Hi people. I have just recently done my Hiab certificate and was immediately sent out by my agency on a job with a timber supplier. The truck was a 55 plate DAF 26 tonner with an Atlas Terex crane.
I was upfront and told them I was new to it and would need to have a practice beforehand but I couldn’t even get it switched on :? . None of the guys at the yard could work it out either and so they contacted a guy who used to work there (regular driver was on holiday) and he said "oh yeah, the switch is in the middle of the dash, you just need to put the clutch in when you press it.
By this time we had pressed every switch I couldn’t already identify, so I thought it must just be the clutch thing, but this made no difference. When I tried to use the keypad on the crane itself it just seemed to flicker and die, and in the end I didn’t even use it, so I have only ever operated the one on the course which was ancient and totally different. Doh!
Thanks in advance for any advice. PS, there were only a couple of fairly narrow slings in the cab and I wondered how effective they would be for lifting timber nearly as long as the body on just a single hook?
Information given was right, on the DAF I drove with a crane the switch was the furthest away from the driver on the dashboard. Lifting slings should have an information tag sewn in to one of the end loops, this will tell you what the “safe working load” is. Some cranes on modern trucks have a number of safety systems…E.G. crane will not operate until the legs are down AND locked. If a load is too heavy the crane will simply lock up, the only way out of that is to go down again. Health and safety rules eh.
I sometimes drive a DAF CF with an Atlas crane and the PTO switch is on the dash, sort of under the steering wheel and to the left. It’s a DAF factory PTO on ours though, which isn’t always the case.
Not sure if this applies to cranes or tippers, but on the units I have driven where the PTO drives a blower the procedure is as follows;
Depress clutch
Engage top gear high split
switch PTO swtch on
Disengage top gear
Release clutch
PTO Running, set revs
Like I say it may not be the same for a hiab, but could be worth a try