Aerial work platforms

This machine holds a person. It gets treated that way.

A boom lift that stops responding forty feet up is a different kind of problem from a truck that will not start. Freeman Roadside Repair diagnoses and repairs articulating and telescopic booms on site, and we are straight about where our work ends.

Call (707) 553-3369 Describe the fault and the machine

Open 24 hours, seven days
No hourly minimum
A price before work starts
Electric and engine driven units

A mechanic's hands using a wrench on an engine component

What we fix, and what we will not sign

Start with the boundary, because it matters more here than on any other machine we touch. We repair boom lifts and get them working again. We do not perform or sign off the annual certification inspection that regulation requires on an aerial work platform. That is a separate, formal process, and if anyone tells you a repair visit covers it, they are doing you harm.

What that means in practice is simple. Call us when the machine has a fault: it will not respond from the platform, the boom is slow or drifting, it will not level, the engine will not start, the batteries will not hold, a hose burst. We find it, fix it, and tell you plainly what condition the rest of the machine is in. Keep your annual certification with whoever handles that for you, and keep the records clean.

We will also tell you when a fault should not be worked around. Interlocks, tilt sensors and overload systems exist because people have been killed by lifts, and a machine that keeps cutting out is often protecting somebody. Fixing the sensor is the job. Bypassing it is not something we do, regardless of who is waiting on the machine.

Dead at the platform usually is not the platform

The most common call we get on a boom is that the upper controls have gone dead. Nothing responds at the basket, and the natural conclusion is that the control box up top has failed. Occasionally that is right. Far more often the platform is fine and something in the chain that gives it authority has opened.

That chain has a lot of links. The ground control selector has to be in the platform position. The emergency stop at both stations has to be out. The footswitch or enable has to be made. On engine driven machines the unit has to actually be running, and on electric units the pack has to be above the cutout voltage. Any one of those left unsatisfied produces the identical symptom: a basket where nothing happens.

Then there is the wiring itself, which on a boom lift runs the entire length of a structure that bends, telescopes and rotates constantly. Cables chafe at the pivots, connectors corrode where water sits, and a conductor breaks inside insulation that looks perfect. Those faults are intermittent by nature, which is why we test with the boom in the positions where the fault appears rather than parked flat where everything works.

A red truck parked inside an industrial workshop — Rental yards and contractor shops around American Canyon and Napa keep these machines cycling hard, which is where most upper-control faults come from.

Anything that holds a person off the ground gets the careful version of the job. There is no hurry worth skipping a step on one of these.
Patrick Freeman, owner

No response up topCheck the ground selector, both stops and the enable before condemning the platform box.

Cuts out at angleA tilt or envelope sensor doing its job, or a chafed cable at a pivot. Both get tested in the position that trips it.

Weak on batteryA pack down on capacity drops under load and reads fine at rest. Testing it loaded is the only honest measure.

Platform out of levelLeveling cylinder, its valve, or a sensor out of calibration. The basket should stay flat through the whole arc.

Boom drifts downHolding valve or cylinder seals. Never a machine to keep working while it does this.

A worker standing at the front of a large freight truck — Service calls on lifts get planned around getting the boom down safely first, before anything else on the machine is opened.

Getting it down before anything else

If a machine has quit with the boom in the air, that is the first conversation, not the repair. Every boom lift has an auxiliary power system or a manual descent provision specifically for this, and knowing where yours is and how it works is worth more in that moment than any tool we carry. On the phone we will walk through it with whoever is on site.

Batteries deserve attention on electric units because they cause more lost days than anything hydraulic. A pack that has been undercharged, left flat over a weekend, or watered irregularly loses capacity permanently, and the machine then behaves strangely: fine on a short lift, weak on a long one, cutting out under drive load. Owners often chase a control fault that was a tired battery bank the whole time. Load testing the pack settles it in minutes.

Boom lift work we take on

Repair and return to service, at your yard or the job. Annual certification inspections stay with whoever provides them for you.

Platform and ground controls

Dead uppers, unresponsive functions and intermittent faults traced through the enable chain and the harness rather than swapped at.

Interlocks, tilt and leveling

Machines cutting out, alarming or refusing to extend. Sensors tested and calibrated, never bypassed to get a shift finished.

Batteries and charging

Load testing on the pack, charger output verified, cables and terminals repaired, and replacement when capacity is genuinely gone.

Cylinders and holding valves

Drifting booms, weak lift and leveling that will not hold, tested under load so the failing component is proven before it is replaced.

Hoses along the boom

Burst and chafed lines replaced and routed clear of the pivots, then cycled through the full range before the machine goes back.

Engine and drive faults

No starts, low power, overheating and drive or steer complaints on engine driven units, read and traced rather than guessed.

Habits that keep a lift available

Aerial machines are used hard by people who did not buy them. These few things prevent most of what we get called out for.

Charge fully, every timePartial charges and weekends left flat take capacity out of a battery bank permanently, and no repair puts it back.
Function test before the shiftEvery control from both stations, through the full range. Finding a dead function at ground level costs nothing.
Look at the cable runsHarnesses at the pivots and along the boom chafe where they rub. A few minutes of inspection catches faults before they strand somebody up top.
Never tape over an alarmA tilt or overload warning that keeps sounding is information. Silencing it removes the only thing standing between an operator and a bad day.
Keep the annual currentCertification inspection is separate from repair work and belongs in your records. We fix machines, we do not sign that off.

What owners ask about lift repairs

If somebody is stuck in the air right now, stop reading and dial. That call takes priority over everything else on the board.

Do you do annual certification inspections on aerial lifts?

No, and we want to be clear about it rather than vague. Annual certification on an aerial work platform is a formal inspection process with its own requirements and paperwork, and it stays with whoever provides that service for you. What we do is diagnose and repair the machine, then tell you honestly what condition we found the rest of it in. Anybody who offers to cover your annual as part of a repair visit is not doing you a favor.

Nothing works from the basket. Is the control box dead?

Sometimes, but it is one of the less likely answers. The platform only has authority when a whole chain is satisfied: ground selector in the platform position, both emergency stops out, the enable or footswitch made, the engine running or the battery pack above its cutout. Any single break in that chain kills every function at the basket. We work through the chain and the harness first, since the box itself is the expensive end of that list.

The lift keeps cutting out when the boom goes over to one side.

That pattern usually points at either a tilt or envelope sensor doing exactly what it was designed to do, or a cable that only breaks contact in that position. Both get tested with the boom in the position where the fault appears, because parked flat the machine will often behave perfectly. If it turns out the sensor is right and the ground is out of level, that is worth knowing before anybody goes back up.

Our electric lift dies halfway through a job. Is that the motor?

Almost always the battery pack rather than anything downstream of it. A bank that has lost capacity reads normal voltage sitting still and then collapses under drive or lift load, which produces exactly this complaint. A load test tells us in minutes whether you have a tired pack, a charger that is not finishing its cycle, or a genuine electrical fault. Owners often replace parts that were never the problem.

The boom sinks slowly when it is parked up. How serious is that?

Serious enough to stop using the machine. Drift means either a holding valve that is not holding or cylinder seals bypassing internally, and in both cases the position of that boom is no longer fully under control. It is not a fault to work around for a few more days. Bring it down, keep people out of it, and we will test the circuit to find which of the two it is.

Can you come to a rental yard or an active job site?

Both, regularly. Rental yards get repairs documented in writing for their records, which is usually what they need alongside the fix. On active sites we work to whatever the safety requirements are at the gate, and we will tell you up front if the machine’s position or the ground under it means the repair should happen somewhere else. Napa and Solano are quick runs, the East Bay and Sonoma take longer.

What is the lift doing?

Make, model and the fault gets us moving. Dead at the platform, cutting out, drifting or dying on battery all send different parts out on the truck.

Call (707) 553-3369 Send it through in writing

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