Soliciting Opinions on the Duerr Crane / Gantry Books

[KootK]

Every so often I hear good things about Duerr's books. This isn't space that I spend much time in so I don't really "need" these books per se. That said, when a brilliant and practical engineer puts pen to paper, I tend to enjoy the result -- and take useful things from it -- whether it's my space or not.

Can anybody comment on the caliber of the books shown below? I can't find either of them on the dark web to preview and both are the kind of book that I can see slipping out of production quickly.

 

[WinelandV]

From my friend in Green Bay, who has the Mobile Crane Support Handbook:

"I think the mobile crane support is great"

I trust his opinion on that book because at our first job, we spent a year doing high risk lift plans that included bearing pressures under crane mats for crawler cranes - so he has the experience to judge the quality.

Unfortunately, he does not have the gantry book, so he can't speak to that.

Please note that is a "v" (as in Violin) not a "y".

 

[KootK]

Thanks wineland. The gantry book is a fairly new offering so, if I want it, I may have to pick it up based on the strength of the mobile crane book.

 

[Craig_H]

I used to work in the crane and heavy haul field, and I still occasionally consult in it. I have not read Duerr's books, mostly because I had a wealth of in-house information and training at my disposal as I learned the ropes. I have read several of Duerr's past ASCE papers, and did find his work useful. His work on lateral-torsional buckling for lifting beams (which lack the end/support boundary conditions that most steel code approaches take as bog-standard) comes to mind as having been especially useful. I would expect the same of his books.

 

[Enable]

FWIW I just bought both because I looked them up after you posted and they seemed interesting. I also have to crane steel onto the top of roofs from time to time so probably handy to have. The Handbook comes this week and the Gantry Systems text comes in 3-4 weeks. I'll take a quick read through when they get here and update.

I also bought the one below....because Amazon's recommendation AI is pretty persuasive

 

[WinelandV]

Enable, I'm pretty sure that's the book that we had floating around the office for tower crane foundations. It even includes the dreaded bi-axial bending check on those foundations.

Please note that is a "v" (as in Violin) not a "y".

 

[Enable]

Sorry for the delay. Both books have arrived at this point but I have only had a chance to read the Mobile Crane Support Handbook. Thoughts are below:

The book is practically oriented, which is a nice change of pace and makes for an enjoyable read. There is certainly some useful information but nothing exactly riveting. I think the attraction of this book would be that it contains information in one place from a lot of disciplines, which are pertinent for the mobile crane support designer. For example, it includes timber matt design alongside geotech equations for pressures overtop buried structures / pipes. You would be able to get more from texts on those specific subjects, which you probably have on your shelf, but it is nice to have it consolidated in one work.

One thing I did enjoy was the discussion about how the pressure distribution from the track changes depending on soil conditions, and sometimes not trivially. So there are some little tidbits to pickup, and if you are doing this all the time they might be pretty useful. He also discusses some rules of thumb and their limitations. But my feeling is if you use sound engineering judgement combined with standard techniques from the relevant disciplines you could design a mobile crane support system just fine without this text.

 

[Lomarandil]

Enable, that lines up really well with my impression of the Duerr text.

The Shapiro Cranes and Derricks text is also excellent.