Spotlight Cranes
By Seth Skydel
Where No Other Crane Has Gone Before
Telescoping boom crawler crane use is on the rise in multiple applications
Once considered niche machines, noted Michael Dawson, product manager of crawler cranes at Link-Belt, the extreme versatility of teleboom crawlers has led to more contractors, crane rental houses and owners finding value in their use.
“ The telecrawler market is steady and trending upward with modest growth,” Dawson said.“ This is noteworthy, because as the economy grows stronger and the U. S. infrastructure is progressively rebuilt, they are sure to be put to work on more jobs.”
With 2024 being an election year, we saw a little drop off in the teleboom crawler market, related Allen Kadow, product manager, telescopic and lattice boom crawler cranes at Tadano.“ But the telecrawler market appears to be on the rise in 2025,” he said.
“ We are seeing some of the funding for the infrastructure bill just now being disbursed and that will stimulate growth,” Kadow explained further.“ Also, as the tariff situation may temper some projects, as it settles and they become final we believe we will see the market trend upward.”
JJ Grace, product manager at Grove, pointed out that increasing demand for larger capacity models is driving strong growth in the over 100-ton telescopic crawler crane market.
“ Infrastructure investment continues with major bridge, highway and rail projects fueling this trend,” Grace said.“ At the same time, the renewable energy sector is emerging as a key growth area where wind turbine installation and maintenance require cranes capable of handling heavy components at significant heights, and as support cranes for large lattice crawlers.
Grove’ s new GHC200 telescoping crawler crane is the manufacturer’ s highest capacity model. It offers 200 tons of lifting capacity with a 185-foot main boom and features a 90 % pinning location on the boom for added setup flexibility, a tip height of up to 265.7 feet with extensions, and full pick-and-carry ability on inclines up to 4 °.
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July 2025 • www. cranehotline. com