More than 750 loader cranes are being built to replace UK military service and support vehicles.

UK-based chassis manufacturer MAN ERF, part of the German truck group MAN, won the contract for the vehicles, and supplied chassis for the vehicles. But two very different vehicles were fitted on the MAN ERF chassis.

The first is an all-purpose support vehicle, fitted with a special folding knuckle-boom loader crane. Hiab won the tender for that job.

The second vehicle is more like an all-terrain tow truck, and is fitted with three Rotzler winches, a Terex-Atlas 600.2 pedestal-mount crane reeved with wire rope from another Rotzler winch.

Hiab is supplying about 500 cranes for the support vehicles.

Although a prototype was shown in 2005 and 2006, the three models of cranes have only been rolling off the production line since August.

The entire truck needs to fit inside a C130 Hercules freight aircraft, which has a loading bay height of 102.5in, says Charles Adams, the UK-based Hiab area sales manager for Hiab government business operations.

That means that the loader cranes’ folding knuckle boom needs to sit low. All three models have crane heights lower than the trucks’ cab. The first Hiab so-called air transportable folding model was the 133 AT-2, installed on the US military’s High-Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) Resupply Vehicles manufactured by Texas-based Stewart & Stevenson.

The 8.8tm Hiab 088 ATF has a hydraulic outreach of 4.2m with one hydraulic extension, and mounts on a two-axle six-tonne truck chassis supplied by the UK’s MAN ERF.

The 9.9tm Hiab 099 ATF has a hydraulic outreach of 5.6m with two hydraulic extensions, and mounts on MAN ERF’s three-axle nine-tonne truck.

The 11.1tm Hiab 111 ATF has a hydraulic outreach of 6.3m with two hydraulic extensions, and mounts on MAN ERF’s four-axle 15-tonne truck.

Operators can lift loads using a remote control connected by cable. The crane runs using Hiab’s XS Drive control system.

Hiab supplied the cranes to Marshall Special Vehicles of Cambridge, UK, who supplied the bodywork and installed the crane on the MAN ERF chassis.

UK-based assembler EKA is building 288 recovery trucks on the four-axle 15-tonne truck base. The recovery package includes a militarised 58tm Terex-Atlas 600.2 loader crane mounted on a pedestal. Terex-Atlas UK has altered the crane to reduce its headroom.

EKA required the crane to be fitted with hook block and winch in order to be able to offer true vertical lift, says project manager Keith Bendell. The crane and the three Rotzler winches can be used together to, for example, flip vehicles that have rolled on to their sides in an accident.

EKA, which is also the UK agent for Rotzler, tasked the German-based company to come up with a control system for both the winches and the crane. Rotzler linked together crane and winches in a CANbus network under a master control computer. Operators can use the Rotzler RCP-MS 2/6 FP remote control to operate the crane and its 43kN Rotzler Titan TC 5 winch, and the main 250kN Rotzler Treibmatic TR 200 main winch, 80kN Treibmatic TR 080 recovery winch and 8kN HZ 010 auxiliary winch. Both Treibmatic winches use capstans to offer a constant rope pull however much rope is on the drum. A touch-screen control panel helps troubleshoot problems.

EKA has already built five pre-production vehicles, and is currently building the first eight production vehicles for an in-service deadline of February 2008. The remaining vehicles will be delivered in stages until about 2012.


The Hiab in transport position The Hiab in transport position The Hiab reaches out The Hiab reaches out Max. outreach on the Hiab 088 ATF is 4.2m (14ft) Max. outreach on the Hiab 088 ATF is 4.2m (14ft) MAN ERF recovery vehicle with Terex Atlas crane and Rotzler winches and Rotzler control system MAN ERF recovery vehicle