Tip of the Week

November 22, 2004

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Hoisting Equipment

One thing we have to do on almost every job is to hoist equipment to the test location. There are as many ways of doing this as Jim Burton has spent hours on a stack. Every piece of equipment has a good way, and a not-so-good way to be lifted off the ground. Rather than analyze each and every one of these, the following basic guidelines should be considered:

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1. Always be safe.a

2. Avoid trusting handles by themselves as hoisting points. Whenever possible, first wrap the rope around the object (cooler, toolbox, etc.)

3. Use a probe knot to hoist probes.

4. Use a bowline to tie off a clipping biner for general hoisting.

5. Hoist meters one of three ways:

· Acceptable: rope clipped (or tied) to one handle

· Better: rope clipped to lifting strap that equalizes two handles

· Best:: use double figure eight and two biners