Moving old garwood crane problems

[workshoprat92]

A " Truck Crane" won't have a Title like a motor vehicle .

At best a Certificate of Origin ….

Thank You!!! Finally some sanity!!

 

[crane operator]

All self propelled cranes are considered "special mobile equipment" in missouri. No titles, no plates. Buy a one way oversize/overweight permit to drive it. You will have to have insurance to drive it. (sorry, I just read your last post and you already covered your knowledge of that, I type too slow I guess)

My permits will simply list the make model and year of crane, and it will be listed as self propelled.

I have flat towed a crane, both my 70 ton(93,000lbs) and a smaller crane, behind a wrecker, you would want to have the crane running for air for the brakes, or have a air line from tow truck to "trailered" crane. A towing company would be able to tow it, because then it would fall under their insurance. We only flat towed both a few miles when needing repair. I only flat towed because I couldn't get the front picked up because of weight and the hydraulic boom in the way. Its not fun, but I never built a tow bar either.

Looks like military 20" rubber , on budd's(?) if they aren't 1400r20's (its hard to tell the tire size from the picture), you should be able to slap a set of 22 or 24.5 rims and rubber on there, if you aren't worried about the tires, run em.

If you knew someone with one of those 5th wheel hydraulic tow bars (I think the commercial name for one brand is "pro tote"), you might be able to get the front end off the ground with one of those, and then pull the axles and driveline.

Send the counterweight and boom and clam with the second load, and with the house swung to the front, it probably isn't that heavy on the steer. To keep it real low, you could pull the steer tires. With it swung to the front, the house counterweight would all be on the rears. I have never pulled anything with one of those 5th wheel tow bars, but I see salvage guys with garbage trucks on them. I do see the 5th wheel totes for sale quite often used for around 3k or so.

If I was trying to get it home on the cheap, I would lean towards a 5th wheel tow bar, eliminate the second driver, and check/ grease the wheel bearings before I left. With the weight off, you say you're under 54, so plus a 20,000lb truck and a 2k tow bar, I think you are legal.

I'm wondering if a "temporary" "intransit" tag would be the way to go, pulled by a truck. You know the salvage and towing outfits don't mess with titles on everything they haul all over. Just like when they piggy back trucks from place to place.

I don't know if you have the 5th wheel truck? Its hard to list the possible ways that you could get it home, I don't know what you have available for equipment, sorry.

 

[workshoprat92]

Coloado always had smm plates. Before they changed the law and wanted a title they just wanted to know a value. Back in the 80s they told my dad to call a crane manufacturer and get a statement of what it cost new. He said they told him it cold 12k new. In 1957 that was a serious chunk of money!

 

[crane operator]

I was also going to say, I drive my cranes into arkansas all the time, and their rules are different than ours, but I don't have plates on them when going into other states either.

 

[crane operator]

I think i have some military budd rims around, if you would like to take a spare with you, let me know what you have. I had some 11.0020 rims, but I think I scrapped them, I know I've got 4 12.00r 24.5 mounted up, and I think I've got 4 military 11.00r20's with tires on them too.

 

[workshoprat92]

Crane operator its good to hear from you and that is some great insites! This unit has glad hands on the front of the carrier truck so i kinda think the military had designed a way to flat tow but thats just a guess. I do have a over the road fifth wheel truck that is licenced for over the road and has all the proper credentials to do so as well as i have interstate authority with the proper insuance to haul motorized vehicles. Now im not sure if flat towing falls into my insurance but thats just a call to my insurance company. The tires are some wierd 11.00-24 or something like that. They are much bigger than a standars 24.5 tall tire. Still if being flat towed like you say putting 24.5s on it wouldnt be an issue as losing road speed wouldnt be an issue. I think id pull all the driveshafts for sure. Bearings should be wet but if not like you say check grease. Technically flat towing i know can be done and i really think i could acomplish the feat in a safe manner with equipment i already have and a minor fabrication. The big unknown is the logistics of legality of doing this across 3 different jurisdictions! I dont think id have issue in missouri. Colorado and kansas however lol!!!

 

[workshoprat92]

They may be 11.00 20s id just have to look again. I may take you up on that as id plan on a chase vehicle with air compressor and tools to folow me!

 

[workshoprat92]

Crane operator i think your right on hauling everythng like counter weight stick and the three clamshell on another load. I have an end dump trailer out there that i also need to get and that stuff can all go in the end dump. Fact is you can see the front of the end dump in the first picture.

 

[crane operator]

Those 5th wheel wreckers like holmes and pro tote, are all hydraulic lift. You could build one that was just fixed, and lift the front of the crane with the outriggers to hook it on, then get it back off of it the same way when its home.

I don't know if you've been around them before, but pro tote has you tube ads, and heres some simpler designs also.

 

[td25c]

Workshoprat92 , Your thread reminds me of when we moved from Indiana to Nebraska for a spell back in 1971 …..

Little caravan , Mom & I was in the 67 Chevelle SS 396 pulling a tandem U- haul trailer and the Old Man was driving a Ford F-600 U-Haul truck .

We got stuck at a Missouri scale house ….

Fuzz Nuts comes out & wants to see to see the Old Mans " Chauffeurs License " ……

Aint got one ?

" We cant let you pass until you have one "

Old Man commended " Fuzz Nuts " for the security detail and said " We sure could have used your help where I just got back from "

Where's that ? " Cambodia ….. It's a little place south east of Missouri . "

And we rode on without the license .

 

[workshoprat92]

Thing that gave me the idea is when i worked as a mechanic for a transit company in denver. We would flat tow busses all the time. We were restricted to 45 mph and had to have a mechanic behind the wheel of the buss to run the air brakes. We had an air line hooked from tow cehicle to tje buss system to keep air charged. All that being said we were a government transit property and i dont know if we were not held to tje same dot law as far as flat tow as private industy. I just know we did it and it worked out great!

 

[workshoprat92]

Crane operator that fifth wheel wrecker may be a better option as it gets some weight on the rear drives so you have some pulling and stopping traction! Still a tow bar would be super easy to fabricate and if the crane has a way already to actuate the crane brakes from the tow vehicle stopping traction might not be an issue. If it dosent youd want someone in the crane to operate the brakes. Id think trying to stop 54 k with a 20k vehicle with no traction weight would be dangerous as all hell!!!

 

[crane operator]

Its hard to tandem drive with another guy running the brakes and steer in the back vehicle. I think I'd want it up on the back end of the tow vehicle, and just pull it like a trailer. If you found one for 2-3,k, it would be cheaper than buying new steel to make one, but if you've got the iron around, it wouldn't be hard to make one, probably no harder than the tow bar. Just use a fixed point where they have the upright cylinders on the walker's, I think theirs are the simplest. Just google 5th wheel wrecker.

 

[RZucker]

Being as this crane is ex-military, the gladhands on the front should actuate the brakes as if it was a trailer (if it's all operational) and it should have standard military towing lugs on the front for a tow bar. If you flat tow with that setup, at least have a weight coffin on the tow tractor for traction.

 

[workshoprat92]

My old pull tractor

 

[workshoprat92]

Being as this crane is ex-military, the gladhands on the front should actuate the brakes as if it was a trailer (if it's all operational) and it should have standard military towing lugs on the front for a tow bar. If you flat tow with that setup, at least have a weight coffin on the tow tractor for traction.

Thats what i was hoping to hear on the front gladhands. I cant think of any other reason why they would be there. I agree about weight on the tow tractor and have considere putting the counterweight on the toung of the towbar over the fiftwheel!

 

[workshoprat92]

Crane operator I may have to look for a setup like that. I can see it being super handy being able to retrieve my own broken dump trucks and could possibly be another avenune of revenue! I kinda lime the one with air bags! So simple!

 

[crane operator]

They usually bring 2-3k when I see them used, none of the over the road trucks like them, cause they are all plastic up front, nothing to get ahold of. But for your dumptrucks, you can pull bumper, or even rear, if you have a rear end issue. You wouldn't have to save very many towing bills to pay for one.

 

[td25c]

Drive the crane & don't ask permission from anyone !

 

[fast_st]

For the fire dept, I ended up towing one deuce that broke down with a M50A3 potable water tanker, We borrowed a tow bar from the army base, that thing weighed over a hundred pounds easy, clevises that met up with the military tow eyes and then a big pintle. The truck being towed followed along like a good little puppy. We only went 30 miles but it was very well behaved.