Safety reminder

[Bill R]

Check and inspect your rigging!

The cable on my recovery winch broke UNDER LOAD while winching my truck out from someplace it shouldn't have been over the weekend. It was a truly impressive (and scary) sight. Judging from the damage to a nearby tree, I am convinced that the recoiling cable would have come close to cutting someone in half. We never did find the snatch block that was on the cable. I found a bad scar on a tree from it, but never found the block.

PLEASE carefully check and inspect your rigging, especially stuff that is under heavy load. If it is damaged or even just worn, replace it.

This whole episode really opened my eyes to what could happen when stuff breaks.

[Spin_Drift]

Re: Safety reminder

Glad you are OK and no one got hurt.

Though feeling relief, it must have been a sick feeling in your stomach, just realizing how close it came.

Good reminder. Thanks...

.

[Captain Blight]

Re: Safety reminder

Check and inspect your rigging!

The cable on my recovery winch broke UNDER LOAD while winching my truck out from someplace it shouldn't have been over the weekend. It was a truly impressive (and scary) sight. Judging from the damage to a nearby tree, I am convinced that the recoiling cable would have come close to cutting someone in half. We never did find the snatch block that was on the cable. I found a bad scar on a tree from it, but never found the block.

PLEASE carefully check and inspect your rigging, especially stuff that is under heavy load. If it is damaged or even just worn, replace it.

This whole episode really opened my eyes to what could happen when stuff breaks.

SO GLAD you're OK. it could have been worse, a LOT worse.

I've worked as a deckhand on the Mississippi River system for about ten years now, off and on, and the thing that scares me the most day-in-day-out is steel cable under tension. Huge amounts of stored energy in those wires. My current project is a tool for the industry that will move deckhands away from the cables they're tightening.

[hokiefan]

Re: Safety reminder

Yeah, this is a good reminder to all of us.

One of the key safety principles we teach at work (chemical plant) is to stay out of the line of fire. This means thinking ahead to imagine what could go wrong, where that energy will go, and then how to position yourself out of that line of fire. The process of thinking through what could go wrong also helps avoid that outcome, which is really good too. In some cases, like Blight's example of the tow cable, it may be impossible to completely stay out of the line of fire, as I would imagine that anywhere on the aft end of a tug boat is in the danger zone. But in many cases it is possible to avoid the danger areas and reduce risks in that way.

Glad you were not hurt in this incident.

Cheers,

Bobby

[Bill R]

Re: Safety reminder

One of the key safety principles we teach at work (chemical plant) is to stay out of the line of fire. This means thinking ahead to imagine what could go wrong, where that energy will go, and then how to position yourself out of that line of fire.

I work with lines under tension a lot, especially rigging towers. I was WELL out of the line of fire. Still was one hell of a wakeup tho...

[Captain Intrepid]

Re: Safety reminder

SO GLAD you're OK. it could have been worse, a LOT worse.

I've worked as a deckhand on the Mississippi River system for about ten years now, off and on, and the thing that scares me the most day-in-day-out is steel cable under tension. Huge amounts of stored energy in those wires. My current project is a tool for the industry that will move deckhands away from the cables they're tightening.

Yeah, those tow cables literally are killer. They can cut steel as cleanly as with a cutting torch or a dozen men in half if they let go.

[BarnacleGrim]

Re: Safety reminder

Yeah, those tow cables literally are killer. They can cut steel as cleanly as with a cutting torch or a dozen men in half if they let go.

http://kwc.org/mythbusters/2006/10/e...ble_snaps.html

It can be lethal, though.

[ChrisF]

Re: Safety reminder

And the line of fire can have more staggers and jags than a cook in the scuppers . Thanks for the reminder.

[Captain Blight]

Re: Safety reminder

We don't actually "tow" barges on the Miss. We shove 'em. But when you're tying off a tow of 15 barges, each weighing 1500 tons, that's a tremendous strain that the shore wire's taking. Sparks fly fairly often. I saw one come adrift (Yeah, I know: Where do you watch something like that from?), it sliced a clean swath through 1/4" Corten steel.

The nylon lines we use for handling the barges are just terrifying sometimes too, but if you're even a little out of the line of fire you're considerably better off; they recoil in a pretty straight line and just wad up around their origin. I had a breaking line recoil right past me and-- you can't really make this sort of thing up-- caught the fly on my britches and ripped half the front off. Had I been an inch further forward, legions of women would have been saved untold trouble....

Be careful, folks. These things can kill you stone fucking dead.

[Captain Blight]

Re: Safety reminder

Chain is so much safer - when it parts, it just falls down; no muss, no fuss, no blood.

That's why the riverine towboats are moving to the aramid fibers for the face wires; Spectra has I believe a one-time 3% stretch and that's about it. You really don't want cabling flailing all over the head deck where people are working and painting and such.

[ccmanuals]

Re: Safety reminder

What's a recovery winch?

[Bill R]

Re: Safety reminder

What's a recovery winch?

12V winch attached to the hitch receiver on my truck to (theoretically) pull my truck back out of whatever mess I manage to get it stuck in. Has 70' of 7x19 steel cable spooled on it with a slip hook on one end and a snatch block with another hook on the cable so you can double the line back to increase the pulling power.

[willmarsh3]

Re: Safety reminder

Even with boats smaller than towboats and barges the lines need to be respected. I once was trying to upright a trimaran that had capsized. I got the line on and started pulling using my 12000 lb ketch with 24 hp diesel. I got going. The trimaran spun around. The line slipped off and flew through the air at least 50 feet with a whooshing sound before landing in the water. It had the potential of putting someone's eye out.
I have heard of draping fire hose over these winch cables to dissipate the energy if it snaps. The fire hose would be cut from end to end so it slips over the cable easily and generally stays put. Anyone actually tried this?

[ccmanuals]

Re: Safety reminder

12V winch attached to the hitch receiver on my truck to (theoretically) pull my truck back out of whatever mess I manage to get it stuck in. Has 70' of 7x19 steel cable spooled on it with a slip hook on one end and a snatch block with another hook on the cable so you can double the line back to increase the pulling power.

Aaaah, thought it had something to do with the sailboat.

[Captain Intrepid]

Re: Safety reminder

http://kwc.org/mythbusters/2006/10/e...ble_snaps.html

It can be lethal, though.

They should have tried putting some real tension on the cables. They only got up to somewhat under 15 tons of tension.