Buying Cranes
TuffWerx has an assortment of cranes for all the jobs you need to get done. We feature the top names in cranes: Terex, Grove, Demag, Link-Belt and more. When you buy a crane from TuffWerx you can peruse our entire selection or search for a particular make, model, year and price. If you like, you can use our premium service and have the crane inspected before you buy it. TuffWerx is the leader in used heavy equipment sales.
Benefits of Different Types of Cranes
There are a variety of types of cranes that use hoists, wire ropes, chains or sheaves to lift, move and lower heavy objects. Cranes are used a lot in the transportation industry for loading freight as well as in the construction, manufacturing and agriculture industries.
Truck-mounted cranes
There are a variety of different kinds of truck cranes. There are boom truck cranes with booms from 35 feet to around 150 feet that can lift up to 50 tons. There are conventional truck cranes with booms of up to around 300 feet that can lift up to 300 tons. These connect the boom to a truck via a turntable that lets the boom move in an arc. These trucks are fitted with counterweights, outriggers or stabilizers that prevent them from tipping over when the boom is carrying a load. All terrain cranes are designed for really rugged areas where the ground is uneven, there are many rocks or levels of road as well as possible construction debris. They have booms ranging from 13 feet to over 300 with jibs from around 20 feet to nearly 500 feet. They can carry loads up to 1,300 tons.
Crawler cranes are mounted on an undercarriage with tracks instead of wheels, which gives them their name. The tracks make the crane more stable, allowing them to lift from 40 to about 3,500 tons. Because they are stable machines without outriggers, they’re easy to move around a job site for different tasks. But moving them from one job to another is a different matter. They’re so heavy they often have to be disassembled, moved in parts, and reassembled at the job site.
Sidelift cranes have multiple axles and are trucks or semi-trailers that can lift up to around 1,300 tons.
Pick and carry cranes are designed to travel on public roads but have no stabilizer legs or outriggers and carry loads to a destination. They can carry 10 to 20 tons.
Overhead cranes, also known as bridge cranes, have a horizontal beam with a hook and line mechanism that runs along the beam. They may have a single beam or a double beam.
Carry deck cranes are small cranes with a 360 degree rotating boom in the center. They can lift an object and rest it on the deck around the cab or engine, then move it to another site. Carry deck cranes work well in confined spaces.
There are also floating cranes, used in bridge construction, aerial cranes used on helicopters to transport items through the sky and railroad cranes.
Tower cranes are fixed to a concrete slab or attached to the side of a structure. They’re used in construction of tall buildings.
Telescopic cranes are compact until the boom, a number of tubes fitted inside each other, extends to its full height. Because of their compactness and portability these are often used for short term construction projects or rescue operations. Though not all telescopic cranes are mobile cranes, many of them are truck-mounted.
Loader cranes, or knuckle boom or articulating cranes have several joints that give them greater flexibility than straight cranes.
Tips for Buying Cranes
- Ascertain how much space you’ll have to operate in which will determine what kind of crane you need. If you need to travel distances you’ll need a different kind of crane than one that must work in a tight space.
- Determine what kind of load capacity you’ll need.