GA1 After Repair or Modification: When Your Existing Report Stops Counting

The due date on a GA1 is the latest the next examination can happen — not a guarantee the current one holds until then. Three things end a GA1's useful life early, and all three are routinely missed. If any of them has happened to your equipment, the report in the folder is no longer telling you the machine is safe.

Trigger 1: Substantial repair

A thorough examination assessed the machine as it was on examination day. Repair work that touches load-bearing parts or safety-critical systems changes the thing that was examined:

• Welding on booms, masts, chassis or stabiliser structures
• Replacement of lift chains, wire ropes, or hydraulic cylinders in the lifting circuit
• Work on brakes, holding valves or load-holding systems
• Hook, fork or carriage replacement

The logic is simple: the GA1 says nothing about the new chain, the fresh weld, or whether the repair restored the machine to specification. A fresh examination does. Routine service items — filters, engine work, tyres like-for-like — generally don't trigger re-examination, but if the work touched anything between the load and the ground, assume it does and ask.

Trigger 2: Modification

Any alteration to the equipment's configuration or capability: a new attachment interface, extended forks, a jib fitted, a man basket added, capacity changes, or control system modifications. Modification can be sneakier than repair because it often improves the machine — but the examination on file was of a different machine. The man basket case is the sharpest: fit one to a telehandler and you haven't just modified the machine, you've moved it from the 12-month regime to the 6-month people-lifting regime.

Trigger 3: The incident

Overloads, collisions, dropped loads, contact with structures, tip-overs and near-tip-overs. The rule that matters: the examination is needed if the event *could have* affected the equipment's safety — not only if damage is visible. An overloaded chain can be past its limits with no visible change; a boom that struck steel can carry a crack primer won't show you. "It looks grand" is exactly the assessment thorough examination exists to replace. The machine stands down until a competent person says otherwise.

Who is supposed to catch this?

In practice, nobody — unless you build it in. The inspector isn't on site when the repair happens; the fitter's job ended when the machine ran; the operator assumes someone else handles paperwork. The fix is one line in your procedures: any repair, modification or incident involving lifting equipment gets reported to the person who owns the equipment register, who decides — with your inspector if in doubt — whether a re-examination is needed before the machine works again. One phone call. That's the entire system.

Two real-world patterns we see

The winter rebuild. A machine gets a workshop overhaul in the quiet season — new chains, cylinder seals, a tidy-up weld on a stabiliser — and rolls out in spring on last year's GA1. Everything about the machine that matters has changed; the paperwork hasn't.

The borrowed basket. A basket appears on site, gets pinned to the telehandler for two days of snagging work, and disappears. Nobody examined the combination, and the machine spent two days lifting people on a 12-month goods-only examination.

If in doubt, ask — it's free

Genuinely unsure whether last month's repair needs a re-examination? Ring us and describe the work: L&M Plant & Inspection Services Ltd. will tell you straight whether the machine needs to be seen, and if it does, we'll get to it before it costs you a due date argument with anyone. 083 870 5355.