Swore by my old manual boom controls until I tried a joystick setup on a Liebherr last week

I ran a 30 year old Grove with lever controls for 8 years in Denver. Always figured joysticks were just for new guys who never learned real crane work. Then my buddy let me run his 2021 Liebherr on a job moving HVAC units on a rooftop. After about 20 minutes I was picking loads smoother than I ever did with levers. Now I'm looking at a used Terex with joysticks. Anyone else make the switch and regret it or nah?

3 comments

3 Comments

gray3149d ago

Lever guys have been saying that for years and they're still running circles around joystick operators.

kelly_rivera10d ago

Yeah man, same here. Never thought I'd switch but joysticks just feel right.

taylor.brooke10d ago

Kelly, you just made me realize something I never connected before. It's not just about joysticks feeling natural. It's that they let you move and aim at the same time without thinking. On a controller, your thumbs have to do two things at once. With a joystick, your whole hand works together, so your brain doesn't have to switch back and forth as much. That's probably why it feels so much more fluid once you get used to it. Nobody talks about the actual brain muscle memory part of it, just the feel.