Manitowoc plans to exhibit a Potain self-erecting tower crane mounted onto a three-axle commercial truck at the Conexpo show in Las Vegas, USA next month.

The product is the first cross-pollination of Manitowoc and the French tower crane manufacturer that it acquired last year. But while mobile tower cranes are gaining popularity in northern Europe, with Spierings, Liebherr and Arcomet/MTC offering self-erecting tower cranes on all-terrain chassis, Manitowoc is clearly banking on American crane users abandoning their beloved boom trucks for the new concept.

Visitors to Conexpo will also get to see the Manitowoc 555 lattice-boom crawler crane, dubbed The Triple Nickel. This 136t (150 US ton) unit was one of four new models to be announced at Bauma in April 2001. Manitowoc had promised to get all four in iron by the end of 2001 but the Potain acquisition appears to have caused slippage in the product development programme. Hence there is still no sign of the duty-cycle 915 or 1015 models, developed with the German foundations specialist Bauer. We can expect these later in the year. The fourth crane announced at Bauma was the 450t (500 US ton) rated 19000, which is a stripped down version of the 907t capacity 21000. Had customers come forward for this model, it would doubtless have been produced by now.

The third new model will be a Manitowoc Boom Trucks model 2892C-Hycas. This boom truck crane has a 28 ton maximum capacity with a four-section 92ft (28m) boom and a two-piece, 46ft (14m) jib.

From the Potain range of top slewing tower cranes will be the MDT 302 L16. In the 300tm class, this unit has a maximum capacity of 16t (35,000lb) and a maximum jib length of 75m (246ft). The crane to be displayed will be painted red, rather than Potain yellow, and will be branded with the Manitowoc logo.

Manitowoc will also have the crane operator training simulator that it has had at recent trade fairs. The simulator is based on the EPIC controls of modern Manitowoc crawlers.