UK’s biggest rental company, Ainscough Crane Hire, has bought 37 Liebherr ATs for £12m. Thirty are 55t capacity LTM 1055-3 models from Liebherr Ehingen, plus six 100t capacity LTM 1100-5.1 and two LTM 1220-5.1s. All will be delivered before April 2005.
Ainscough has also increased its fleet of mobile tower cranes. Following its purchase of a Spierings SK 599-AT5 self-erecting tower crane earlier this year, Ainscough has bought a used SK 598-AT5 from Spierings, and a used Liebherr MK 80 from UK crane rental firm Commhoist.
None of the Liebherr ATs include a wrap-around fly jib. Managing director Martin Ainscough told Cranes Today that there were three reasons for the special request.
Operators will not need to work at height when installing the jib section. Earlier this year, draft UK legislation was published suggesting that those working at height will be required to take extra safety precautions. ‘It reduces the risk factor,’ Ainscough said.
‘One of the problems with wrap-arounds is that they are not used all the time. I believe they are potentially dangerous – not if the procedure is followed correctly – but as they are used infrequently there is a danger of going through the incorrect pin sequence. There have been incidents in the UK where operators have connected the fly jib in the wrong sequence and it has fallen and hurt people.’
Third is a weight issue: without the fly jib, the cranes are lighter – the jib weighs about 1.5t, according to David Milne, managing director of Liebherr crane and concrete divisions in the UK. The decreased weight will increase fuel economy. The cranes will not, however, be able to travel faster than the 40mph speed limit they do at the moment. Although the UK heavy equipment roading regulations called STGO allow higher speeds for lighter vehicles, the cranes would have to go without counterweight to be able to travel at 50mph on motorways
The order follows Ainscough’s criticism of fly jibs for this reason at Cranes Today’s Crane Safety conference in June.
Ainscough said that his company will send out the next larger crane to make up the difference with the lack of a fly jib. ‘The cranes have 55t capacity and good long booms anyway. And we are finding that a lot of sites these days are so health and safety conscious, and so short on space, that they want a fully-powered boom that extends straight out, and in many cases they will go to the next machine up’ to get that, he said.
Milne said that cranes are often sold without fly jibs in Continental Europe where the cranes need to be light in order to meet stringent 12t per axle maximum loading travel restrictions.
• The first 1055 is handed over to Ainscough this month at a ceremony marking Liebherr GB’s new £15m ($27m) facility in Biggleswade, near Cambridge. The facility has six 10m service bays, a spare parts area, workshops and training facilities that cranes will share with other Liebherr equipment.
