33
FEBRUARY 2015
ACT
ALL TERRAINCRANES
PRODUCT FOCUS
John Skelly
discusses
the evolution of all
terrain cranes in the
North Americanmarket.
standard. In theU.S., it’smuchmore
complicated, varyingby state and even
county in someplaces.
Another issuewithbringingall terrain
cranes (ATs) toNorthAmericawas cost.
ATs are substantiallymore expensive than
othermobile truck cranes and throughout
the1980s theGermanDeutscheMark
was considerably stronger than thedollar.
Thisdisparitypaved theway for theused
ATmarket in theU.S. Twoor three-year-
oldATs couldbepurchased for a lot less
moneyyet still provide thebenefitsof
German innovationand technology that
Americanmanufacturersweren’t yet
offering.
By theNineties, the recession fueledby
theoil shocksof the1970swasover and
Americanmanufacturers started toget
into thegame.Grove acquiredKrupp
MobilkraneGmbH, including their
domesticbusiness,KruppCranesNorth
America, in1995.Of courseManitowoc
laterpurchasedGrove in2002. Terex
acquiredDemag in2002aswell.
In1990Tadanoof JapanacquiredFaun,
which specialized inmanufacturing the
carrier, or the lowerportionof theAT.
Japanhad itsown flourishingATmarket
at the time andTadano capitalizedonan
opportunity toget into theEuropeanand
T
heoil crises of 1973 and1979
led to aperiodof stagflation
(high inflation rate, slow
economic growth, highunemployment
rate) in theU.S. andgreatlyhampered the
crane industry.Meanwhile inGermany, a
handful of companieswere experiencing
successwith anew idea– the all terrain
crane.
Demag, Liebherr,KruppandFaun spent
the1980s concentratingon combining
longerbooms and larger capacitieswith
carriers that couldhit the roadat highway
speeds. The all terrain cranequickly
became a stapleof European rental fleets,
andGermany itself representedahuge
shareof theglobalmarket.
While theUnitedStates battled
financially trying times, theGerman
manufacturers faced theirown challenges
marketing thenew concept onAmerican
soil. Road laws are significantlymore
lenient inGermanyas far as the amount of
weight anaxle can carrygoes. Throughout
Europe, 12metric tonsper axle ispretty
NorthAmericanmarketsby expanding
theirmanufacturingprocesses.
“TheTadanoacquisitionof Faun
acceleratedour entrance intoEurope,”
saidRonDogotch, vicepresident of
sales, TadanoAmerica. “Thenew
manufacturing facility reduceda lot of
the freight costs associatedwithbringing
suppliesover from Japan.Most of the
component suppliersofAT craneswere
already inGermanyanyway, so itmade a
lot of sense.”
TadanoATs are stillmanufactured
inLauf,Germany, a little townoutside
Nuremberg, aswell as in Japan.
“TheTadanophilosophywas toprovide
a superiorproduct both inqualityand in
thepurposeof the crane, boom lengthand
lift capacity,” saidDogotch.
TheATmarket haspulled evenwith
the rest of themobile truck cranemarket,
according toDogotch. Themachines
may still costmore, but the returnon
investment seems tobeworth it.
All terrain cranes range from three axles
all theway tonine axles,with the seven-
to-nine axlemachinesusedpredominantly
inEurope. The four-to-five axle range is
theheart of theNorthAmericanmarket.
These are themachines that compete
headonwithdomesticallybuilt hydraulic
truck cranes. Theypossess 130- to275-ton
capacities and that’s themajorityofwhat
Tadano sellshere.
“Ourbiggest sellers in2014were
the130-tonATF110G-5, the160-ton
ATF130G-5and the250-tonATF220G-5,”
saidDogotch.
Last year includeddeliveriesof an
ATF110G-5 toTNTCrane&Rigging in
Houston, TXandone to JMCEquipment
Limited inAlberta,Canada. SimsCrane
Phoenix Crane of Atlanta
used their new Link-Belt
ATC-3275 all terrain crane to
set HVAC units on aWalmart
Supercenter just south of
downtown in East Point, GA.
Über
versatile
The TADANO ATF400G-6 has a lift capacity
of 450 tons and amax boom length of 196.8
feet. Barcelona Crane, Sims Crane and
Southwest Industrial of Arizona all took
delivery of one of these cranes last year.
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