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Blogs About Troubleshooting and Maintaining Heavy Construction Equipment and More


About Me

Blogs About Troubleshooting and Maintaining Heavy Construction Equipment and More

Welcome to my blog. My name is Dan, and I used to work in the construction industry. There I wore a hard hat, but I also wore a lot of other 'hats', from labour to management. Now I've moved on from that industry, but as a property investor, I frequently hire construction crews or contractors. I have a few rentals and some homes that I fix up to sell. At any rate, I've been around heavy equipment for a significant part of my life, and now I want to create a blog to give back. These posts will be about troubleshooting and maintaining heavy construction equipment.

Selecting The Right Crane for Your Project Can Be Difficult, But Here Is a Way to Make It Simpler

If you have a construction project at your commercial property, you may find the need to hire a crane. This will make it easy to lift heavy construction materials and enhance the safety of the project. However, the first step is to choose a crane for the project and this is not always straightforward because there is a variety of cranes designed for specific kinds of project. For this reason, here are a few things that will help you choose wisely.

Know The Types Available

Knowing what types of cranes are available in the markets will help you pick the most ideal for your project. Bridge cranes, jib cranes, gantry cranes, and monorail cranes are the primary crane categories you will come across. As implied by the name, bridge cranes have a bridge between its two side rails, forming an H-like configuration. This bridge slides between the two side rails as required. Bridge cranes can be free-standing or roof-mounted so you can choose either depending on your project. One major reason you may want to hire a bridge crane is that it covers a much larger and wider area of operation than jib and monorail cranes respectively. These cranes are highly efficient in loading and unloading of trucks.

Gantry cranes are an alternative to the bridge cranes and are often used for outdoor applications because of their rigid steel legs. Some types of gantry cranes are wheel-operated. Such cranes are an excellent choice if manoeuvrability would be a problem when end trucks are used. That is, wheel-operated gantry cranes don't need end trucks to move freely on site.

Jib cranes are usually the most common. They are versatile and less expensive than their bridge and gantry counterparts. Usually, they are pivoted to a stationary point or axis. Unfortunately, this means that the cranes offer limited coverage. Monorail cranes have hoists and trolleys that run on stationary beams. This enhances the track flexibility of these cranes.

Mounting Position

Once you identify the type of crane that will best suit your needs, look at its mounting position on the end truck. The crane can be front- or rear-mounted. Front-mounted cranes tend to have more stability. The configurations fold or unfold to the passenger's side. On the other hand, rear-mounted cranes can lift over the back, the sides, and even over the body of the truck itself. One significant advantage of rear-mounted cranes is that they can be positioned as close as possible to the load, which allows for more capacity.