Crane Spotlight
Insights From Users
Jayko Crane, Orem, Utah, rents boom trucks and self-erecting tower cranes to customers throughout the Intermountain West.
It also can provide customers with crane-related services like delivery, setup, moving, maintenance, accessories and certified training.
President Brandon Lloyd said that although Jayko serves a range of customers, the largest category of self-erector users is wood framers.
“ A lot of buildings being built in Utah have one or two levels of concrete parking ramp topped by three to four levels of woodframed commercial space and multi-family housing,” Lloyd said.“ Self-erecting cranes are very efficient for that.”
One cornerstone of Jayko’ s fleet is a Saez HT47 self erector it bought through Creative Lifting Services.
“ We like that you can add sections to the HT47’ s mast to make it taller when a job calls for it, and also that the crane can be transported with its full 154-foot jib installed and folded up,” said Lloyd.
Capital Framing LLC, Greensburg, Kentucky, specializes in wood framing for multi-story commercial, mixed-use and educational buildings, as well as multi-family housing.
Aaron Detweiler, who co-owns the company with his father, says Capital Framing’ s 50 carpenters work mainly in central and northern Kentucky but also do projects in Indiana, Ohio and Tennessee.
The company owns a Potain Igo T 50 self-erector that Detweiler says is busy“ almost continuously.” Capital Framing bought the unit from Compass Equipment.
“ We always have several projects going at once,” said Detweiler.“ We use a small rough-terrain crane on many of them, but for jobs that stand four or more stories tall or are 60 or more feet deep, the self-erecting crane is the best solution.”
He added that the crane is amazingly reliable and that its built-in safeguards protect both the machine and the operator.
“ I also like that the wireless controls always let operators be where they can see the load,” said Detweiler.
ACS is an employee-owned woodframing contractor that builds primarily multi-family projects in Arizona and California.
An Arcomet A50 owned by Uperio Group USA unfolds its 164-foot jib during self erection. The newest and largest Arcomet self-erector, the A50 can lift up to 17,640 pounds, offer hook heights to 118 feet and lift 3,310 pounds at the jib tip.
Its average project has about 250 units and covers about 300,000 square feet.
“ We go as high as five levels of wood framing over four levels of concrete,” said Tyler Mussro, director of construction.“ For buildings of three stories or less, we mostly use telehandlers, but where we don’ t have ground-level access to all four sides or when the building is taller, we rent a selferecting crane.”
Mussro said that those tower crane rentals typically last from two months to a year, depending on the project.
He also noted that ACS rents mostly Potain Igo T 85 or T85 A self-erectors because they can“ lift a healthy load out at the jib tip.”
Mussro added that once a crane is on site, it handles all kinds of loads.“ It lifts OSB, lumber, trash boxes, utility boxes and outhouses, plus does work for other trades like roofing and HVAC,” he said.
Mussro said that ACS is starting to use self-erectors more often than other lifting equipment.“ They’ re proving to be faster and more cost-effective than forklifts and hydraulic cranes for logistically challenged projects,” he said.
Blossom Building LLC, Dillion, Colorado, is a home builder that often constructs high-end homes on scenic but difficult sites in the region’ s mountains.
Andrew Blossom founded the company in 2019 after working as a carpenter for years and having been involved in construction since childhood.
He says that using self-erecting cranes has transformed the company’ s culture and building techniques.
“ We started using self-erectors three or four years ago and just bought an FB Gru 1589 last year,” Blossom said.“ It gives us 89 feet of horizontal reach, 65 feet of hook height, 5,500-pound maximum capacity and more than 1,500-pound jib-tip capacity in a
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August 2025 • www. cranehotline. com