Not many of these were made by manitowoc. These are the only two red ones i ever saw. Know lampson has similar ones.
I'm confused, I see where it would add tremendous straight lifting capacity; but it has no slewing capability, does it?
It can turn travel with its loads. Crawlers on the front can turn like the crane does Odd but neat
Yes it is mobile ! The front crawlers turn and the back ones on the rig itself do as well so the back crawlers acts as the swing crawling around in an arc to pivot on the front set. It's the Lampson Transi-lift concept that uses the crane itself as counter weight. The front set of crawlers take the downward forces of the loaded rig and the rear set of course takes the rearward down loading forces when it's not loaded so heavy, while the draw works deck [carbody] only feels the upwards strain of the mast pendent tension. This takes some serious strain of the crane's turntable at the hook rollers. Lampson got a 100 ton crawler to lift 400 tons with this concept!
I figured that's how it worked, thanks. That crane must be able to counter-rotate it's tracks. I've been around older, smaller crawler cranes a lot, (mostly 22Bs and 25Bs), but most the modern stuff I've been around are truck and hyd. RTs. Are the front tracks powered, or free-rolling? They must be powered.
On all the bigger versions that Neil Lampson built from scratch they are hydraulically driven and have a separate motor for each track, [2 per crawler] so they are counter rotating. There's an operator in each crawler cab too and a 3rd operator up on the draw works deck cab to run the load hoist and boom hoist drums. Everyone is in radio contact with each other and with the lift director and an engineer that is over seeing the operation too. They also have video monitors in the cabs looking over their shoulders and showing their computers so all involved are in visual contact too.
I have an ironworker friend that showed me pictures of this type of machine in the 80's when he was on a job in wyoming for a oil refinery build if i remember correctly