Here are the first designs of Valla’s forthcoming mini-crawler crane, expected to come off the production lines later this year. Based on Valla’s rubber-tyred model 20E, this electric pick-and-carry crane is battery powered so it can be used indoors. Its tracks reduce floor loadings so that it can be used inside buildings during fit-out, or on semi-rough ground.
According to Peter Hird, managing director of Valla’s UK distributor Peter Hird & Sons, and co-designer of the crane, this mini-crawler will fill a gap in the market for lifting operations inside buildings once the walls have gone up. The crane’s rubber tracks can be specified in white so they do not mark new floors.
The new crane lifts to the same load chart as the Valla 20E, a maximum of 2t out to about half a metre, or 400kg out to about 2.5m ahead of the front wheel.
Its two hydraulic sections and pinned manual extension extend the hook up to a maximum of 4m off the ground, where it can lift a maximum of 800kg.
As with the wheeled version, the operator walks behind the crane operating it from a console connected by cable.
The tracked version, unlike its predecessor, will be able to ride on a standard trailer. It can also travel up a 5% grade with a load, or up to a 25% grade without load. The chassis measures 2,200mm (7ft 3in) long by 950mm (3ft 2in) wide and is 1,700mm (5ft 7in) high.
Hird says that he is contemplating putting crawler tracks on some of Valla’s larger wheeled Valla models in due course as well.
