natman-- The jack stroke on the tms 200-250's is great, one advantage of the old grove carriers, over a boom truck, is you get a way stiffer chassis. I've never put blocks under the tires to get another bite on jacking up. You can simply use a back jack, to raise the front, and go back and forth. In a real steep spot, or with my heavier boomed 300, I sometimes have to swing over the other side and teeter totter to raise it up. But that's in a spot steep enough, that it slides down the hill a little when coming off the tires, not on one like this. This job site isn't really unusual in my area, for level. I've been in much worse.
Most boom trucks have too much frame flex, or droop if you have two-stage outrigger beams, to walk back and forth from front to rear jacks. You're fortunate in your national natman, to have the single stage beams, if you go up to the 33 or 40 ton's they have the two stage beams, and a wider span. Those are the boom trucks I usually have to look at (30-40 ton), to get the chart I need to replace one of my truck cranes. The big advantage with the newer truck cranes is the long main power boom, sometimes its a battle to have enough room to swing jib.
Kiwi-- I've run liebherr and grove/krupp all terrains, the hydraulic suspension on those is very nice. You can just tip the carrier to level, crib up, and then jack up. It's too bad they are so expensive to buy, and maintain, I can't justify a 50 ton AT in my area, and get the rates I would need to make it pay, I wouldn't be competitive. I will agree on the short jacks on most rough terrains. They aren't terrible, because they are usually compact, but some have such big tires, and such short jacks, that the pads barely touch the ground in a level spot, let alone if its crooked. I ran a terex 50 ton rt for a little while, it had a carrier like a 70 ton, and only a 105' main boom, it was a good picking crane with that heavy undercarriage, but it had really short jacks.
Tradesman- those aren't technically super singles on the rear- The "over the road truckers" super singles are 445/50r22.5. Those are simply 385's, like a floater steer tire, just smaller than a 425 floater steer tire. That crane is actually 385's steer and drive both, it just has a different offset on the rear rims. Having singles on the rear instead of duals makes it a little lighter on the rear, and you have 4 less tires to buy, but they are more expensive tires. Floaters are terrible in the mud. A set of duals will bite in, the floats just slide around on top. Don't ever put super singles on a truck you go offroad with a lot, they will get stuck in a heartbeat. I'm blessed with lots of rock where I live, so not much mud, or snow, so they do okay. If it is muddy, I'll take my other 25 ton which has 11r22.5 duals on it. The 385's were on the crane when I bought it, and I will probably switch it to 11r or 12r duals when I need new drives.
and shove them through the hole. It would have kinked them pretty sharp, but I would have done it to offload it.
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