had a long journey to do the other day and went past three places that must hire out those elevated platform chery picker things. All of them had the machines in the elevated position.

Is this for any mechanical / hydraulic reason or is it just so people notice them and think ‘ooh cherry pickers if i need to hire one i can go here’?!

Diggers on the other hand always seem to be stored with the buckets on the ground.

God my journeys are boring if these are the things going round in my head

Makes them harder to nick, can’t just drag it onto a lo loader and be off. That would be my guess but also as you say free advertising

free advertising I reckon, no technical reason.

I see this loads on the M6 and from what i understand it is so they can’t be stolen as easily.

Are there safety interlocks on them, or would they fold down under gravity?

Don’t tell the tea leaves.

(edit) On the kit my employer used, we stored stuff with the rams retracted, to avoid possible damage to the piston rods.

I love a Rumsfeld thread, sitting and reading a question like the op’s and realising I didn’t even know that I didn’t know the answer.

I guessed it was two fold:

1. Harder to nick
2. You can check the hydraulics as if they’re worn, it will slowly descend…

They won’t slowly descend – the hydraulics are locked out to specifically prevent it.

Makes them a bit harder to nick, although they all have manual lowering controls, if you know the machine, you know how to do it. Can take ages, on certain models you just pull a plunger.

Personally, my limitied experience would suggest you shouldnt leave them upright as they all have maximum safe limits for use in wind. (generally 12 m/s). Any sudden high winds could damage them.

I’ll admit that I’ve not thought about it too long, but I’d assumed that it was simply so they could be parked closer together. The basket rests next to the base in the down position, effectively doubling it’s footprint when down…

To a certain extent they also take up less floor space if the boom is upright too.

As to the actual question – they take up less space in storage at the hire companies yards.
Nothing more.
On site its usually so they can leave their kit in the basket overnight and not carry it back to the van/car rather than stashing it somewhere and hoping it doesn’t get knicked.

I love a Rumsfeld thread,

Only he didn’t come up with it. I was told it during some company training years before, and it was used at NASA.

Its so my girlfriend can say “I didn’t realise we were so close to Alton Towers” as we pass an access equipment hire depot in Nottinghamshire.

I guessed it was two fold:

*chuckles at glimmer of a joke*

maccruiskeen – Member

Its so my girlfriend can say “I didn’t realise we were so close to Alton Towers” as we pass an access equipment hire depot in Nottinghamshire. Bless

Only he didn’t come up with it. I was told it during some company training years before, and it was used at NASA.

Well yet another thing I didn’t know I didn’t know 🙂

To stop the cows pinching them…..

So they can be fed by their mummy and daddy. My son said they looked like chicks straining for food.

I love seeing them. It puts me in mind of a herd of dinosaurs all straining up to catch a sparrow or something.