Saw this at a construction site in Cambridge, MA. Condo’s using panelized construction. The crane looks to be about 70′ tall and has a 85′ boom. Looks like it could be towed behind a large pick up (minus the counter weights) and it is remotely operated. Don’t know it’s weight capacity.
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That is a cool crane. Got to wonder what the capacity is on it. Sure didn't look like much counter weight, or even much of a base.
Mike
Trust in God, but row away from the rocks.
reinvent,
They are extremely common on European job sites.. yes they make tow behind models and they are remarkable for their capacity. if you consider that a typical contruction load for a house is less than 2000 pounds and the only real purpose of a counterwieght is for stability and not to counter the load they do a job..
I was asked to sell those several years ago and realized that it would be an extreme up hill battle to sell. Contractors are really stuck in yesterdays technology and equipment and American contractors would have to totally revise their construction techniques and bidding to effectively use them as they are used in Europe and parts of Asia..
The few that are here in America are extremely expensive compared to their european costs because of "newness" factors. Using one of these isn't like calling in the taxi crane comapny.. there is a real need for preplanning, siteing considerations. and additional labor and training... (plus suplimental equipment considerations)..
Interesting response to an interesting crane. I, too wonder why we pretty much build most houses the way we did 300 years ago!
Forrest - ICF and panelization IS the future
Edited 8/10/2006 5:50 am by McDesign
Interesting comment at the end - ICFs are the past, too, but haven't caught on. I heard drywall was invented 30 years before it went mainstream. Panels and ICFs make sense to me too, but they are still a curiosity near me.
I'd like to profit from ICFs...but the market is still small.
Treat every person you meet like you will know them the rest of your life - you just might!
McDesign,
I built my new home using ICF's and SIP's but I retrograded it and went with timberframing.
I know that you don't need to use timberframing to build with SIP's but the look of those massive timbers as cheap as they were was too much to pass up..
Now the reason we build as we do is the penny sqeezers
There is a learning curve and an adaption curve to using new technology's. Few want to be on the cutting edge forgetting that the cutting edge is where the real profit is..
The main hassle is that few foundations are really square and true which makes using panels a bit more difficult.. Panels simply don't want to bend like plywood and stick building does.
a quarter inch off on the foundation means trying to bend extremely stiff panels together at the roof line which may be several inches off..
The tiny differance in plumbing and wiring techniques is too minor to be much of a bother except every plumber/ electrician knows how to auger thru a 2x4 and the fear of doing the same with a panel scares everybody (forgetting that you simply order the wire chases in the panels where you want them..) as for plumbing it's not wise to put plumbing in outer walls and inner walls are normally stick built...
Frenchy,
Any idea of prcicng and insurance costs for one of these?
johm7g
It's been nearly a decade since I was asked to look into them so my numbers are probably out of line remember too that most are built in France or Germany so the prices need to reflect the differance between the dollar and the Euro.
A tower crane that size delivered here to America was about $250.000 if you made the molds for the concrete weights locally ( they provided blue prints) Insurance was similar to other cranes that size and really dependant on your record.. Newbies really take a beating..
The few that are here in America are extremely expensive compared to their european costs because of "newness" factors. Using one of these isn't like calling in the taxi crane comapny.. there is a real need for preplanning, siteing considerations. and additional labor and training... (plus suplimental equipment considerations)..
Can you expond on that?
From the pictures I couldn't see any outriggers or leveling jacks. That alone would limit its' use on most construction sites.
Dave
Dave,
What would you like to know? I mean some of the details are pretty foggy. But for one thing they don't need outriggers and as for leveling that was pretty much a given that you erected it level on a hard packed site. Not exactly a rough terrain piece if that's what you were thinking..
IN Europe they drive up to the building site and erect it inside of an hour , they might visit two or even three sites a day. They are typically towed with a two ton truck with a second truck hauling the rigging and counterweights..
Most of the ones I've seen are self erecting unlike a typical fixed tower crane which requires another crane to assemble it prior to erection..
I've been lusting after one of these:
http://www.nabocker.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=category.display&category_id=45
What ever you do, don't flip the red switch on the dashboard, Gunner.
http://grantlogan.net/
you just want to sit in that thing and ride it up to the roof don't ya lolbusta
One European standard for construction that I saw in trips over there was this: walls of some kind of hollowcore concrete or claytile blocks, roof structure of heavy timber trusses, and roof finish of clay tile.
All heavy stuff. Thus, I recall seeing one of these mini-tower-cranes on just about every residential homesite under construction.
These cranes would make sense here if we built with those same materials. But we don't; we build with sawn lumber framing, sheetgoods, asphalt shingles, etc.
Used to work in a firm with another architect from Switzerland. He said everything over there was concrete, concrete, concrete . . .he was amazed at the wood construction in this country
Edited 8/11/2006 10:15 am ET by draftguy
Gene,
Have you picked up a pallet of shingles? If you note they weigh about the same as a pallet of clay tiles. same with a bunker of subflooring or a bunker of 2x4's (they are about the same weight as a load of timbers) most contruction loads are around 2000 pounds plus or minus 10%.
Now I don't sell those so I have no real love of them.. they have trade offs to them like other things. For example we tend to use rough terrain telehandlers (Lulls) rather than mini tower cranes. the trade off is that a telehandler needs more room to manuver but saves on labor. (a crane needs someone on the ground to load, an operator and someone above to unload) functions that a telehandler does with only the operator. Mini tower cranes may use the operator to do the load functions but then he will need guidance once the load is out of site increasing further the labor involved.
In Europe and parts of Asia space is at an exteme premium, thus their dependance on less efficent but more compact equipment.. Our building techniques will need to change quickly in the near future if we are to be able to build efficent houses.. Sure sawn lumber is relatively cheap, however it is horribly inefficent at energy savings and no amount of insulation will correct that..
America built log cabins for well over several centuries. Almost none exist today in original conditon.. Log cabins rot timbers due to their construction method.. while European timberframes last 500 to 1000 years. yes a 2x4 was a cheap and easy material to build with when we had forests full of old growth pines, fir, and redwood..
Those forests are gone now replaced with monocultured forests attempting to replace the nearly free wood of yesteryear. Land values will quickly prove that to be uneconomical.. Sometime in October of this year America will have 300 million people placing a real premium on forest land.. It took almost a half a century for America to grow to 300 million but estimates as to achieving 400 million people vary from 20 years to 25 years at todays rate of growth..
My point is building with materials that don't last is going to quickly stop If you expect to be working in conbstruction 20 years from now you'd best learn to adapt..
looks cool.
we have nothing like that around here.
looks like it's heavy duty enough to deliver a Dunkin Donuts bag to the guy on the roof.
do you have another shot that has the full name on it so that we can look it up ?
i would love to show this to our crane guy.
carpenter in transition
Go to the Liebherr site and check out equipment. German made cranes in all sizes and shapes.
Here is their model 13HM.
View Image
While Liebherr makes great equipment, checkout the US owned company that made the crane pictured in the first posting - Potain.
http://www.manitowoccranes.com/MCG_POT_AM/Products/EN/Range_IGO.asp
Potain is a French firm that was purchased by the Manitowoc Crane Group some time ago - Manitowoc makes large crawler and truck cranes in Wisconsin since the 20's - they also bought Grove Crane in Shady Grove PA a few years ago (and Grove bought Krupp from Germany).
I've seen several Potains at work recently - one in Maryland and one working on city hall in Portland Maine. Potain also makes the large tower cranes most folks are familiar with. I think these machines are finally "cathing on" here.
thanks
carpenter in transition
I would move my vehicle if it were parked within toppling radius....unless I was in the market for a new one.