This one is required
Most of the documents in this section are convention. This is not.LOLER 1998 regulation 8(1) requires every lifting operation to be properly planned by a competent person, appropriately supervised and carried out in a safe manner, and regulation 8(2) defines a lifting operation as an operation concerned with the lifting or lowering of a load.
That is deliberately wide. It is not a crane regulation. A telehandler shifting a pallet of blocks is a lifting operation, and so is a hiab off the back of a wagon.
It says competent person, not appointed person
Worth knowing, because the whole trade says appointed person and assumes the phrase is statutory. It comes from BS 7121, the code of practice for the safe use of cranes, not from LOLER. HSE is also clear that the planning need not sit with one named individual, so long as it is competently done.
None of which means ignore it: principal contractors ask for a named appointed person all the time and you will not get on site without one. It just means that request is coming from the contract, not from the regulation, and knowing the difference is useful when somebody tells you the law says something it does not.
Why this does arithmetic instead of collecting prose
A lift plan template with a free-text "sling arrangement" box is a form. The two things that actually put somebody under a dropped load are both numbers, and both are routinely got wrong.
The gross load is not the load
The hook carries the chains, the shackles and the spreader beam as well as the thing being lifted. A three metre beam is well over a hundred kilos on its own. On a lift running near the rated capacity, the rigging is what tips it over, and it is exactly what gets left out of the sum.
So the weight is built up as a table rather than presented as a single figure, and the PDF prints it the same way. A slinger reading it on the day can see the beam was counted.
Leg tension is not the load divided by the legs
It is the load divided by the number of legs and by the cosine of the angle from vertical, and that cosine runs away from you faster than people expect.
Two legs, one tonne, straight up: 500 kg each. At 30 degrees from vertical: 577 kg. At 45: 707 kg.At 60 degrees, each leg is carrying the full tonne: the same as if you had used one leg and no second sling at all. That last figure is the reason 60 is a limit rather than a suggestion.
Move the angle slider and watch the number. That is the entire subject in one control, and it is the thing a printed template cannot do.
The trap that catches experienced riggers
There are two ways to describe the same sling angle, both in common use, and they differ by a factor of two.
- Angle from vertical: what each leg makes with a plumb line.
- Included angle: the angle between the two legs, at the hook.
Sixty degrees included is thirty from vertical. Read a chart in the wrong convention and you believe you have half the tension you actually have, in the dangerous direction. This tool asks once, in whichever you prefer, and prints both on the plan every time, so nobody downstream can misread it.
Four legs is three legs
On a rigid load, a beam, a welded frame, a fabricated gate, the load will not share evenly across four legs. The standard assumption is that three legs take it and the fourth balances, so a four-leg sling is rated the same as a three-leg.
The tool derates it and says it has, rather than quietly dividing by four and producing a comfortable number. On a flexible load that settles, all four legs do share and all four count.
The fields that get left blank, and why they matter
The wind limit. It is the most common reason a lift should be called off and the least often agreed in advance. Written down in the office, it is a fact. Left blank, it becomes a judgement made by whoever is standing under pressure with a crane on hire.
The ground. Outrigger loads are far higher than the load being lifted. Basements, slabs and backfilled trenches are where lifts go over, and it is almost never the crane that failed.
What stops the lift. Agreeing that before you start is the difference between a plan and a description of what you intend to do.
What this tool is not
It is not an engineered lift, and it will not become one. Tandem lifts, contract lifts, lifts over occupied areas and anything needing calculation beyond statics are outside what a browser form can do honestly, and the PDF says so on its face.
The tensions here are trigonometry applied to the figures you entered.The working load limit marked on the sling, and its certificate, is the authorityon what that sling may carry. This tool tells you what the arrangement demands; the tag tells you what the kit can give.
Alongside it: a risk assessment for the task, RAMS if the principal contractor wants both, and a permit if the lift is over or into somewhere that needs one. Nothing is uploaded and nothing survives closing the tab.
Common questions
Is a lift plan a legal requirement?
Yes. LOLER 1998 regulation 8(1) requires every lifting operation involving lifting equipment to be properly planned by a competent person, appropriately supervised and carried out in a safe manner, and it is the only tool in this section where the answer is a clean yes. Regulation 8(2) defines a lifting operation as an operation concerned with the lifting or lowering of a load, which is as wide as it sounds: a telehandler moving a pallet is in scope.
Does it have to be an appointed person?
The regulation says competent person. It does not use the phrase appointed person at all: that job title comes from BS 7121, the code of practice for the safe use of cranes. HSE is also explicit that there need not be one named individual doing the planning, as long as the planning is competently done. Contracts and principal contractors often ask for a named appointed person, which is a contractual requirement rather than a statutory one.
Why does it ask for the angle twice?
It does not: it asks once and shows both, because the same sling is described either by the angle between its legs or by the angle each leg makes with the vertical, and published charts use both. Sixty degrees of one is thirty of the other. Reading the wrong column is the single commonest way sling arithmetic goes wrong, and it goes wrong by a factor of two in the dangerous direction.
Why will it not produce a plan above 60 degrees?
Because general purpose slings are rated to 60 degrees from the vertical and no further. Past that the tension climbs steeply, and at 90 degrees each leg would be carrying infinite load. A document endorsing that angle would be worse than no document, so the tool says what to change, longer legs, a spreader beam, a different arrangement, and stops. It is the only place on this site that refuses to generate a file over a value judgement.
Why does four legs give the same answer as three?
On a rigid load, yes. A beam or a welded frame will not share evenly across four legs: the standard assumption is that three take the load and the fourth balances it. So the tool derates four to three on a rigid load and tells you it has. On a flexible load, a bundle or a bag that settles, four legs do share and all four are counted.
Can I use it for a crane lift over an occupied building?
No. Tandem lifts, contract lifts, lifts over occupied areas and anything needing an engineered solution are outside what a browser form can plan, and the PDF says so on its face. This is built for the routine lift, the telehandler, the hiab, the one you do every week and still have to plan.