Crane Rental Corp offloading evaporator vessels off a barge for US Sugar

Crane Rental Corporation transported 20 evaporator and eight separator vessels by barge for a U.S. Sugar processing facility upgrade in Clewiston, Florida. The vessels weighed up to 137 US tons (124t) and measured up to 21ft (6.4m) in diameter.

The only suitable access point was a public boat ramp, so the company custom-built two ramps to bridge the gap between barge and landing.

Crane Rental then drove the 12 self-propelled Goldhofer units, and towed another 12 axles, the four-mile distance to the U.S. Sugar plant.

Crane Rental narrowly avoided disaster with a barge that began to sink while transporting four of the evaporators. Once the problem was discovered, as the barge was being towed, it headed to a nearby port and was kept afloat by continuous pumping. After Crane Rental found another barge, it mobilised a 550 US ton-capacity Grove AT to offload the units. Although it had no room to swing the crane, Crane Rental was able to manoeuvre the barges back and forth under the suspended load until they were all out of danger.


Crane Rental Corp offloading evaporator vessels off a barge for US Sugar Crane Rental Corp offloading evaporator vessels for US Sugar