Left to right: Emerson’s Paul Clancy, Liebherr’s John MacGregor and Emerson’s Liam Clancy celebrate delivery of the first of five Liebherr ATs

Emerson Crane Hire is a family owned business and has been concentrating in the Greater London area for general crane hire but operating nationally with a specialist lifting service, which includes a considerable amount of work for the railways and also high- and long-reach lifting for developers and M&E contractors – particularly air conditioning installation. Emerson runs a modern fleet of cranes of between 8 and 300 tonnes lifting capacity and which already includes nine Liebherr mobiles. This will be augmented by the new 60, 90, 100, 130 and 250 tonnes capacity models on order.

The LTM 1055-3.1 is a worldwide best seller with over 1000 units delivered. From Liebherr’s latest generation of high performance, advanced technology mobile cranes, the LTM 1055-3.1 has a maximum lifting capacity of 60 tonnes and the five-section main telescoping boom extends to 40 metres. This mobile crane has outstanding lifting duties right through the range and, at 36 metres radius on main boom, it can lift 1.5 tonnes. Emerson has taken their mobile crane with a 16 metres swing-away fly-jib, which has a 56 metres height-under-hook and 0.60 tonnes lifting capacity at 48 metres working radius. 12 tonnes of ballast was specified by the customer who also opted for installation of an Eminox spark arrest system.

The compact three-axle carrier (6X6X6) is only 9.43 metres in length (11.36 metres overall) and, with its all-wheel steering, has an impressive turning radius of only 7.1 metres, giving the crane an agility and manoeuvrability both on- and off-road that belies is lifting capabilities. The Niveaumatik suspension features maintenance-free suspension arms and an automatically adjusted levelling position. The four outriggers are self levelling and can be actuated either from the cab or the side of the carrier. Power is provided by a Liebherr made turbo charged, six-cylinder diesel engine which develops 270kW (367HP).

The drive cab is typically comfortable and functional, ergonomically designed with digital displays, adjustable steering wheel, semi-automatic transmission with 12 forward gears and one reverse, full instrumentation and sound/vibration dampening.

The operator’s cab is, again, superbly appointed and, for optimum load visibility, can be tilted by 20º. The LICCON monitor displays real-time lift data, duty charts, engine and hydraulics management information. The LICCON data-bus system also provides control of winches, slewing gear, luffing and telescoping motions and the integral test programme in LICCON can also initiate functional tests of all essential components. Travel of the crane can also be carried out from the cab.