The Hand of Kong – A new lift device. We are very excited to announce a truly unique jib for our 25 ton knuckle boom. This one is specifically designed for the fly jib. This design allows our crane to lift like a forklift. The Hand of Kong can lift from below. But unlike a forklift, telehandler, or zoom boom; there is no mast! There is no back stop or fork structure above the load.
We lift the object from below. Whether it be a valve, pipe, heater, air unit, or anything else you can imagine. It’s grabbed, from underneath, like the Hand of Kong. It cradles the load delicately up into the sky. This is truly a revolutionary new device. No one has anything like this. We wanted to give it a truly unique name in order to give it the attention it deserves.
Problem at Hand
We started with a construction problem that our trickiest, tightest lifting devices could not do. It was Pre-Cast soffit pieces. They were under an outdoor roof, but they needed to fixed right to the ceiling. There was zero headroom. They were also very heavy; about 1,500 – 2,000 lbs. No crew could manually lift them into position. A telehandler with a long reach was the obvious choice, but there were spots it could not reach. These pieces were oddly shaped; rectangles, moons, and curved inwards and outwards. One more problem with the telehandlers, they had their steel back boards sticking up another 4 ft and intruding on the roof.
What is The Hand of Kong
The Hand of Kong protrudes about 4 ft above the crane, enough to get above the boom cylinders and keep everything free and clear. This allows it to reach further up into a crevice if we have to reach under an overhang i.e. a door frame, a pipe, a wire, or a roof edge. What gets extremely tricky here is that we know, as crane operators, the final set point usually requires some adjustment of the load or angle. We have to be able to rotate the load. We built that part in. It alleady can be tipped down, up, and scoped in and out with the boom. The fly jib gives it terrific mobility.
The crew wanted the device to tilt too. So we added another feature, a simple screw device that could elevate or depress a second platform ~20 degrees.
Now we can rotate, tip, and tilt.
We also added tie down points under the device and used thin nylon ratchets to secure the load. When we were bolting up, we released the straps and pulled the webbing out.
It worked better than we hoped for.
Great Results
Now we have ended up with something completely new. This is very exciting for old crane guys like us. This is something that can truly prove to be very useful.
On every job site there are construction challenges. There are mind-bending project problems that arise daily. The Hand of Kong can help in those situations. Situations where there is no headroom, no place to anchor a chain hoist. Where you’re lifting a load that has to be suspended in the air, there’s always a problem if the crane is parked above it. It can also be difficult to take something down that is fixed to the roof.
In the past we have seen forklifts with crates tied on their forks and the load balanced on that. We’ve seen a manbasket with something straddling the outside railings to gain elevation. We’ve seen unsafe conditions because no one has thought differently.
We don’t have to take those chances any more because we can work safely on difficult lifts.
We can use the Hand of Kong.
Don Lucas. Owner Encore Trucking & Transport.
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