Large 1,000-USt Crawlers: Tackling Tough Lifts with Ease and Versatility

By Seth Skydel

Large crawler cranes play a vital role in various industries. Their robust design, high lifting capacities and maneuverability often make them the machine of choice for handling extremely heavy loads.

One of the key advantages of large crawler cranes is their ability to operate in challenging environments. Along with sure-footed stability from their tracks, these cranes are designed with reinforced booms, enhanced stability systems, and durable components to ensure reliable performance even in extreme conditions.

Putting Large Crawlers to Work at Lampson International

When Lampson International is called on to help build power plants, stadiums, and wind towers, replace refinery components, or work on bridges, dams, offshore oil platforms and infrastructure projects, it calls on its fleet of Transi-Lift crawler cranes. Built by the Kennewick, Washington company for its own projects and for rent to other heavy lifting companies, the high-capacity crawlers range up to 3,000 USt.

In industries that require the handling of heavy loads, the capabilities and adaptability of the Lampson Transi-Lifts makes them an indispensable asset. Kate Lampson, director of business development and marketing, shared some examples of the wide-ranging application of the company’s large crawler cranes:

A Lampson Transi-Lift LTL-2600, with 400' of main boom and a 20' jib was on site at the Plant Vogtle power plant in Georgia for over three years. It was used to replace steam generators, make top head lifts, place containment building rings, and set conical roof modules.
A Lampson Transi-Lift LTL-1100 with 380' of boom and 1,600 kips of counterweight was utilized for setting spans during the Duportail Bridge Project in Washington State. The largest girder was 175' in length and weighed 228,000 lbs. with rigging. The longest reach was 320'.
A Lampson Transi-Lift LTL-1100 was used to lift a completed Rebar cage into position at the Kennecott Mine in Utah. The LTL-1100 was also required to load out, ship to site and assemble a CK-1000 lift crane, a Manitowoc 14000 lift crane and the Lampson Transi-Lift LTL-1100. The total lifted load was close to 400-USt and the equipment was on site and ready for the project within 20 days.

“With the ability to move forward, backward and sideways while picking and carrying any rated load, the Lampson Transi-Lift is a highly versatile heavy lift system,” Lampson said. “It also has a small footprint, allowing it to easily relocate on congested construction sites or make multiple lifts from a single point.”

Other features of the Transi-Lift models, according to Lampson, are the ability to operate in extreme temperatures or corrosive atmospheres by incorporating reinforced booms, and enhanced stability systems. The cranes can also be assembled and disassembled in a matter of weeks and shipped via truck, rail or barge anywhere in the world.

The largest Lampson Transi-Lift is the LTL-3000 model, a 3,000-USt capacity front crawler with fully mobile and individually powered transporters. The crane can utilize up to 400' of Lampson Pin-Together Main Boom, two different jib styles, hydraulic hoists with electronic fingertip control, and counterweights assembled and filled onsite. Lampson also offers large crawlers with 2,600-, 1,500-, 1,200- and 1,100-USt capacities.

Handling the Largest Projects with Large Crawlers at Buckner HeavyLift Cranes

Buckner HeavyLift Cranes, an East Graham, North Carolina provider of services to the heavy commercial and industrial markets, has put its fleet of Liebherr crawler cranes to work on some of the largest projects around the country. Among them are the following:

To lift a steel, retractable roof structure over Arthur Ashe Stadium in New York, the largest tennis facility in the world, Buckner deployed Liebherr LR 11000/P 1300 and Liebherr 1600/2 crawlers.

To set tanks and vessels for an A-3 Test Stand at the Stennis Space Center in St. Louis, Mississippi, including a 415,000-lb. pick, Buckner utilized its Liebherr LR 1600/2 SDWBW crawler with a 197' main boom and a 118' luffing jib.

The largest crawler in the Buckner HeavyLift Cranes fleet is the Liebherr LR 13000, a 3,300-USt model with a 774' hoist height and a 473' maximum main boom. With individual maximum weights of 154,400 lbs., the LR 13000 can be transported easily, operates without derrick ballast made possible by a slewing ring, and can increase lifting capacity using the manufacturer’s PowerBoom.

The LR 12500-1.0 has a 2,750-USt maximum load capacity, a maximum hoist height of 656' and a top radius of 551'.
The LR-11350/P1800 has a 1,500-USt maximum load capacity, a maximum hoist height of 722' and a top radius of 603'.
The LR 11350 has a 1,500-USt maximum load capacity, a maximum hoist height of 722' and a top radius of 538'.
The LR 11000 has a 1,200-USt maximum load capacity, and a maximum hoist height of 722' and maximum main boom length of 551'.

Using Large Crawlers on a Variety of Projects at Deep South Crane & Rigging

At Deep South Crane & Rigging, headquartered in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Terex-Demag 1760T and 1400T crawlers have served on a variety of projects, including:

The replacement of double-rail bridge trusses, each weighing 800,000 lbs. along a railroad line that crosses the Tug Fork River at Hatfield Bottom near Matewan, West Virginia required crane set up in a residential yard near a local interstate, and the ability to walk with the load due to the site layout along the river. Deep South’s team used their 1,760-USt Terex-Demag CC-8800-1 crawler crane with its 375' boom operating in an SSL/LSL Configuration and Tele-Superlift mode. The crawler crane with 1,583 kips of Tele-Superlift counterweight with a 98.4' superlift radius facilitated an easier float and minimized downtime for counterweight adjustment.
Using a 1,400-USt Demag CC-6800, Deep South set 12 components at a mining facility in Michigan over the course of five months. The components ranged in weight from 85,000 to 100,000 lbs. The project included lifting an ore bin hopper, which weighed 100,000 lbs. and was set at a 282' radius.
Deep South was contracted to provide turnkey services that included transport, barging, and setting four towers at a Gulf Coast refinery. The towers weighed in at 142,000, 316,000, 485,000, and 1,162,000 lbs. The largest of the towers was lifted into its final position by a 1,760-USt Terex-Demag CC-8800-1 with 257' of boom and 970 kips of super-lift counterweight.
In St. Charles Parish, Louisiana, Deep South completed a lift project in support of a major refinery upgrade. The lifts included a 435,000-lb. depentanizer that measured 146' long, 19' wide and 19' 6" tall; an 880,000-lb. depentanizer that measured 166' long, 23' 4" tall and 22' 8" wide, and a 670,000-lb. deisobutanizer that measured 221' long, 20' tall and 23' wide. The vessels were set using a 1,760-USt Terex CC8800- crawler crane.
At a refinery adjacent to a narrow and heavily trafficked canal measuring only 125' wide in northern Illinois, Deep South lifted and set a 750,000-lb. reactor with a 1,760-USt Demag CC8000-1 crawler crane. With a traditional end roll off impossible, the company used the crane to perform a side roll off maneuver.

Large Crawlers in the North American Market

Currently Liebherr and Tadano, which purchased Demag from Terex in 2019, offer the largest crawler cranes-- models over 1,000 USt-- in North America.

Tadano offers three crawlers in the 1,000-USt and higher capacity range:

The CC 68.1250-1, a 1,375-USt model has a 511.8' main boom and a maximum tip height of 676'. The CC 68.1250-1 is designed to counter-rotate in tight spaces with its Quadro drive.
The CC 88.1600-1, a 1,760-USt model has a 511.8' main boom and a maximum tip height of 784'. A retrofittable Boom Booster on CC 88.1600-1 can increase load capacity up to 90%.
The CC 88.3200-1 TWIN, a 3,525-USt model has a 511.8' main boom and a maximum tip height of 767'. The crawler features a twin boom system that combines the CC 88.1600-1’s booms to form one double boom. Despite its size, the CC 88.3200-1 TWIN can travel on its crawlers under full load and shrink down for transport with a maximum component width of 11.5'.

Liebherr has four cranes in the 1,000-USt and higher capacity range:

The LR 11000 model has a 1,200-USt maximum load capacity, a maximum hoist height of 722' and a top radius of 603'.
The LR 11350 has a 1,500-USt maximum load capacity, a maximum hoist height of 722' and a top radius of 538'.
The LR 12500-1.0 has a 2,750-USt maximum load capacity, a maximum hoist height of 656' and a top radius of 551'.
The LR 13000 has a 3,300-USt maximum load capacity, a maximum hoist height of 774' and a top radius of 656'.

“The biggest market for crawlers in the 1,000-plus USt range is the onshore wind industry, while larger crawlers are also used in petrochemical plants, the nuclear power industry, and heavy industrial projects, such as stadiums,” said Jim Jatho, product manager of Lattice Boom Crawler Cranes at Liebherr. “When working on large, complex projects where schedules and uptime are critical, these cranes allow operators to confidently use full load charts.”