Warning: hand signals at 60 feet taught me to stop yelling across the yard

Riley Bell · 2026-10-18T07:45:05.380394+00:00

For my first three years running a lattice boom, I did everything by voice and a two way radio clipped to my vest. Yelling "boom up, boom up, easy now" across a site in Newark was normal for me, and half the time the guy on the load was nodding at something I couldn't see. Last spring a rigger named Dwayne asked me to try full hand signals for a whole shift on a steel pick, nothing verbal at all. First hour felt slow as hell, but by lunch I was reading his hands from 60 feet out with the engine noise and the wind fighting me. The thing that sold me was a load of pipe that drifted about 2 feet off line and I caught it from his palm tilt before the radio even squawked. Now I run hand signals as the main channel and save the radio for when the load goes out of sight around a corner. My swing is smoother because I'm watching the load and the hands at the same time instead of listening and guessing. Any of you work with a guy who won't do signals no matter how many times you ask?

🎙️Chatter Central

Loading…

Warning: hand signals at 60 feet taught me to stop yelling across the yard | Crane Operators - Chatter Central