Crane Hot Line September 2025 | Page 19

Truck Cranes may sometimes look similar, is their undercarriages.

“ Truck cranes are built to travel on roads, so they have a simplified undercarriage and driveline design that is similar to a conventional chassis,” said Lance Rydbom, vice president of product management and engineering at Tadano America.“ All-terrain cranes are built to travel both on and off of roads, so they have hydro-pneumatic suspensions.”

Manitowoc’ s Hooper added,“ Allterrains also feature multi-axle steering, larger tires and, often, longer booms and higher capacities. Their cost reflects their broader range of terrain capability.”

As Tadano’ s Rydbom put it,“ Truck cranes are a more economical option for customers who don’ t need an all-terrain’ s offroad capability.”

Indeed, whereas truck cranes typically have three or four axles and capacities from 40 to 120 tons, all-terrain cranes can have two to nine axles and capacities from 40 to 1,500 tons.

As for the distinction between truck cranes and boom trucks, the key difference once again is in the chassis.

“ Boom trucks mount a crane onto a commercial truck chassis, for example a Kenworth or Peterbilt,” said Link-Belt’ s Soper.“ You could use that same commercial chassis for other vocational truck applications.”

Boom trucks typically have from two to six axles and capacities ranging from a few tons up to 80 tons.

Three Manufacturers

Three manufacturers sell truck cranes in North America: Grove, a division of Manitowoc; Link-Belt; and Tadano.

Together, they currently offer 19 models with capacities from 40 to 120 tons, main-boom heights from 102 to 205 feet, and maximum jib-tip heights from 128 to 263 feet.

The chart below shows the full range of models available in North America.

Grove models that begin with TTS and Link-Belt models that begin in HTT or

Truck Cranes Available in North America

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