Crawler vs truck crane for tight city jobs - which one do you bring?

We had a job downtown last month, narrow street with a 12 ton steel beam going to a roof. Foreman insisted on the truck crane for roadability, but we spent 2 hours just getting it positioned because the outriggers barely fit. Colleague from another crew swears by a crawler for the same kind of site, says it tracks in easier and doesn't need as much setup space. Which one saves you more headache when the street's packed with cars and the spot is barely big enough? Has anyone had a setup fail with either?

3 comments

3 Comments

logan23625d ago

Truck crane every time for me honestly. The outriggers are a pain but once you find a spot they work fine. Crawlers tear up asphalt bad and you gotta deal with cleaning the tracks after. Plus if you need to move between spots on the same job the truck crane just drives there without all that setup hassle. Only time I'd take a crawler is if the ground is super soft or muddy.

the_faith25d ago

@logan236 I feel you on that, ours took forever to get parked in a tight alley last week.

daniel47419d ago

Twenty years in the business and I've seen people argue about this stuff like it's life or death. Honestly, I think a lot of it comes down to what you're used to and what the job site looks like. If you're working on a tight residential street with golf-cart sized alleys, no truck crane is getting in there without blocking traffic for an hour. But if you've got wide open commercial lots, sure, the truck crane is faster between spots. I just think people overthink it. Pick the tool that fits the job and move on.