Knuckle-boom truck loader cranes continue to offer competition to smaller conventional mobile cranes as loader manufacturers produce ever stronger units.
A truck-mounted knuckle-boom crane that can lift a 15t load up to a height of 21.5m has been launched by Austrian loader crane manufacturer Palfinger.
The PK 120000 is the largest loader that Palfinger has produced to date and, the company claims, “shows the limits of hydraulic folding boom cranes”.
The crane has a load moment of 108tm, nine hydraulic boom extensions, a maximum outreach of 33m, and a slewing moment of 12m. It can lift 15t to an outreach of 7m, and at 21.5m outreach it can lift 3.5t.
Since it became available earlier in the year, about 15 units have been sold.
Meanwhile, in the UK, haulier Wessex Group has a new Fassi F600-24 crane that at a 2m radius can lift 20t.
The crane, to be used by Wessex’s specialist machinery moving division, is fitted to the rear of a King stepframe extending trailer, where it replaces the more conventional rear loading ramps. Mounting it at the rear keeps lifting radius to a minimum, thus maximising the crane’s capacity.
