Older cranes rely upon the operator to tie down the crane during high wind conditions.
Unexpected high winds and forgetting to tie a non-operating crane have created major financial damages due to lost time and repairs to cranes which have been blown out of control by high winds. Due to the reduced effect of high winds on the trussed girder design, these cranes are designed to operate in winds to 45 mph, but beyond that they become increasingly uncontrollable with increasing wind speeds. Application of gantry brakes to accommodate both normal operating conditions plus high wind conditions is impractical. As an example, the longer the cantilever in relation to the span, the more the wheel load will deviate from the average when the trolley is at one cantilever. In this case, the wheel load at the trolley loaded cantilever side can be four times the load of the opposite side.