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Had a main hoist brake let go on a tower crane in Dallas last month
It was a 30 ton lift of steel beams, about 150 feet up. The load just started to drop, maybe 10 feet before I got it under control with the secondary. Turned out the brake lining was completely worn through and nobody caught it on the last inspection. What's the longest you guys have seen a brake hold up before a full failure like that?
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clairem815mo ago
Man, that's terrifying. My brakes just squeal when I forget to sweep the floor, can't imagine a whole crane load going. Longest I've heard was a service truck brake that made it 80,000 miles before the pad fell out.
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paul2335mo ago
Yikes, that's a serious close call. I read a case study once about a mine hoist brake that went over a decade without a full failure, but they caught it on a scheduled teardown. The report said the lining was paper thin and just holding on by luck. Makes you wonder how many things are running on pure chance out there.
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ruby5615mo ago
Honestly, "paper thin" sounds like a bit of an overstatement. They probably caught it way before it was that bad.
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