After feuding with the animal rights group over a billboard...

Construction worker Estevan Lucero was forced to stay put in his crane cab to hold down the brake when the load he was moving was too heavy and forced the back wheels of the crane off of the ground.

Construction worker Estevan Lucero was forced to stay put in his crane cab to hold down the brake when the load he was moving was too heavy and forced the back wheels of the crane off of the ground.

This is what the Marlboro Man would look like . . . after riding his horse into a ditch.

A Brooklyn hardhat didn’t let a little thing like his forklift tipping over get him down on Thursday — and instead calmly took a drag from his cigarette while awaiting rescue.

Once free, Estevan Lucero was as cool as a pack of menthols.

“I’m OK,” he told The Post. “This is the kind of s- -t you have to deal with day to day.”

Workers at the job site on Avenue M in Midwood had apparently overloaded the vehicle’s lift, which extends out on a boom, causing it to tip forward off its rear wheels shortly before 8:30 a.m., the FDNY said.

Onlookers snapped pictures as Lucero sat in the cab. He was heard telling building inspectors that he had to keep his foot on the brake to prevent the forklift, also known as a telehandler, from tipping farther.

After Lucero got out unharmed, the vehicle remained tipped for hours, and in the late afternoon, a full-size crane was brought in to get it upright.

Lucero said he was “not necessarily scared” by his brush with danger.

Other workers at the site noted he may have one worry — smoking on construction sites in New York is illegal and fines can reach the thousands of dollars.