I'm not ready to hire one right now, but I'm just trying to get a rough estimate for how much it would cost to have a crane and operator come out and do what I need. I'm in the process of building a shop, I'm doing most of the work myself. But the problem is that the eve height is so tall that I can't erect the "ribs" (truss with it's two legs) with out a crane. So I'm wondering if any of you guys would happen to have an idea of how much it would cost to have 6 ribs raised up and set on their anchor bolts. I estimate the completed ribs are going to weight about 4,000lbs, they are 32' on the high side, 30' on the low and 50' wide. I'm about 40 miles outside of Houston, not sure how distance would effect the price. Thanks for any and all help.
For a small job like that you can expect an hourly cost from time out to time in. I'm sure there is more than one "taxi" crane rental servive around Houston. Give them a call with the specifics and how far from the pick they need to set and they should be able to give you a ballpark figure. Most will have a minimum charge, 4 hr or sometimes 8 hr. What will help you out time wise is to be ready on your end so when you set them you have two or three purlings ready to tie them togather for safety and have a manlift handy to do so easily and safely.
I have been calling some of them, they are making noises that 4000k or more is too much for them to handle. Might have to call someone with a larger crane, and I'm sure that's going to be more than the 150 an hour from the boom truck people. I'm kinda thinking out loud if this job would help shift the equation towards getting a crane of my own, having more lifting cap than my 25k forklift would be nice......
Seems odd that you don't have a few crane folks to chose from. The company I retired from rented the 50 ton truck crane for $225.00 per hour with 1 operator and basic rigging. You will need some decent boom length or a spreader bar to set them 50 footers. In a town that size someone should have a boom truck that could easily handle the job. Off course the bigger boom trucks command more money also. When you see used ones at a half million dollars a few hundred dollars per hour with operator does not seem excessive. I do not know what you plan to use a crane for if you buy one but take some time to educate yourself about annual inspections and certifications required to keep it current if you are planning on doing any for hire or commercial work with it. Good luck and keep us posted.
Shimmy's crew used a couple telehandler's to set truss units on his new shop . He might chime in with ideas & opinion . HeavyEquipmentForums Is this the company you called alskdjfhg ? http://www.houstoncrane.us/index.html
I have a 25 ton boom truck that would easily do it. I get $125 an hour, port to port with a 4 hour minimum. I get 175 an hour on my 60 ton, 4 hour minimum. You could also set yhem with a 8,000 capacity telehandler
Yup that was the one, talked to the operator there and apparently the biggest thing they have is a 10ton. I know it's probably not the most cost efficient thing, but I would like a crane of my own. You can only do so much with a forklift, and I'm needing to lift more than what the H250 wants and lift it higher than what it can. I went to look at a Koehring 22ton RT crane this morning. Owned by a scrapyard that sold the business and is needing to leave the property, they started at 7500 and by the end of the day were at 3500. Got the machine started (they ran it out of fuel), jumped in the cab, and got no functions from anything. Stared to wonder what was up, then the seller walked over and said "yeah it's got no oil in it, we drained it out to run an excavator". I don't know what the guy was thinking, but it wasn't going to do much without any hydraulic oil and he wasn't helping the pumps any by running it dry. I should have checked the oil before we got that far, but that's a different issue. The problems that they are telling me the machine has is that the outriggers wont move, it wont steer, has a hydraulic leak in the boom somewhere and a leak in the air system. The engine started up nice once it had some diesel (really impressed me after it lost it's prime), but that's about the only thing going for it. They are really bunch of goobers (that's saying something because I'm a goober), and I caught them in a lie several time, so even though the crane would probably be fixable and turn out ok. I'm not messing with it. But what I do is call a friend of mine that bought a 30ton Grove RT crane in auction that turned out to have some big hydraulic leaks. Since he's not a mechanic and just likes to buy stuff in auction, he's never messed with it. I asked if I fixed it, could I borrow it? Since he's a really guy he said sure and could move it back and forth from his place to mine on his lowboy. He actually did one better and offered me a job as his mechanic/machinist. I'm a student studying mechanical engineering, so not really a heavy equipment mechanic, or a machinist. But have turned wrenches on my junk heavy equipment (just a POS excavator really) and am building a machine shop (it's a long background story here.....). So I think the crane problem has solved it's self. Thanks for the advice, I appreciate it.
Before you start operating please read the owners manual and study and understand how load charts work. You don't want to hurt or kill someone or go t*ts up with it.
Yeah for sure, not going to do anything to put anyone or the machine in danger. Fully understand how load charts work and how quickly things can go bad.
I've run a couple hydraulic cranes... once they start to tip over center, there's nothing you can do, they just tip faster and faster. I always kept the pick low to the ground as possible, and if I had to lift something up high, lift it at the radius you need to be at over the side or corner and swing it into position ending up with the boom over the front for best counterbalance. Don't extend out or boom down at that point unless you are *dead* certain the pick is well within the load chart for the machine. Another thing to remember is load charts are written for a solid platform. If you're working off a concrete slab that's cured, some good pads will probably suffice, but if you're sitting outside on rock or dirt, you will need to spread the load out, and it the site isn't level you may need to do some heavy cribbing. Oh, and wear comfortable pants and underwear, I can promise you there will be times you'll need both hands to pull them out of your sphincter after a hairy situation.
Seems like a 14K/lb grade all would do the job. Prolly cheaper
Any old machinery is going to have some hydraulic leaks. If a machine does not leak now, it will next week. You have to stay on top of it and replace rubber hoses and seals, better proactively. I have to do the swivel on my rt60s, it leaks compressed air.
What the hell kind of building is this with a 30' sidewall? I did some electrical work in a 20' sidewall building and it was cavernous...