Found a dumb simple trick for blind picks on crawlers

Been running a Liebherr LTM 1050 for about 8 months now and blind picks were always the worst part of my day. Tried using spotters, hand signals, the whole deal but still had close calls. Last week I taped a cheap backup camera to the boom tip and ran the wire to a 7 inch monitor in the cab. Cost me like 40 bucks and now I can see exactly what the hook is doing without yelling at anyone. Anyone else rig up something janky that actually works better than the expensive stuff?

3 comments

3 Comments

ninas6711d ago

That a real solid idea or what? I gotta say, I love hearing stuff like this because it shows you don't always need to drop a grand on some fancy crane camera system. The cheap stuff works just as good if you take the time to rig it up right. I've done similar things on my equipment over the years, like zip tying a borescope to a log grapple just to see where the teeth are going. It feels a little redneck at first but when it saves you from bumping something expensive it turns into pure genius. Probably makes the spotters a little jealous too not gonna lie.

seanjackson11d ago

You ever try taping a cheap backup camera to the back of a trailer hitch just to see your ball when hooking up... Did that last fall and it changed my whole setup, honestly. I used a stick on phone mount and some velcro straps, cost me maybe thirty bucks total. Worked way better than I thought it would, no blind spots at all. It does feel a little silly at first, like you're one step away from duct taping a mirror to a stick... but when you don't have to get out and check ten times, it's hard to argue with.

theagibson11d ago

You sure that's actually saving you time though? Seems like you'd spend half your day just fighting with the wire and trying to get the stupid thing to stay taped on.