Grove this week opens the doors of its Shady Grove factory in Pennsylvania, USA to customers and distributors to celebrate the successful financial restructuring of the company and to show off its new flagship rough terrain model.
The RT 9000E, rated at 115t (130 US ton) is the largest rough terrain on the market and has a five section, full power boom that extends from 12.8m to 48.7m (42ft to 260ft). The boom shape is the ovaloid Megaform styling, familiar from Grove’s German-built GMK all-terrain product, rather than the old fashioned trapezoidal booms of Grove’s earlier RT series. It is basically the same boom that features on the 100t GMK 5100, except with full power rather than the Twinlock pinning system. The original idea was to use a pinned boom but market research showed that customers prefer a full power boom on RTs.
Grove expects this crane to compete with crawler cranes and offer ‘exceptional mobility, manoeuvrability and pick-and-carry capabilities not previously available on the job site’.
Three pre-production units have been built, with the first one going out for filed trials with customers next month. Several units (believed to be between six and eight) have already been sold to US customer, the company says. Production starts next year.
The crane offers a maximum tip height of 52m (169ft) on the main boom, and a 36.6m (140ft) maximum radius with 1.71t (3,770lb) capacity. A standard 11m-18m (36ft-59ft) lattice bifold extension is offsettable at 0°, 20° and 40°. Grove is also offering the option, seen on recent GMK models, of an offsettable bifold swingaway that luffs hydraulically from 0° to 40°. This extension is also 11m-18m (36ft-59ft).
Add two 8m (26ft) lattice inserts and a maximum tip height of 85m (279ft) is attained. This compares with a maximum height under hook of 62.5m for Grove’s previous biggest RT, the 90t (100 US ton) RT 9100, and with the Terex RT 1100’s maximum tip height of 75m (246ft). The main boom of the Terex machine, which is rated at 90t (100 US ton) is 45.5m (149ft 3in).
As well as the hydraulic luffer, another new feature brought over from the all-terrain range is a tilting cab. Otherwise, the cab is the same as Grove’s other recent E series RTs. As well as a full LMI system, the crane includes as standard a work area definition system the allows the operator to programme in safe working limits, to avoid hitting nearby powerlines, for example, or other obstacles.
The RT 9000E is powered by a Cummins QSC8.3L six cylinder diesel rated at 224kW (300bhp) at 2,200rpm. The full powershift transmission provides six forward and three reverse speeds. Maximum travel speed is 39kmh (24mph).
To aid transportation the outrigger boxes are hydraulically pinned, design to disconnect quickly. The standard 10,886kg (24,000lb) counterweight is hydraulically installed, as are the optional 7,257kg (16,000) counterweight which consists of two sections.
The RT 9000E, which comes with a 10 year structural warranty, has an overall length of 16.15m (53ft), an overall height of 4.14m (13ft 7.5in) and an overall width of 3.8m (12ft 5in). Chassis length is 9.7m (31ft 10in) with outrigger boxes and 8.13m (26ft 8in) without them.
Grove says of this crane: ‘It should prove to be a popular choice for bridge jobs and work in power and chemical plants, as well as refineries and other large construction projects.’
This machine will be exhibited at Conexpo in Las Vegas next year, where it will compete for attention with a crane currently going through final development at Grove, the GMK 7450, a seven axle all-terrain and the new flagship of the Grove fleet.
