Business Issues
company like Jeff Martin, which can turn assets into cash within 30 days, and whose global reach offers maximum access to potential buyers.
Exact Crane’ s Swan suggests that anyone who plans to buy a crane this year start looking sooner rather than later.“ The earlier you search, the more options are available,” he said.
Swan also suggests that buyers clearly define their needs.“ No one knows your business like you do,” he said.“ From there, we can help you get the right machine.”
As for crane owners, Swan advises that they take good care of their equipment.
“ Every crane will eventually be for sale, so take care of it,” he said.“ Exact Crane has maintenance products to help with that. A crane that has been taken care of is worth more when you sell it.”
Fleet Owner’ s View
NessCampbell Crane + Rigging provides crane rental, rigging, specialized transportation, machinery moving and engineering services.
Headquartered in Portland, Oregon, it also operates major branches in Seattle, Washington, and Boise, Idaho, and has eight total locations in the region.
Its fleet includes more than 100 cranes, from a 6,400-pound-capacity mini crane to a 660-U. S.-ton lattice-boom crawler.
“ As of now, we’ ve bought about 80 % of our cranes new and about 20 % pre-owned, but we don’ t set a new-to-used ratio by dollar value or unit count,” said John Anderson, NessCampbell’ s president.
Anderson said the decision between
This 2017 Grove RT770E rough-terrain crane is among the used cranes Jeff Martin Auctioneers has offered for sale.
buying a new or used crane rests on many factors, such as lifting capacity, what cranes are available, how soon the crane will be needed, the brand and others.
When looking at a used crane, NessCampbell carefully considers the unit’ s overall condition, its engine hours, how well it was maintained and whether it was used in rugged work like pile driving.
One example of a used crane that has had a big effect on NessCampbell is the 660-U. S.- ton Liebherr LR 1600 / 2 lattice-boom crawler it bought last year.
“ Until then, our largest crawler crane was a 385-U. S.-ton model,” said Anderson.“ We had never needed a crane as large as the LR 1600 / 2 before.”
That changed when a competitor brought in the 660-ton Liebherr to set girders for one job in Portland.
“ That expanded our thinking,” said Anderson.“ We realized that if we owned a larger crane, we could create a market for it, so we bought the competitor’ s LR 1600 / 2 that was already here.”
In the year that NessCampbell has owned it, the LR 1600 / 2 has been among the company’ s most-used cranes.
“ That pre-owned higher-capacity crane lets us serve our customers better than ever before,” Anderson added.
Financier’ s Perspective
Financing a used crane is about the same as financing a new one, except the term is shorter and the buyer needs to be even more careful about what he or she is buying, says James H. Mayes Jr., executive vice president of M & T Equipment Finance Corporation.
Mayes has more than 35 years of experience financing heavy equipment, including cranes of all types and sizes.
Headquartered in Houston, Texas, M & T has 40 representatives who finance new and used equipment for customers across the U. S.
The company’ s crane-owning clients
Used Equipment
range from one-rig operations to the country’ s largest fleets.
“ My first advice to anyone buying a crane, new or used, is to choose a lender who specializes in heavy equipment,” Mayes said.
“ A lender who intimately understands the industry, is familiar with large projects and general contractors, and who deeply understands the equipment will be much more responsive when things do not go as planned,” he explained.
Mayes’ second advice for used-crane buyers is to know the equipment’ s condition.“ Paying an expert for a certified inspection is a worthwhile investment,” he said.
Mayes also advises buyers of any crane to have a clear plan of how they will use it, and of the potential income and expense it will generate.
Carefully estimating those things makes the lending process smoother and also helps the buyer understand what is needed for the new crane to be profitable.
“ All lenders want a current financial statement as part of a loan request,” said Mayes.“ We at M & T also look at the impact the new crane will have on the buyer’ s business, so we also want to analyze its expected utilization, hourly rates and other information that predicts cash-flow revenue.
“ We want our borrowers to succeed, because that’ s how we succeed.”
One early trend that Exact Crane & Equipment has seen in 2025 is demand for truck cranes and boom trucks, for example, this Manitex 50155HL.
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February 2025 • www. cranehotline. com