Hello to everybody. I got this machine and I don't know if I should fix it up or not. It is a 1978 Grove AT 180 rough terrain crane with a telescoping trapezoid shaped boom. I think that it is trapezoid shaped. I saw that in the literature someplace. I got it last year. It was not maintained well and it shows, but the price was reasonable. In retrospect I regret the purchase but now I have to figure out what to do with it. I am considering scrapping it and recouping some of the money that I already spent on buying it and getting it here. I run a small boatyard and it would come in handy if it was working correctly. It has air, hydraulic and brake fluid leaks. I am most concerned with the air leak and fixing it. The hydraulic and brake fluid leaks should be easy to fix since they are probably only hoses. Without the air pressure building up as it should, the RPMs can't be raised and the parking brake will not release. Nothing works well if the air pressure can't get up there. I did operate the crane last year to move some wrecks around after Sandy made a big mess here. It was dangerous to operate as it was but I managed and they were wrecks. I did not care if I dropped one of them. It would not have mattered, but none were dropped either. I had never operated a crane before and I was sweating bullets. Not to mention the spreader for the slings were too narrow for the 24 and 25 foot boats I was moving. The spreader frame is around 7 by 8.5 feet. I put the longer edge along the side of the boat and the shorter side across the beam. It was a balancing act and the machine was not running well. Nobody got hurt and there were no close calls. I try to work very carefully. I think I pinpointed the air leak to a brake pedal. I would replace the pedal and fix the leak. I can't get to the pedal though. There is a big hydraulic oil manifold with a bunch of hoses coming out of it right under the pedal. The manifold has to be moved away before I can take the pedal out. I could try to cut the floor to get to the pedal or somehow plug off the air going to and coming from the pedal. The previous owners did not use regular hydraulic oil in this machine but put straight 30 weight oil in instead. It is all milky anyway from condensation and should be replaced anyway. That is also why I was going to try to take off the whole manifold. I got it unbolted and thought there would be some movement, but it was still very tight from the hoses holding it in place. The cable is pretty good but it was dry. I sprayed chain mate thoroughly on the cable as best I could. The 8 cylinder Cummings diesel is in pretty good shape too and starts right up. It is not the original engine and came out of a generator. In writing this text I think I answered the question that I was going to pose to you all here on this forum. I will see if the pedal fixes the air leak after I drop the hydraulic manifold. The machine is here already and I might as well get it working correctly. It would come in handy around here if it worked well, otherwise it is dangerous to operate. Moving it around the yard was kind of scary last year. Now I can't release the parking brake and 2 wheels are locked up. I am wondering if I fix the air leak another one might pop up. It still would need a hose or three. I might just scrap it too. I have a lot of projects and have to prepare the yard for the upcoming winter storage season. It don't make any sense keeping the machine if it is not working. It takes up too much space in the yard. What do you think I should so with it? It is the most recent vintage machine that I have. Well maybe the forklift is around the same year. Here are some pics:
if it was mine I would fix it!!!! but again that's why im a mechanic lol just give it some tender lovin care, still looks in decent shape should be worth fixin up. if nothing else fix it up & resell it
Agree, looks better condition than the Grove our company keeps fixing. But most of the problems with ours have been self inflicted by people who don't know how to operate the thing. We installed a rebuilt engine last summer due to a bent rod caused by leaking injector tube. Then this engine was wrecked by someone trying to start it with large doses of either while emergency shut down was tripped. Last I knew that second engine was rebuilt and now I hear they are trying to find a used engine to replace that one! ***! I know it's only a little 6V-53 Detroit but come on as much as this crane is used one engine should last 20 + years not a few weeks! This is what happens when management has the mechanical aptitude of a dead toad! Has to be a dead one as even a live one would be smarter!
That is a thing of beauty, dont scrap it! I would give my left cojone to have that in my shop yard!
I need a mechanic to help me fix it up. I don't wanna scrap it either but it is just sitting here useless like **** on a bull. What is "emergency shut down" and how is it tripped? I take care of my machines. This crane is a headache for me. I am tired of looking at it and can't find someone reasonable to help me get it working.
I've been refurbishing an old Galion 15 ton for the past year. If you want to keep it running, get a hold of the service, operator and parts manuals. Most of these old machines were built to last, though they all leak. Air leaks are cheap, hydraulic not so much (rebuilding pumps, seals, hoses, cylinders, etc). If you have the mechanical inclination to work on it (and enjoy the work), hang onto the crane. A qualified mechanic is going to cost a fortune (and worth every cent), but may be the deal breaker if you're not doing the work yourself. Have you had a mechanic assess what needs work to make it useable/reliable? Had any trouble finding parts?
Interesting crane BarnacleScraper . Yes, buy all means fix her up and you will end up with a nice machine that will last for years . Grove has good parts support for older units . Looks like you wont have to go to far for parts . http://www.hoffmanequip.com/service/onsiteservice.html The emergency shut down is a spring loaded hinged gate that is engaged buy a manual pull cable on a Detroit Diesel . Mounts on the inlet side of the blower . Shuts off the air if things get wild . Best of luck with the AT 180 .
I guess Ill disagree with everyone. If you want to fix it up as a hobby go for it. Those old groves are very simple machines. From a business standpoint I wouldn't touch it. That crane is pretty much obsolete as far as resale value. If it needs more then simple maintenance stuff you'll have more in it then it's worth. Was looking at auction results and a tm180 sold for 5500 not to long ago. TMs250 for 15k. Like I say as a hobby go for it. I can't see it being a solid business decision.
Thanks for the replies. I am very tempted to keep it. I feel that scrapping it is giving up on the machine. Plus it is here now and MIGHT not need THAT much fixing. I would not keep it with the intention of fixing it up just to sell it and make money on the deal. I would keep it to stack up the boats closer and to be able to haul and launch boats at low tide. My main machine is a 1960 Marine Travel Lift with an air cooler Wisconsin engine. You guys would probably call it a gantry hoist. I lose a lot of space with the travel lift. For every three boats I lose a whole boat space because I have to leave space for the machine between the boats. However I am not exactly pressed for space and a hydraulic trailer would also serve the same purpose for me. A crane would come in handy here for other jobs. I could do engine swaps with it, move some boulders around the rip rap wall and maybe even build another bulkhead if I get the permits. I just gotta get it running and mobile mechanics sure are not cheap. It takes up a lot of space and I can't even move it to tuck it away in a corner some place. On the upside the pistons for all the outriggers work and were rebuilt relatively recently as were the pistons for the boom. As I said the cable is in good shape and two of the tires are newish. It would be a shame to scrap it and the engine does sound good with no knocks. I am sick of looking at it in the middle of the yard blocking my view of the Long Island Sound. I gotta get it running even if I am going to scrap it anyway. How would they get it on a lowboy with the wheels locked up? What about the thing with the previous owner using straight 3o weight oil instead of real hydraulic oil? That is not a big deal? It is all milky with water and if I do bleed the system by removing that manifold, I should be 30 weight oil back in? It is a lot cheaper than hydraulic.
Nothing wrong with keeping it. My rule of thumb is if it has one problem I know about I will usually find five more. Straight 30W in the hyd tank wouldn't worry me. The fluid being milky would. drain the tank on refill with good hyd oil and I wouldn't worry about it anymore. Brake pedals and air valves can normally be rebuilt. A new o-ring can do wonders. The two wheels could be released with an air hose. That crane has the same parking brake as a truck. It takes air to override the springs. All four wheels should be locked up if its not building air pressure. I will say that is an interesting looking crane. I'd say grove didn't make very many of those.
I drained the hydraulic tank on my old iron, refilled with 55 gallons of hydraulic fluid (at about $40 per 5 gallon pail) and it's still milky. I'll probably need to flush it one of two more times with new fluid to get the water out (cycling all the hydraulics). 30 weight oil should be no problem. If you have no cylinder leaks, you're in great shape. Once the air leak is found and resolved, you'd should be ready to go. How's the hydraulic lines, tires? I've spent about $8k replacing those over the past year for reference.
That's a tough call. If it were me I'd fix it up, but I don't know if you like working on old stuff like I do so I'm not going to tell you to do the same. A boom truck is handy in a boat yard. How do you take masts out of sailboats now? The yard we use has a nasty looking POS. They won't let me use my boom truck because of 'liability', really they just want to charge for everything. Too bad you're not on the left coast, I'd trade yard time for working on it.
I don't haul sailboats anymore. There used to be a makeshift davit on top of the travel lift that we would unstep and step the masts with when we did haul sailboats. They are a big pain. Un-stepping the mast is a lot of work and setting the boat down is too. I can do a few motorboats in the same time it takes me to haul one sailboat. The few remaining yards around here have open ended lifts so they just haul the boat with the mast stepped and leave it. Every few years it is good to check the rigging though on the mast. Sailboat owners are notoriously tight with their coins too. The masts have to be stored someplace when they are off the boats. I love sailing but storing the boats and rigs for the winter is not an easy proposition. There is enough business for me with the powerboats alone. Most of the boatyards around here have sold off to housing developments. I am "the last of the Mohegans" in many respects and holding onto this place by the skin of my teeth. I wish I had a mechanic that was a boater too. I would barter him storage and services for some wrench turning on the Grove. I have deals like that already with plumbers, electricians and mechanics here.