wizzy00

Never had such a thing in my 44yrs. But i would say no, due to the fact if they went bankrupt you would not have a claim. You are signing off on any recourse.

Lifted hundreds of signs over my 44 yrs, hard to tell , what happened. I lean towards the lift points. What i did notice was the casual attitude afterwards. Sorry WTF, would be doing an incident/near miss report. Finding out what happened, to make sure it never happened again.

A very popular crane, I have always enjoyed operating one, like anything else, you have to do maintenance and watch your loads. The Wilke family , you cannot beat such a wonderful, honest family from the dad to the sons.

we had a 2008 International with a Dura Crap engine, we nick named the truck Titanic, not if it goes down when it goes down. 2 engine rebuilds in 160k kilometres, (100, miles). found it tough to sell with the L60 The 33K kgvw is an excellent idea

Very nice job, you see these trucks sometimes the GOV.Deals website

At 68 and still installing part time for other companies. We are in the same boat, companies having problems finding good help. One problem is that employees need benefits, can't raise a family with out them. Surprised how many employers do not offer this and also underpay. When some employers get an experienced employee the tend to jam the long hours to them. So guys like others do not. In my case I worked out of town last week and put in 62 hrs in 4 days and the guy I am helping out was pissed when I didn't want work the Friday. I ran my ran my own company for 44 yrs, from my experience a lot of companies do not have a company policy that is review and signed with new employees, I find a lot of employers their communication skills suck, resulting in new and old employees screwing up, and tend to slam the work at their people. When my employees were acquiring a huge amount of overtime, it was time to put another crew on the road. For our Royal Bank in Canada, I have mentored many business, not too many in the sign business, but finding good reliable help is every ones problem. I tell it how it is during the hiring process, and encouraged my employees to vocal their problems with me without the risk of being fired. I don't know with I am an expert, but when i retired I ha 3 employees with 20 plus years and 1 with 30yrs. And sure if found a good employee who was willing to learn, we taught them, but also rewarded them with bonus's and gift cards. I figure it takes a good 2 yrs or better to train some one and a sure loss if you lose them to your competitor. Thanks for letting me ramble on.

Here in Canada, for most parts you require a 0-8 crane sign erectors certificate. It has been around for a least 20 yrs. I use to teach it for our province, but now is taught by other organizations. The reason this was brought into play, was due the fact the number of crane accidents with sign trucks. The course, is pretty well common sense and easy. Now, I try to quiz other qualified crane operator, who have taken course with other organizations to see the quality of their training. Sometimes I am shocked at how bad or how goos their training was. De-rating the cranes, I do not believe is a proper thing to do, knowing that the cranes can lift more than 2,000 lbs, someone will always break the the rules and lift more, hoping they won't get caught. By the way my favorite question is, what do you do if you should actually it a hydro line, lifting one foot will kill you, the answers shock me. Thanks for letting this old guy spout off, and take the course. I just read the last post, if they do add a valve to de-rate the lifting capacity of the crane, it would be nice to have any the crane companies to confirm this, and not just replacing the load chart.

Here in Canada, for most parts you require a 0-8 crane sign erectors certificate. It has been around for a least 20 yrs. I use to teach it for our province, but now is taught by other organizations. The reason this was brought into play, was due the fact the number of crane accidents with sign trucks. The course, is pretty well common sense and easy. Now, I try to quiz other qualified crane operator, who have taken course with other organizations to see the quality of their training. Sometimes I am shocked at how bad or how goos their training was. De-rating the cranes, I do not believe is a proper thing to do, knowing that the cranes can lift more than 2,000 lbs, someone will always break the the rules and lift more, hoping they won't get caught. By the way my favorite question is, what do you do if you should actually it a hydro line, lifting one foot will kill you, the answers shock me. Thanks for letting this old guy spout off, and take the course

Curious with the photo, will an extension ladder do that? He will not get very far out of the bucket and up the ladder. But they win the prize for stupidity. Have found that once these guys are caught by OSHA or in my country the MOL. They crack down on all of us

Wayne is right about the workman's compensation. A show on one of the popular TV court shows had a similar case in which the business was held responsible. I have bee amazed over my 44 yrs in the business at what the employees seem to think they are entitled too. We used to let an employee drive the company bucket truck home as to give him a break in his travel to and from work expenses and found he was trimming trees after hours and on weekend. Any accidents or damages became our responsibilty.

After having an installation company for 40 yrs. (now retired, don't miss winter) We used lots and a good quality duct tape, where the mounting holes were in the letters on the pattern we used lags, screws etc with fender washers. If windy on dri-vit (foam with a concrete coating) we would use two different drills and quickly mark the mounting holes with a small bit and the electrical with the large. Remove the pattern and then finish drilling the wall. We have used the coro-plast method many times, We would buy coro-plast when it was on sale or buy defective sheets from our supplier. Thin masonite works well too and can be used for multiple installs of the same sign as long as it was cut from the same files on the computer. In wind a paper pattern alone, not a good idea, but if any rips or large holeS occur they must be taped up right away, nothing worse as too lose your pattern before your job is finished. In the past have used the carbon paper from the neon bending days and traced my letters and mounting holes onto the coro-plast, useful on wet days.

Here in Ontario Canada, I have my 0-8 ton sign erector crane ticket. I used to teach a course on it, and you would get a license with the provincial logo on it. Outside sources started to teach, the course ie "Smooth Operator" .We had one situation where an installation crew was working by the MOL building (Ministry of LAbour) and produced one of these other source tickets and were shut down. Since that time the Province has gotten out of issuing them, but expect all the crane operators to have them. But anyways I have my government issued license since 1993, I have been asked to produce it twice in that period of time, I imagine if an accident really did happen they would ask me to produce it then. As i said I taught the course, and at the regional sign show here, I guy who works for a safety group told me , that i need to be tested by their company to be legal now. I asked what their experiance they had in crane safety and told me very little. I checked with the province and they told me me I was legal , and because they teach the course and issue a certificate, they also could be legal, being that the onus would fall on them and the operator that had the accident. On another note here , our cranes can be inspected by competent person once a year. Define competent? The government says as long as a competent person as documented it, it is legal.

I really can't see why it would be a problem. I thought it was designed to be used on plastic. Try it and find out.

Hi Everyone. A lot of your aluminum come fro us in Canada. Now your wonderful president has decided he might be adding a 10% tariff to our aluminum coming into the US. I understand the Canada provides 90% of the aluminum to the US. He has also talked of adding 25% to our steel also. AS of right now all these tariffs are on hold as long as he gets his own way with the NAFTA talks. If the NAFTA gets cancelled both the US and Canada will hurt. Since much of our raw materials is exported to the US to made into items such as parts etc. and then shipped back to Canada. Expect it, to get worst. Presently here in Canada, I have been filling in part time (I have been retired for 8yrs) at a sign company, that due to costs is started making his fillers out of steel and having them galvanized. Honestly I do not agree with it, its like going backwards again. Good Luck everyone on both sids Dave

Thankyou Paul

Thankyou everyone for the replies, I just realize that I had a replies after finding that this was going into spam. I will follow up on your suggestions. Dave

Help, !!! Took on a retrofit of an old Coca-Cola keystone sign to LEDs. Noticed the hanger brackets were paper thin. Swing sign. I could probably make them, if I had to. Is there a supplier out there, The material is 1/8" x 1.1/2" steel with a twist. Thanks Dave

Teksign Inc. L60, international, 130 miles, asking around the 90 mark, open to negotiations. Dan Mullin is the contact 1-416=399-3591

In the old days I put a 110v, hot water heater element in my 85 Skyhooks tank and tied heat guns to the electric motors and ran everything off the generator. It was 40 below and were sent to Calgary. I can now officially sing the 40 below song. The greatest asset to dressing for the winter is insulated coveralls, hoodie, toque and good insulated boots. Used to dread on jobsites where they forced you to wear a hard hat. After getting frost bite one year on the fingers, I have never found a good pair of winter work gloves. Any you guys in Alaska have a choice. Thankfully now 65yrs old and after 40 years of doing installs, I don't have to go out. But always bring any installers i see coffee.

As operating and teaching the sign erectors crane course here on Ontario. Other comments were correct about the rigging, special attention should have been addressed to the power lines, angle of boom a factor. The other possible problem was where the the site had been excavated, was the area of the outriggers, stable and compacted soil. The forces on the crane and surrounding soils would be great. due to weight of sign, angle of boom, length of stick. Dave

I like Paul's way. I made sure every truck was outfitted with the appropiate tools. With the lead installers supplying their own cordless and hand tools. I have noticed around here that different lead hands will change trucks everyday. I discouraged that with my own crew. I would assign each lead hand with their own truck, no changing to another. This way I knew if an extension cord was missing, a ladder damaged, or the truck was damaged, I knew who was responsible. Also it was the lead hand to know what is stock needed to be replaced etc. Their own tools damaged during an install would be replaced by me, I always got the damaged tool back to me. I have had other installers damage an impact/ drill and show up with a whole new kit. It didn't go over to well.

Hey Brian I operated a sign and service installation company for 36 yrs. I did very well, but had excellent accounts. I had a couple of National Sign Companies, who we had an agreement that I got paid in 30 days with the 45 being the max. In return they got my instant attention and a better rate. What I have learned, You need a line of credit large enough to sustain your business. Many companies will hold off your payment until they collect from their customer. Just remember you are not a bank, you need your money too. Normally I made it clear that its 30 days, 45 days I'm on your A**. I have been told , by my clients when I want payment, that they will not use me again and that is fine with me. I lost one major retrofit account with a National here in Canada, because I would not install any more of their signs until I got paid, of course I had a lot of their product in my yard. They owed me 50K for over 90 going to 120 days. I do need clients like these. I am proud to say one of the large banks here in Canada, (The Royal Bank) has asked me to mentor other businesses. Just remember, watch your accounts receivable, preferably COD or with a good deposit. Sign companies who hire you to do the install, receive a deposit before manufacturing, You must be part of the deposit also. You have a skill that is in great demand and should be able to make a decent living off of it. Dave

Low attendance, could be to the bad exchange rate between the US and Canadian dollar. I'm with Eric on this one a new venue has long been over due. I remember the shows being in Phoenix, San Antonio, Washington etc. where we would make it a family trip as well to explore the sites, sounds and foods of the area. wizzy

Excellent stuff Paul. As never really being rich, I always had to to repair and convert my equipment and became quite proficient with repairs to Skyhooks, Radocy's, Dynas. Kind of miss those old cranes,

A lot of the other posters are right, If neon is manufactured and installed properly, it should last a very long time, As for border LEDs , I have installed many of the Sloan product here in Canada, with no issues. The only thing , I don't like is that you are limited to your radious and must read their installation requirements religiously. Dave