Mini telescopic crawler cranes have been available for many years and at one time looked as if they might break into mainstream crane market. Perhaps in the absence of spider cranes, mini crawlers may have been more successful but over the years the volume of sales never quite justified the production costs, especially compared to the excavators on which they were often based. Manufacturers such as iHi and Hitachi Sumitomo (now crawler crane. HSc cranes) had some initial success but have since dropped out of the market, while Kobelco tends to limit sales to its home market where demand is steady. other companies such as Kato, Sennebogen and Starlifter also dipped their toes in the market but have since moved on.
One rental company that has ridden the rise and fall first hand is UK crawler crane sales and rental company AGD Equipment. It purchased its first model - a five tonne IHI CCH50T - back in 1996 and over the next five years built up a 50 unit mini crawler crane rental fleet. Fast forward 20 years however its fleet totalled just a few units.
Sales manager Jon Phipps said: “Although spider cranes have replaced the mini crawler in the market, we decided not to go down that route and have stayed loyal to the crawler crane with our most popular models the 25 to 70 tonners. You can buy a 25 tonne crawler for nearly the same money as a six or eight tonne mini crawler crane yet it commands a much better rental rate so we plan to stick to this size of machine and above for now.”
Signs of life?
This story is from the September 2020 edition of Cranes & Access.
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This story is from the September 2020 edition of Cranes & Access.
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