A few of you guys followed this drama on my FB page, but thought I'd share here on the forum too. MOnday afternoon ( New Years Eve), we were wrapping up at this hotel and I told Travis to come on down. Main boom of lift would not retract, obviously something was wrong! I wasn't too concerned, as lifts have back-up safety feature which ensure a safe descent, right?
Wound up having to get the United Rentals tech out on New Years Eve, and Travis was stuck in the lift for about 3 hours! Wanted to share the solution so maybe you could avoid the same situation if, God-Forbid, it ever should happen to you.
Secondary emergency hand pump was disabled, so there was no manual lowering or raising of the boom. UR doesn't have an answer for why machine went out of the shop with this feature not working. Main problem was that "down" solenoid burnt out. These machines typically will lower the boom as a safety feature even if the power it off, but with the solenoid not working, the pump was not getting this instruction.
Final solution was to switch the "up solenoid" with the "down solenoid" and raise the boom, which actually then sent a "lower the boom" command to the pump. Tech said he has never encountered this problem before.
Thank god you guys had favorable weather down there when this happened. Travis must be a real trooper and didn't drink a lot of coffee. The information you've provided will help one of us someday.
Serving the Pocono and Lehigh Valley(Carbon, Lehigh, Northampton, Monroe, Pike and Wayne Counties), PA community as well as both Warren and Sussex Counties of New Jersey
Like Hank said, thank god Travis made it down without any mishaps. Pretty un nerving place to be hanging out for 3 hours and not knowing if the hydraulics are going to give out!