Here is a tip if you use a bucket truck and you have the stabilizer jacks keep big blocks of wood in the van to put under the jacks in case you are going to work on gravel or dirt. The blocks help distribute the weight evenly across the soft ground
@@jdarmst when in doubt with pads just spread out more, a block of wood down onto 2 pads is better than risking the single pad sinking down. It's all about reducing pressure on the ground
I love how you do everyday general jobs at the HQ before showing jobs, it’s very blog day of life style. This is the best style content I’ve seen from this channel in my opinion and I’ve watched for years.
Cause you turned the engine off from the key in the cab, it will automatically disengage the PTO so if you restart the engine you need to re-engage the PTO. Our hoists at work have a switch in the bucket that can start and stop the engine and will keep the PTO engaged. We all get Ground Support trained on how to operate the hoist from the ground in case of emergencies etc at my work As for the legs its a mix of pressure and tilt sensors so if detects instability it will cut power till you sort it. There is also usually a nut on the boom near the van roof you can turn with a spanner to rotate it into a safe positing that will allow the boom to be lowered
Worked with one on an old style Landrover. Electric/Pump opperation on that was on a control box at the back of the cab with a big turn switch that had to be switcked over and them two buttons to push at the sam time to loweer. Mainly for a 2nd person to lower the boom to get you down if there was some form of failure of the main controls.
12:25 That is brilliant Mr Nagy. Nothing like _esprit de corps_ to build the right vibe in your business. Nice, *bloody nice!!* 👍👍👍 (Apologies for a second comment but didn't want this hidden in my previous one)
Glad your videos are more frequent now and longer, content is better too. I went to a job ounce and the guy wanted me to fit downlights in an extension, but he had already put the ceiling up and had it plastered, flat roof above, when I said, how am I supposed to get the cables in now?, his reply was " just threadle them through", trying to explain you have joists in between was a waste of time, I didn't go back
When I price up rewires I also consider how much other business and new clients I’m going to lose whilst doing it. Over a 2 week period I could lose 20 new clients just to keep one happy who will never need me again once the job is done. On that note. Avoiding them is the sensible option for a small business. I call them fools gold.
That's a good point. I'm starting a big renovation that going to take months and I'm starting to think might not be worth vthe stress of being tied up for so long.
22:45 you need to lift floor board or open ceilings to run pipes or new wiring you need party wall agreement with each flat that you share that space with! Not mentioning bond if there is management company and lease mentioning this type of work....
In the case of your dilemma with the bucket lift surely the company who supplied you the unit should be able to advise on your best options to overcome the problem you have encountered. I must admit like others have commented you should be using spreader plates under each jacking leg in most applications. Keep up the good work and stay safe.
There should be a hand pump release valve directly on the boom arm that operates independantly of all electerical control and safety interlock systems allowing you to bring the boom down in a safe controlled manner or at least thats how it works on dedicated MEWPs it might be different with vehicle mounted boom arms
So as I've read below and is usually correct, turning the engine off from below disengaged the PTO. The controls from the top shouldn't do that. Also you should be able to manually over ride the legs from inside the van. Most have levers within the inside of the main panel that are locked away, you should pull/push the pulley type things. It's usually pull one to let the pressure of the hydraulic fluid through and then there's another 2 for left and right leg, needing 2 hands to do it. Which is why there's normally always someone at the bottom
When I’m asked for a quote, I state between £600-800 per room plus £800. This is dependant on location, parking facilities, occupancy and furnished or non furnished. Rooms are standard 1 x pendant and 4 x d sockets. Bath and separate W/c count as one room, ground and first floor hallway count as one room ( add £400 for each additional floor either basement or 2nd floor). All additions such as down lights, U/C lights or outside power are costed separately. So 3 bed, 1 bath, 1 hall, 1 lounge, 1 diner, 1 kitchen = 8 x £600 + £600 ( £5400.00) or 8 x 800 + £800 (£7200.00) Basically using the ‘per room’ cost is the most effective way going forward.
The company I work for has a lot of spider cranes that use a similar system with the cranes outriggers, what I’d recommend if you haven’t got them already are some outrigger pads to disperse the weight when on soft ground. Also most Mewps have a manual hydraulic system the ground operator can use in an emergency situation, you’d think the manufacturer would have something similar for your van
you may want to carry wide and thick pieces of treated wood to put under the van's jacks when working on soft ground to increase the surface. also there should be 2 people around at all times, one in the bucket and one on the ground.
I really enjoy your videos and I'm glad to see your business doing well. Any building posh enough to not want tradesmen seen better be willing to shell out for a service elevator.
History. The term was once common around the furniture-making town of High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire, England. Traditionally, bodgers were highly skilled itinerant wood-turners, who worked in the beech woods of the Chiltern Hills. The term and trade also spread to Ireland and Scotland.
You should always be able to lower the bucket. If you are stuck in the air you are at greater risk from surrounding traffic. Suppose the van's electrics fail, like the main fuse opens, all power to the vehicle is gone (no flashers). You are now very likely to be hit by oncomming traffic. There has to be a manual overide that allows the bucket to be lowered. The lift is hydraulicly driven so ther has to be a valve that can be opened to release pressure to the vertical allowing it to lower.
You need some blocks to spread the load under the stabiliser arms, I don't know why they aren't sold with them as standard, even from a safety point of view, if your trying to stabilise on soft ground it will just sink over time and get you stuck just like you did.
There is a manual online for the Klubb k32 (yours might be different) which shows a separate over-ride switch that bypasses movement limitations and emergency shutdowns. Is it fitted on your van?
We use pads 1 meter square ⬛ they are a pain to take around strap them out side next to the bucket. Use the pads on all surfaces hard of soft the sensors on our lorries are the same
Yep, beer, crisps and peanuts. Good triple headed episode Tom. Stood in a puddle in a pool house checking that the power *really* is off is good for apprentices and learners to think about.
When deploying the stabiliser jacks you should use pads to distribute the pressure, and transfer a significant portion of the vans weight onto the stabilisers so you have proved the ground is stable and they can’t unload by moving the boom out to the side; not so much that the wheels come off the floor, but you should be able to see the suspension is less loaded than if you are ready to drive the van.
You could buy a very cheap trolley jack and keep in the van for when stabilisers need a bit more pressure. Still need a 2nd person to operate it though. Only other thing, if you are working alone, you could put one of those emergency fire escape chain ladders in the bucket. At least you would be able to climb down, even if it wasn't all the way to the ground, it would be close enough for you to drop safely.
You can buy bigger feet to put under the stabilisers (or you can use pieces of scrap wood) to distribute the weight better. Also, I’d probably buy another trolly jack just to throw in the back of the van just in case you’re up a creek.
28:18 Sorry Tom, you are right with the steel ball in the float switch, but they don't have pins, they have a microswitch. A steel ball will make a bad contact after a while (arcing) so pitting the ball.
there should be a manual bypass on the hydraulics so that if you get stuck without power the ground operator can safely (though slowly) bring you back down to ground level
These exist on many mewps/scissor lifts ive used on sites here and there, its basically a manual lever inside somewhere, usually near the emergency stop that basically slowly depressurises the hydraulics, takes a minute or more from full height and its just a straight "drop"
Telehandlers have devices that won't let you lower the boom unless there's pressure, means if there's a hose failure the boom doesn't just drop. As a result it's a complete pain in the arse moving the boom if a hose does blow but it's safer. I would be amazed if man lifts didn't have the same feature. It would mean you couldn't accidentally recreate the scene in Casino Royale where Bond rips the valve chest off the scissor lift and crashes the whole thing to the floor. Uncontrolled lowering of the basket could also end up toppling the machine over, because as you lower the arc takes the basket further away from the van.
@@Simon-ho6ly I'm amazed that works. I'd assumed that, as material lifts include valves to stop that exact thing from happening, people lifts would too. I've done it on old forklifts but nothing I've driven made any time recently.
@@tomcardale5596 The ones ive seen are a special valve, its not like popping all the valves full open but like a bypass that must have literally a pinhole opening or something, the descent is VERY slow and well controlled and you can hear the fluid rushing through the constriction sometimes.. this is an example on a genie lift th-cam.com/video/qN3vS6DWnlc/w-d-xo.html
Mr N you are absolutely right to inform colleagues and new apprentices to be careful. Be careful going into pissed off drug tenants house. When in the amb service the police sent over an alert risk notice as drug users were jamming their used needles into the light switch so when you turned it on you got spiked. It’s a boring and stressful time awaiting blood results for hiv / hep etc etc. Also be careful of plastic bags a colleague got spiked brushing up against a bag of used needles. Not a fun day at the office!
Maybe carry a sheet of steel say 6mm thick that you can put your jack on top of it if the ground is shit. It would stop your jack from sinking and you could easily slide it in the van. Wouldn’t need to be much bigger than the base of the jack.
I used a stand alone cherry picker trailer to paint our house and if any of the 4 legs lost stability or you over extended the arm then it would lock out your controls but it would let you turn the emergency switch and slowly bring the arm back down, and it would force you to go right back down so the basket was back in its cradle. The basket also had to be in the cradle to adjust the legs but it did give you a way down. That system in your van just seems a bit crazy tbh.
13:33 - Lovely story... but totally not true. That architect's name was Thomas Bouch (not Bodge). Bodge is an old word for "patch up", and a "bodger" was a woodturner who used green wood. Both were in use centuries before Thomas Bouch was even born. Some people may have called _him_ a bodger (or "Thomas Bodge"), but he's definitely not the origin of the term.
Yup! Bodger was a name for an itinerant woodturner who moved round the country from job to job. Hence a bodge job was one where if there was something wrong with it, by the time you realised, the guy had gone and you were stuck with it. Tay bridge disaster was down to Sir Thomas Bouch's bad design and poor supervision of construction and maintenance; partly because he gave some of the main contracts to family members. Read a book called The High Girders for the story; miracle it stayed in one piece as long as it did....
I'm surprised you cant turn on/off the engine from the bucket. We don't even have outriggers on our light duty 10 meter bucket trucks here in murica and our heavy duty 30 meter boom trucks have spreader pads for the outriggers.
The bucket or part of the boom pushes on a limit switch when it is fully down. find that switch and get the other person to press it. That allows you to re-adjust the jacks. If you are on your own, you need a "bucket escape" system, which is basically an abseiling set up.
He said in the previous video that it was exactly how he got around it (the video is even named "My first COCK-UP with the bucket truck..."), so he knows about the switch, he was just wondering is it how it's supposed to work and/or how are you meant to do it if you are alone.
Tom, have you considered putting your name & contact info, or business card, on each consumer unit you install? Where I live it's common for tradesmen to do that - air conditioning, plumbing, etc. Later on down the road if a customer needs repair they will know who to call, especially if it's a different homeowner than when you did the install.
Yeah, the manufacturer would rather have someone safe in the bucket but stuck there, than have someone stuck in the bucket and do something dangerous to try and free themselves. If you're that badly stuck and don't know what to do, time to call the fire brigade instead of DIY-ing something with a pry bar at the side of the road, or trying to safely transfer someone from one MEWP to another (you can't). When they said you shouldn't operate MEWPs alone, they didn't mean at least two MEWPs (so you could use one to rescue the other), they meant at least two *people*: one in the bucket and one on the ground. If the boom locks out the controls for safety, the person on the ground can ALWAYS use the emergency controls on the hydraulic system itself to slowly lower the boom. Make sure your ground crew or spotters know how. Massive oversimplification here, but here's roughly how MEWP hydraulics work: - Fluid always flows from high pressure to low pressure. - Tell the controls to go up: pump provides high pressure, valve opens, cylinder is lower pressure than the pump so fluid flows in, boom goes up; let go, valve closes, pump turns off. - Tell the controls to go down: pump provides low pressure, valve opens, cylinder is higher pressure so fluid drains back into the sump tank, boom goes down; let go, valve closes. - Valves are huge to handle a high flow rate when going up, but that valve is open even when you're going down, so the pump still has to provide some countering backpressure to limit your descent speed. - All MEWPs have emergency controls on the ground mechanically connected to narrow valves that naturally limit flow rate, and will just slowly drain directly into the sump tank and lower the boom. When you switch the engine off the boom realises that if you tried to go up, there's no PTO and therefore no pump providing the backpressure to limit your descent speed. So the valves would open and instead of fluid going into the cylinder, it would drain FAST and the bucket would drop quickly instead of going up like you wanted it to. That's why the ground controls can pump fluid in to manoeuvre anywhere just like the bucket can if the PTO is on; but if the PTO is off, they can only use the small emergency mechanical valve to drain (go down). The boom's safety system has no idea if it lost PTO power because you intentionally switched your engine off (and know you'll need to switch it back on again later) or if your engine just randomly conked out; but it DOES know that if the engine were to conk out while the valve is open, it would lose backpressure and the bucket would fall. So if the PTO goes off for any reason, it goes into total panic mode and locks down everything except emergency lowering until it's reset. Just leave your engine on. As for the outriggers, use spreader pads or blocks to spread the load so the ground doesn't sink, and extend them as fully as you can.
Tom it is the same with crane operations. Use pressure pads (aka steel plates) under the jacks. Also, re: coming down safely, there must be a manual pressure relief valve. No hydraulic system should remain under pressure under no circumstances. The person on the ground should be ablento operate that PRV to bring you down to safety.
I believe the boom lifts here in America have a valve that can open just to relive the pressure and lower the boom. You can't do anything else but lower the main boom.
I know on a normal boom lift, you have a pressure release that in case of an emergency you have a guy low level with a rescue plan to either… A) control manually from floor level on a override control. B) pressure relief valve that lowers the boom to ground level. Don’t know if this is same as vehicle mounted booms. :)
Another fascinating video Thomas! That abandoned house looked like a total s***hole! Thanks for the background on Bodge - never knew that he was a real person.
Thomas run the emergency pump through the inertia that way when your vehicle is turned off the pumping system in the bucket will work does that make sense?
Not used a bucket truck but saw one being used a couple of days ago and the stabiliser arms were out so far the wheels of the truck were off the road so all weight of the vehicle was on the arms. Is that not how it's supposed to be used? the arms take the weight, not the wheels???
Out of Interest what DVR and Cameras are you using for the vans. I've been looking for a car system allowing for all round recording but i cant find any suitable setups. Any insight you can provide is most appreciated.
There should be a manual hand pump for the hydraulic system but failing that you could use an airbag under the outrigger that has lost ground pressure.
I work for a telecoms company and every time a Mewp is used, we HAVE to have a ground support person. In the event the mewp operator needs someone on the ground to use the controls to lower them down.
Need to add a manual override switch to bypass the stabiliser jack pressure switches. Using a momentary switch would prevent it being left in override.
The stabilisers obviously complete a circuit when sufficient pressure is on them. You could wire in a manual override on a key switch in the bucket that "tricks" the boom computer to think stabilisers are deployed and allow control of the boom again. *this is obviously unsafe/uncertified practice to bypass safety systems.
This is why cranes and use pressure pads distributes the weight evenly, get some off cuts of scaffold board's and if working on grass put a 3x3 18 mm ply down then lay scaff board's on top of that works for me. Old saying " proper pre planning prevents piss poor performance "
Nice one.....your right about pricing and how low people will go , I priced up a 6 bed house over 4 floors in north London to the spec the designer wanted with a mountain of data cabling to go in to control all the gadgets plus fire alarm and it came in at £ 22k...... somebody else ended up doing the job for £ 8 k....😳...... The materials alone that the designer specked would have cost around £ 6 k..... This is what your up against all the time.....👍
Immediately find a derilict airliner and remove the emergency escape slide canister and fit it to your bucket because it's obvious someone forgot to put in an emergency hydraulic release to lower the bucket to the ground. Other escape means are a very short bungey cord, rope ladder or the quickest opening parachute.......ever. Be sure also to take a photo of the truck and put it on your wall of achievement.
Struggle to get customers to pay an extra £30 for surge protection, never mind £1200 for AFDDs. There's certainly going to be a lot of explaining to do as to why the cost of a fuse board change has skyrocketed once these come out.
There should be a manual hand pump and switch/valve inside the back van normally near the hydraulic bits. The person on the ground would then know how to swing you back in lower it down by pumping the handle and usually pushing a button or two!
Shouldn't you be using pads to lower the lifts on to. Especially on gravel or soft ground. Proper pads shouldn't flex and so the lifts wouldn't loose pressure
This is the correct answer. Big chocs of wood, which have been advised are fine until they give way. That'll wake you up. Rated pads and the legs shouldn't loose pressure.
There should be an emergency pressure release to lower you to the ground there a emergency release on sky jack lifts but that as well had to be operated from the ground
slightly puzzled here , if there is a national shortage of electricians as stated by the building trade how come there isn't enough for the exisiting sparks , interesting
Why don't you carry in the crane truck a bigger pad (like larger cranes use, but doesn't have to be as big as a 75 tonne crane pad lol) and put under the jack? This spreads the jack load and helps stop the soft ground issue, esp as the jack foot isn't that big. If you find or think the ground is soft etc put the pad down for a greater load spread area.
for pricing. . . do you use something like 'Spon's Estimating Costs Guide to Electrical Works' or the 'Spon's Mechanical and Electrical Services Price Book' I not, what pricing book do you use or is it just knowledge gained doing the work?
Did you get sort the Mewp dilemma? Most cherry pickers and scissor lifts have a manual pump that the bloke on the ground can manually pump the sections down to lower the operator, does your machine not have this ability?
A way to override those safetys would be usefull, however it would get abused unless it was comlex enough to enable. Thats not a great solution tho, i know scissor lifts have a trigger that releases the fluid in the cylinders, lowering the lift; but that wouldnt work in the bucket probably. The solution is probably to have the ability to abseil out of the bucket like what large forklift drivers and scissor lift drivers train to do
Here is a tip if you use a bucket truck and you have the stabilizer jacks keep big blocks of wood in the van to put under the jacks in case you are going to work on gravel or dirt. The blocks help distribute the weight evenly across the soft ground
That is a great idea! thanks for the tip
@@thomasnagy its a pleasure
I mean, don't you have the pads for it already?
Wow i was thinking about the same only my plan is use a big steel strong plate hahaha
@@jdarmst when in doubt with pads just spread out more, a block of wood down onto 2 pads is better than risking the single pad sinking down. It's all about reducing pressure on the ground
I love how you do everyday general jobs at the HQ before showing jobs, it’s very blog day of life style. This is the best style content I’ve seen from this channel in my opinion and I’ve watched for years.
Cause you turned the engine off from the key in the cab, it will automatically disengage the PTO so if you restart the engine you need to re-engage the PTO.
Our hoists at work have a switch in the bucket that can start and stop the engine and will keep the PTO engaged. We all get Ground Support trained on how to operate the hoist from the ground in case of emergencies etc at my work
As for the legs its a mix of pressure and tilt sensors so if detects instability it will cut power till you sort it. There is also usually a nut on the boom near the van roof you can turn with a spanner to rotate it into a safe positing that will allow the boom to be lowered
To the top!
cant shut down the engine alone if up on the hoist so the problem will never happen.
Hats off Tom, your attitude, approach and just general way of thinking regarding realistic electrical quotations is bang on!
Lovely section with the pool - thank you! Fascinating to see that kind of thing.
Worked with one on an old style Landrover. Electric/Pump opperation on that was on a control box at the back of the cab with a big turn switch that had to be switcked over and them two buttons to push at the sam time to loweer. Mainly for a 2nd person to lower the boom to get you down if there was some form of failure of the main controls.
12:25 That is brilliant Mr Nagy. Nothing like _esprit de corps_ to build the right vibe in your business. Nice, *bloody nice!!* 👍👍👍
(Apologies for a second comment but didn't want this hidden in my previous one)
Glad your videos are more frequent now and longer, content is better too. I went to a job ounce and the guy wanted me to fit downlights in an extension, but he had already put the ceiling up and had it plastered, flat roof above, when I said, how am I supposed to get the cables in now?, his reply was " just threadle them through", trying to explain you have joists in between was a waste of time, I didn't go back
When I price up rewires I also consider how much other business and new clients I’m going to lose whilst doing it.
Over a 2 week period I could lose 20 new clients just to keep one happy who will never need me again once the job is done.
On that note. Avoiding them is the sensible option for a small business. I call them fools gold.
That's a good point. I'm starting a big renovation that going to take months and I'm starting to think might not be worth vthe stress of being tied up for so long.
22:45 you need to lift floor board or open ceilings to run pipes or new wiring you need party wall agreement with each flat that you share that space with! Not mentioning bond if there is management company and lease mentioning this type of work....
In the case of your dilemma with the bucket lift surely the company who supplied you the unit should be able to advise on your best options to overcome the problem you have encountered. I must admit like others have commented you should be using spreader plates under each jacking leg in most applications. Keep up the good work and stay safe.
There should be a hand pump release valve directly on the boom arm that operates independantly of all electerical control and safety interlock systems allowing you to bring the boom down in a safe controlled manner or at least thats how it works on dedicated MEWPs it might be different with vehicle mounted boom arms
So as I've read below and is usually correct, turning the engine off from below disengaged the PTO. The controls from the top shouldn't do that.
Also you should be able to manually over ride the legs from inside the van. Most have levers within the inside of the main panel that are locked away, you should pull/push the pulley type things. It's usually pull one to let the pressure of the hydraulic fluid through and then there's another 2 for left and right leg, needing 2 hands to do it.
Which is why there's normally always someone at the bottom
When I’m asked for a quote, I state between £600-800 per room plus £800. This is dependant on location, parking facilities, occupancy and furnished or non furnished. Rooms are standard 1 x pendant and 4 x d sockets. Bath and separate W/c count as one room, ground and first floor hallway count as one room ( add £400 for each additional floor either basement or 2nd floor). All additions such as down lights, U/C lights or outside power are costed separately.
So 3 bed, 1 bath, 1 hall, 1 lounge, 1 diner, 1 kitchen = 8 x £600 + £600 ( £5400.00) or 8 x 800 + £800 (£7200.00)
Basically using the ‘per room’ cost is the most effective way going forward.
The company I work for has a lot of spider cranes that use a similar system with the cranes outriggers, what I’d recommend if you haven’t got them already are some outrigger pads to disperse the weight when on soft ground. Also most Mewps have a manual hydraulic system the ground operator can use in an emergency situation, you’d think the manufacturer would have something similar for your van
@ Thomas Nagy,
It is a hydraulic system, you have to have the engine running to keep the pump and the controls working when you are in the bucket.....
you may want to carry wide and thick pieces of treated wood to put under the van's jacks when working on soft ground to increase the surface.
also there should be 2 people around at all times, one in the bucket and one on the ground.
I really enjoy your videos and I'm glad to see your business doing well. Any building posh enough to not want tradesmen seen better be willing to shell out for a service elevator.
History. The term was once common around the furniture-making town of High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire, England. Traditionally, bodgers were highly skilled itinerant wood-turners, who worked in the beech woods of the Chiltern Hills. The term and trade also spread to Ireland and Scotland.
Grew up there. Ercol and G Plan being the best national modern examples still made in the area.
You should always be able to lower the bucket. If you are stuck in the air you are at greater risk from surrounding traffic. Suppose the van's electrics fail, like the main fuse opens, all power to the vehicle is gone (no flashers). You are now very likely to be hit by oncomming traffic. There has to be a manual overide that allows the bucket to be lowered. The lift is hydraulicly driven so ther has to be a valve that can be opened to release pressure to the vertical allowing it to lower.
Just a thought Keep 2 weight pads/mats on the van, if you get stuck lift up the jacks and place the pads down then lower the jacks.
You need some blocks to spread the load under the stabiliser arms, I don't know why they aren't sold with them as standard, even from a safety point of view, if your trying to stabilise on soft ground it will just sink over time and get you stuck just like you did.
I'm pretty sure he has them, and even showed them in a previous episode.
Every MEWP I have used have manual emergency valves to return the boom to its stowed position only.
There is a manual online for the Klubb k32 (yours might be different) which shows a separate over-ride switch that bypasses movement limitations and emergency shutdowns. Is it fitted on your van?
Large bits of timber under pads to spread weight across and maintain pressure.
We use pads 1 meter square ⬛ they are a pain to take around strap them out side next to the bucket. Use the pads on all surfaces hard of soft the sensors on our lorries are the same
Love the insight into the pool work - thanks for sharing that. Not something that one thinks about as part of the job.
Yep, beer, crisps and peanuts. Good triple headed episode Tom. Stood in a puddle in a pool house checking that the power *really* is off is good for apprentices and learners to think about.
When deploying the stabiliser jacks you should use pads to distribute the pressure, and transfer a significant portion of the vans weight onto the stabilisers so you have proved the ground is stable and they can’t unload by moving the boom out to the side; not so much that the wheels come off the floor, but you should be able to see the suspension is less loaded than if you are ready to drive the van.
You could buy a very cheap trolley jack and keep in the van for when stabilisers need a bit more pressure. Still need a 2nd person to operate it though. Only other thing, if you are working alone, you could put one of those emergency fire escape chain ladders in the bucket. At least you would be able to climb down, even if it wasn't all the way to the ground, it would be close enough for you to drop safely.
Spot on the money Tom . I did a similar job , rcbo C/U + surge protection. Fair bit of making good too . Came around £7500
You can buy bigger feet to put under the stabilisers (or you can use pieces of scrap wood) to distribute the weight better.
Also, I’d probably buy another trolly jack just to throw in the back of the van just in case you’re up a creek.
28:18 Sorry Tom, you are right with the steel ball in the float switch, but they don't have pins, they have a microswitch. A steel ball will make a bad contact after a while (arcing) so pitting the ball.
there should be a manual bypass on the hydraulics so that if you get stuck without power the ground operator can safely (though slowly) bring you back down to ground level
These exist on many mewps/scissor lifts ive used on sites here and there, its basically a manual lever inside somewhere, usually near the emergency stop that basically slowly depressurises the hydraulics, takes a minute or more from full height and its just a straight "drop"
Telehandlers have devices that won't let you lower the boom unless there's pressure, means if there's a hose failure the boom doesn't just drop.
As a result it's a complete pain in the arse moving the boom if a hose does blow but it's safer.
I would be amazed if man lifts didn't have the same feature. It would mean you couldn't accidentally recreate the scene in Casino Royale where Bond rips the valve chest off the scissor lift and crashes the whole thing to the floor.
Uncontrolled lowering of the basket could also end up toppling the machine over, because as you lower the arc takes the basket further away from the van.
@@tomcardale5596 the bypasses I've seen have some kind of serious flow restrictor so it's a gradual depressurisation and very well controlled
@@Simon-ho6ly I'm amazed that works. I'd assumed that, as material lifts include valves to stop that exact thing from happening, people lifts would too.
I've done it on old forklifts but nothing I've driven made any time recently.
@@tomcardale5596 The ones ive seen are a special valve, its not like popping all the valves full open but like a bypass that must have literally a pinhole opening or something, the descent is VERY slow and well controlled and you can hear the fluid rushing through the constriction sometimes..
this is an example on a genie lift th-cam.com/video/qN3vS6DWnlc/w-d-xo.html
Love the longer vids Tom. Keep them coming.
Mr N you are absolutely right to inform colleagues and new apprentices to be careful.
Be careful going into pissed off drug tenants house. When in the amb service the police sent over an alert risk notice as drug users were jamming their used needles into the light switch so when you turned it on you got spiked.
It’s a boring and stressful time awaiting blood results for hiv / hep etc etc. Also be careful of plastic bags a colleague got spiked brushing up against a bag of used needles. Not a fun day at the office!
Thanks for the useful advice pal!
Maybe carry a sheet of steel say 6mm thick that you can put your jack on top of it if the ground is shit. It would stop your jack from sinking and you could easily slide it in the van. Wouldn’t need to be much bigger than the base of the jack.
On the utilities we use mewp evacuation kits, basically absailing out of the bucket,
I used a stand alone cherry picker trailer to paint our house and if any of the 4 legs lost stability or you over extended the arm then it would lock out your controls but it would let you turn the emergency switch and slowly bring the arm back down, and it would force you to go right back down so the basket was back in its cradle. The basket also had to be in the cradle to adjust the legs but it did give you a way down. That system in your van just seems a bit crazy tbh.
13:33 - Lovely story... but totally not true. That architect's name was Thomas Bouch (not Bodge). Bodge is an old word for "patch up", and a "bodger" was a woodturner who used green wood. Both were in use centuries before Thomas Bouch was even born. Some people may have called _him_ a bodger (or "Thomas Bodge"), but he's definitely not the origin of the term.
Yup! Bodger was a name for an itinerant woodturner who moved round the country from job to job. Hence a bodge job was one where if there was something wrong with it, by the time you realised, the guy had gone and you were stuck with it. Tay bridge disaster was down to Sir Thomas Bouch's bad design and poor supervision of construction and maintenance; partly because he gave some of the main contracts to family members. Read a book called The High Girders for the story; miracle it stayed in one piece as long as it did....
Agreed. A bodge is workable if inelegant job/fix. The word for a cock-up is botch.
I'm surprised you cant turn on/off the engine from the bucket. We don't even have outriggers on our light duty 10 meter bucket trucks here in murica and our heavy duty 30 meter boom trucks have spreader pads for the outriggers.
Exactly this happened to me ...
Press the microswitch where the bucket stows then it'll allow you to redeploy the jacks
The bucket or part of the boom pushes on a limit switch when it is fully down. find that switch and get the other person to press it. That allows you to re-adjust the jacks. If you are on your own, you need a "bucket escape" system, which is basically an abseiling set up.
He said in the previous video that it was exactly how he got around it (the video is even named "My first COCK-UP with the bucket truck..."), so he knows about the switch, he was just wondering is it how it's supposed to work and/or how are you meant to do it if you are alone.
Tom, have you considered putting your name & contact info, or business card, on each consumer unit you install? Where I live it's common for tradesmen to do that - air conditioning, plumbing, etc. Later on down the road if a customer needs repair they will know who to call, especially if it's a different homeowner than when you did the install.
big rubber blocks under the stabilisers spread the load on soft ground
Yeah, the manufacturer would rather have someone safe in the bucket but stuck there, than have someone stuck in the bucket and do something dangerous to try and free themselves. If you're that badly stuck and don't know what to do, time to call the fire brigade instead of DIY-ing something with a pry bar at the side of the road, or trying to safely transfer someone from one MEWP to another (you can't).
When they said you shouldn't operate MEWPs alone, they didn't mean at least two MEWPs (so you could use one to rescue the other), they meant at least two *people*: one in the bucket and one on the ground. If the boom locks out the controls for safety, the person on the ground can ALWAYS use the emergency controls on the hydraulic system itself to slowly lower the boom. Make sure your ground crew or spotters know how.
Massive oversimplification here, but here's roughly how MEWP hydraulics work:
- Fluid always flows from high pressure to low pressure.
- Tell the controls to go up: pump provides high pressure, valve opens, cylinder is lower pressure than the pump so fluid flows in, boom goes up; let go, valve closes, pump turns off.
- Tell the controls to go down: pump provides low pressure, valve opens, cylinder is higher pressure so fluid drains back into the sump tank, boom goes down; let go, valve closes.
- Valves are huge to handle a high flow rate when going up, but that valve is open even when you're going down, so the pump still has to provide some countering backpressure to limit your descent speed.
- All MEWPs have emergency controls on the ground mechanically connected to narrow valves that naturally limit flow rate, and will just slowly drain directly into the sump tank and lower the boom.
When you switch the engine off the boom realises that if you tried to go up, there's no PTO and therefore no pump providing the backpressure to limit your descent speed. So the valves would open and instead of fluid going into the cylinder, it would drain FAST and the bucket would drop quickly instead of going up like you wanted it to. That's why the ground controls can pump fluid in to manoeuvre anywhere just like the bucket can if the PTO is on; but if the PTO is off, they can only use the small emergency mechanical valve to drain (go down).
The boom's safety system has no idea if it lost PTO power because you intentionally switched your engine off (and know you'll need to switch it back on again later) or if your engine just randomly conked out; but it DOES know that if the engine were to conk out while the valve is open, it would lose backpressure and the bucket would fall. So if the PTO goes off for any reason, it goes into total panic mode and locks down everything except emergency lowering until it's reset. Just leave your engine on.
As for the outriggers, use spreader pads or blocks to spread the load so the ground doesn't sink, and extend them as fully as you can.
@13:35 I think that might be an urban myth. Sir Thomas Bouch came a bit later than the usage of bodge and/or botch?
Yep. Centuries later. Some people may have called him "Thomas Bodge", but the word was definitely around long before him.
Love the positive wall Tom, great idea.
Tom it is the same with crane operations. Use pressure pads (aka steel plates) under the jacks. Also, re: coming down safely, there must be a manual pressure relief valve. No hydraulic system should remain under pressure under no circumstances. The person on the ground should be ablento operate that PRV to bring you down to safety.
Do you have a link to the van DVR please? Would you recommend it quality wise?
Flip back to jacks and re apply pressure to.them green light should come back on. Done many times. Flip back to work mode
Also you should have pads and always use them
I believe the boom lifts here in America have a valve that can open just to relive the pressure and lower the boom. You can't do anything else but lower the main boom.
The plumbing & heating world is the same when it comes to pricing work. People are robbing themselves - absolutely crazy 😬
How do you turn the engine off if you in the bucket "Stuck" on ya alone? If on restart it re-calibrates?
I know on a normal boom lift, you have a pressure release that in case of an emergency you have a guy low level with a rescue plan to either… A) control manually from floor level on a override control. B) pressure relief valve that lowers the boom to ground level. Don’t know if this is same as vehicle mounted booms. :)
Another fascinating video Thomas! That abandoned house looked like a total s***hole! Thanks for the background on Bodge - never knew that he was a real person.
Thomas run the emergency pump through the inertia that way when your vehicle is turned off the pumping system in the bucket will work does that make sense?
Not used a bucket truck but saw one being used a couple of days ago and the stabiliser arms were out so far the wheels of the truck were off the road so all weight of the vehicle was on the arms. Is that not how it's supposed to be used? the arms take the weight, not the wheels???
Same with some cranes I’ve seen , I guess that keeps the pressure on them all the time
Out of Interest what DVR and Cameras are you using for the vans. I've been looking for a car system allowing for all round recording but i cant find any suitable setups. Any insight you can provide is most appreciated.
I've had a similar quote for my 3 bed home which was £5k plus vat, not in London so I'd say it seems a reasonable quote.
Nice one Tom, I've been in places where I've needed steel sole boots (needles on floor), customer paid for them. That was rank, and the smell 🤮
You need one them helicopter rope ladders....definitely enjoyed the iPhone footage, just like the older stuff
There should be a manual hand pump for the hydraulic system but failing that you could use an airbag under the outrigger that has lost ground pressure.
I work for a telecoms company and every time a Mewp is used, we HAVE to have a ground support person. In the event the mewp operator needs someone on the ground to use the controls to lower them down.
Spreader plates to help on soft ground i.e. wooden boards etc
pool fix was very interesting.
what was on the table ?
Need to add a manual override switch to bypass the stabiliser jack pressure switches. Using a momentary switch would prevent it being left in override.
The stabilisers obviously complete a circuit when sufficient pressure is on them.
You could wire in a manual override on a key switch in the bucket that "tricks" the boom computer to think stabilisers are deployed and allow control of the boom again.
*this is obviously unsafe/uncertified practice to bypass safety systems.
I don't know but couldn't you get the controls for the jacks put in the bucket
The pool job was really Interesting good work tom 👍
Glad you enjoyed it
You should be able to use manual controls those levers behind the cover to lower it down.
Obviously you need a second person for it
This is why cranes and use pressure pads distributes the weight evenly, get some off cuts of scaffold board's and if working on grass put a 3x3 18 mm ply down then lay scaff board's on top of that works for me.
Old saying " proper pre planning prevents piss poor performance "
You got a name or link for the van cameras, screen and dvr? Looks super neat
its so simple just dont turn engine off when boom is up in the air! and dont use emergancy pump unless fuel runs out!
Nice one.....your right about pricing and how low people will go , I priced up a 6 bed house over 4 floors in north London to the spec the designer wanted with a mountain of data cabling to go in to control all the gadgets plus fire alarm and it came in at £ 22k...... somebody else ended up doing the job for £ 8 k....😳......
The materials alone that the designer specked would have cost around £ 6 k..... This is what your up against all the time.....👍
Good estimate! And thank you for explaining it for the cowboys!
Immediately find a derilict airliner and remove the emergency escape slide canister and fit it to your bucket because it's obvious someone forgot to put in an emergency hydraulic release to lower the bucket to the ground. Other escape means are a very short bungey cord, rope ladder or the quickest opening parachute.......ever.
Be sure also to take a photo of the truck and put it on your wall of achievement.
I’m north Leeds and paid £4K. £7k for London sounds about right to me
Great videos cheers
What cameras have you fitted to your truck?
The photo frames, I'd hate that, I'd feel so uncomfortable with selfies, and being the only person who doesn't put selfies up
The positive wall is a great idea Tom!!
Cheers pal!
I would agree between £6500 to £7500. When AFDDs are compulsory that will add an other £1200
Struggle to get customers to pay an extra £30 for surge protection, never mind £1200 for AFDDs. There's certainly going to be a lot of explaining to do as to why the cost of a fuse board change has skyrocketed once these come out.
Is that how much AFDDs are ?
They shouldn't be made compulsory, Electrical safety shouldn't just be for the rich! AFDD's are overkill to be honest
There should be a manual hand pump and switch/valve inside the back van normally near the hydraulic bits. The person on the ground would then know how to swing you back in lower it down by pumping the handle and usually pushing a button or two!
Do you have a link to the van cctv package?
Thanks
Shouldn't you be using pads to lower the lifts on to. Especially on gravel or soft ground. Proper pads shouldn't flex and so the lifts wouldn't loose pressure
This is the correct answer. Big chocs of wood, which have been advised are fine until they give way. That'll wake you up. Rated pads and the legs shouldn't loose pressure.
There should be an emergency pressure release to lower you to the ground there a emergency release on sky jack lifts but that as well had to be operated from the ground
Stash one of those first-floor roll-up escape ladders in the bucket. Sorted.
Thats bloody moist. Kind of a bummer they didnt make a channel and slope the pool's maintenance tunnel's floor to that gutter.
Can you not install secondary controls for the Jack's in the bucket?
slightly puzzled here , if there is a national shortage of electricians as stated by the building trade how come there isn't enough for the exisiting sparks , interesting
Have you not got the pads that go under the stabilisers?
Why don't you carry in the crane truck a bigger pad (like larger cranes use, but doesn't have to be as big as a 75 tonne crane pad lol) and put under the jack? This spreads the jack load and helps stop the soft ground issue, esp as the jack foot isn't that big. If you find or think the ground is soft etc put the pad down for a greater load spread area.
for pricing. . . do you use something like 'Spon's Estimating Costs Guide to Electrical Works' or the 'Spon's Mechanical and Electrical Services Price Book'
I not, what pricing book do you use or is it just knowledge gained doing the work?
Did you get sort the Mewp dilemma? Most cherry pickers and scissor lifts have a manual pump that the bloke on the ground can manually pump the sections down to lower the operator, does your machine not have this ability?
If you’re by yourself working in the boom, the engine would not get turned off then back on again?
I have a very good idea have been in the plant room at a butlins while pool was in use
12:30 Employee to the month wall! All the photos of Thomas along the wall! 😁🍺
A way to override those safetys would be usefull, however it would get abused unless it was comlex enough to enable. Thats not a great solution tho, i know scissor lifts have a trigger that releases the fluid in the cylinders, lowering the lift; but that wouldnt work in the bucket probably. The solution is probably to have the ability to abseil out of the bucket like what large forklift drivers and scissor lift drivers train to do
Mate should use brigade cameras they do some lovely small side cams they use them on hgvs ect.