https://www.terex.com/cranes/en/product/pick-and-carry-cranes/mac-25-4 These things are pretty handy when you're working on big kit. We just took delivery of this one.
You got yourselves a Franna. Good choice! Invented in Aus, very useful and pretty ubiquitous around these parts. There will probably be more than a couple appearing in my random photos in due course.
In large parts of the World the name Franna would simply generate a quizzical "What now.?"
Very true. Around here you can pick up the phone in just about any town and say "Mate, have you got a 20 tonne Franna doing nothing?" and have one on site within a couple of hours.
Nige … did you get the OEM on-board refrigerator ? Seems like required equipment judging from the location.
I have never seen one until now. Congrats Nige! Looks like a nice piece of iron.
New brand to me also. Nice looking machine and yes they are very handy working around equipment.
A welding shop here had something similar, was navy surplus, I think it was made by pettibone in the early '60s, maybe?
remember these..
Similar to this one, but it was longer, had a narrow rear steer like the Terex in Cmark's thread, if I remember right the rear tires would turn 180, the boom didn't swing, and was cantilevered and pulled down by a rod behind behind the pivot, straight in front of the driver. I think it was 10 or 15 ton. Also, the boom was solid, not telescoping.
I think you're thinking of one of the old hyster carry cranes mitch. I've seen lots of pictures of the type of crane nige has, all from australia. The closest thing here are some of the city crane's they import from europe. The only downside to nige's type of small crane, is they can act like a big endloader with a heavy/ max load. You may be able to pick the load up with the rear straight behind you, but if you have to drive along and turn, the back end can get light in a hurry when it swings to the side when you turn. Then things get wonky in a hurry. That crane on the aircraft carrier deck looks like something only a gov't engineer could come up with. Hugely expensive and overly complicated.
Kind of half way between that and what I posted, a lot bigger than that Hyster, though. Had a long space between the seat and the engine.
Cmark could probably confirm, but as far as I know from limited experience the crane SWL ratings are for any articulation angle from straight ahead to the maximum 40-degree turning angle on firm level ground and obviously if the load is swinging all bets are off.. This type of crane is NOT designed to be an RT, it's designed to pick and carry relatively heavy compact loads and manoeuvre them in a tight space if necessary. In our case it would pick and carry a 10+ ton excavator boom or stick in or out of the shop, then be able to install it on the machine without having to resort to using any other transport or lifting devices. Very much a case of a specific machine for a specific function.
I have zero experience as an operator of Frannas. All I know is that around here they arrive on site with a qualified operator and rigger/dogman, and a pretty good selection of tested/certified slings and chains in the front locker. Any lift I have ever asked them to do, they have never refused due to excess articulation angle. Not to say it can't happen though. Because they are so common they are widely used on construction sites. Driving home this evening I paid attention to a section of the highway that was being rebuilt and I saw no less than three of them in a 3km stretch. One unloading pipes from a truck, one placing noise barriers and one assembling a crawler crane.
About the closest thing we had at the quarry were a couple different "carry decks". First one was a Drott that looked like this one: Then that one was moved to another quarry in the state when they were doing some major updating of their plant and we then got one of these: One thing I liked about the Drott was it had one of the Case 188 Diesel engines just like many of the 1845 skid-steers we had at the time. The Broderson had a Ford gas engine that was a dual fuel set-up but the propane side was not usable due to problems before we got the machine. I slowly removed 90% of the propane parts and it did run okay but not as good as the Case 188! The swingout jib was handy at times on the Broderson. But neither were too good in the rougher parts of the quarry.
What is the difference between the Franna and the Groves we see over here?
Grove's don't articulate in the centre and the range does not go quite so big in lifting capacity. Also FWIW our crane fleet here (with the exception of one Manitowoc crawler) is all Terex.
Not to be confused with “franger”, which is something entirely different.
LOL!!!!! now this thread could get very weird...
Around here, that job is taken by a 10-12,000lbs capacity telehandler. Only instead of a operator and a rigger, a rental company just drops the machine off, and everybody and their dog runs it on the jobsite. Any large work site in my area has at least a 8k, but most are a 10k now. They have taken a lot of work away that used to be done by smaller cranes. I think I average setting 1 back on its tires a year that someone has tipped over. The increased regulations for crane operators, has pushed the work to "forklifts", because forklifts require no certified operators or riggers. It may not be the safest way to work, but it requires the least paperwork.
Static lift of 75,000 pounds + 10,000 pound aux hoist. able work on a rolling pitching deck... Specifications here >> http://navyaviation.tpub.com/14014/css/Crash-And-Salvage-Equipment-218.htm Has a retracting counter weight ..
More fun setting these back on their feet than setting trusses anyway. Let the cowboys tip them I’ll set them back up.
Same here - every job site has a 6K or 8k rented by the GC for pretty much everyone's use. However there are certifications required to run one per OSHA regs, just no body abides by the regs unless they get busted.
Up here its an 8 hour course to run one and voila! You're a super operator that knows it all, done it all and has seen it all!
At one time when I worked for the Cat dealer I had to get the standard mast type forklift certification and they also had one for squirt booms as well. I don't know what happened but the Cat dealer never required one for those and they were used all the time. Does anyone know if they are required on a construction site in Washington?
Cab is on the wrong side.
Not that I know of... yet... but it's been a little while since I been on a *real* job Last osha class I took for manlifts I think the guy touched on the subject and said as long as the delivery agent/trainer gives the 5 minute orientation/walkaround in regards to gradalls/tele's then you're good to go because he is also mandated to instruct you to go through and understand the operations/safety manual.
That's fine until you are moving 20k lumps around on a regular basis ......... Last count we had close to 10 TH's on site, but they won't do what we need this thing to do. Horses for courses as usual. Typical thing could be a 16k pound engine that the Franna can pick up, carry, and install into the machine without the need for any other assistance.
I like the belt & braces approach regarding overturning. On top of the retractable counterweight, chain the whole thing to the deck .......
I found it interesting, the load chart that nige posted up shows three different charts for every radius, straight ahead, articulated at 25% and articulated at 40%. That would be interesting to be driving around loaded up and try not turn too far. The charts are all at 66% capacity though, so if you do end up in trouble, you knew you were headed that way anyways. Yes, I can see one of those being ideal for your use. I was more commenting on all the franna's seen in australia, on all the job sites, and how in the U.S. that's a telehandler. I bet its going to work great for you guys. I don't think terex even imports those to the U.S. In fact, terex has kind of abandoned the U.S. market, they sold their boom truck line, ceased all rough terrain and truck crane manufacturing, and sold their allterrain/ demag line to tadano. They still make RT's in europe (italy I think), and I think they are going to import those. With the abandonment of manufacturing here and the resulting loss in value for anyone having a newer one (abandoned lines don't sell well), they are going to have to be super cheap to get anyone to buy one.
I thought from the other picture of it lifting a helicopter that it looked like that counterweight dropped back. That picture shows how it works, I was going to do a little more looking for pictures, but that saved me some time, thanks. So that thing would have 4 winches, block, ball, boom and counterweight? I also liked the snatch blocks up on the boom, I imagine those are for attaching tag lines too, for that rolling pitching deck.
Looks like Letourneau. They built some interesting things. They always seemed to use pipe for a lot of the structural components. The Franna looks pretty handy Nige. Just have to watch backing up with a load, ive seen a couple of pick and carry s doing fine with a load until they back up.
Don't be out hot rodding it on the weekends. https://vertikal.net/en/news/story/33470/crane-flip
Been a sad couple of days for Frannas in Nth Qld. with a worker tragically losing his life after another hit power lines the day before and only 100km from the rollover.
I saw a article on the electrocution, thats a sad tragic event. I've never driven a franna, but I'm guessing they would be much like a articulated rubber tire loader, and a loader can be a little twitchy at high speed. What kind of road speed would a franna be traveling at? I could look up the specs, but the specs on the road speed of my rt crane aren't very close to what it will really travel, it won't do anywhere close to its top speed because of tire bounce. Are they rolling 30mph, 40 mph, 50 mph? I couldn't see really 50mph, just looking at the machines and how they steer.
You'd be amazed. The old frannas weren't good for much speed, but the new ones (and the NZ-made Tidd cranes) will do 90km/h, which I think is somewhere close to 50. What I find a little awkward when driving them, is that although they are built similarly to a loader, the operater sits in front of the articulation joint instead of behind it. It makes it a little trickier to keep track of how tight you're steering
The one good thing about our application is that most of the areas where this machine will operate are governed by a 20km/h (12mph) speed limit.
90 kmph is 55 mph, I think that would be plenty fast for how it steers. 30-40 would to me be a more comfortable speed. You wouldn't want to sneeze with your hand on the wheel at 90kmph, I think you'd be in the ditch in a hurry.
It's when they get a bounce on that things go pear shaped. There's been a couple of Tidds go into paddocks around here, one rolled over, one unscathed
25 tons on rubber 35 tons on outriggers Grove doesn't make them anymore and they tried to buy this one for their on use but sayed we wanted to much. Called back 2 or 3 weeks later and they had decided they would take it but we had just sold it. This is the 3rd one weave fixed up, maybe next time.
And you have that guard dog to make sure no one tries to steal it!
The papermills and taconite processing plants use a lot of these Brodersons. They work very well inside the plants on the flat concrete floors and have a lot of lift for there size. About all you see is propane powered ones. I can see where they could be a handful in rougher terrain.
I liked having the Broderson and the other carry-deck around the shop. As I was most of the time working alone I could often position the little crane and reach the controls from outside to make fine adjustments to the position of the item I was lifting. Also they took up little floor space in the shop.
That's Towzer the only reason hed bite is if you had a biscuit in your pocket. They are handy. Just thought of this but I guess that's another line of the terex cranes that want be sold new in the US