and do it for 40 floors, it’s roughly an $80,000 drag on the job. That’s one job in one year on a product that lasts 25 or more years. That $6000 deck to get you buy is incredibly inefficient.
There are 50 other ways small outrigger decks cost jobs money. Is it a total of $500k per job? It might be. Don’t take the losses because the purchase is significant. There isn’t any reason to rent decks when for about the same cost, you can just own them. If you are doing high-rise work, there will be more high-rise work. If you are a concrete contractor, you can be the rental company and recoup the costs of the decks by renting them to the job after. Not only will that be favorable in not needing another contract and being accommodating to the client, it generates profits long after you are no longer on the job.
If outboard reach of 17’ and 11,000 lb capacities could help you find lost profits, we can help. Get of the Crane Loading Platform rental hamster wheel and own the tools you use. But it in your inventory and rent it to the job. Make it a profit center instead of an expense line you make a mark up on. We can help at CraneGear.
