Crane Spotlight
By Mike Larson
Roadrunners
Truck cranes meet customers’ needs for on-road mobility and jobsite lifting performance
Truck cranes have been mainstays in the North American lifting industry for nearly eight decades.
The first ones manufactured in the United States with purpose-built carriers may have come as early as the 1940s.
Now, 80 years later, truck cranes drive daily across the U. S. and Canada to pick and place everything from HVAC units to swimming pools and structural steel.
They are prominent in taxi crane service, where their ability to travel at highway speeds then set up quickly and make the needed lifts before heading off to the next job make them a perfect fit.
Andrew Soper, product marketing manager at Link-Belt, estimates that about 80 percent of truck cranes in North America are engaged in taxi crane work, though they are also particularly popular with steel erectors, and are involved in many other sectors of the lifting industry.
What is a Truck Crane?
Although some people in the industry call any crane that can travel on public roads a“ truck crane,” there are really three distinct varieties of roadable cranes: truck
A member of the All Family of Companies uses A Grove TMS 9000-2 to set steel.
cranes, all-terrain cranes and boom trucks. Here’ s what defines each type.“ A truck crane uses a purpose-designed carrier engineered specifically for a particular crane model,” said Mark Hooper, vice president, North American sales and Grove Defense at Manitowoc.“ It integrates the superstructure, outriggers, counterweight system and controls into a single chassis optimized for lifting and travel at normal highway speeds.”
The major difference between a truck crane and an all-terrain crane, which
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September 2025 • www. cranehotline. com