played a little with a poclain portable tower crane with remote

We were walking through the jobsite and the guy handed me the remote. That was fun, I could get used to that. I will get some more stick time with it when I can.

I have worked rigging our picks for it but not had time to try it out again.


It has those 3 slip joints in the tower that pop and creak, and add some slop to the swing-counterswing action.

Spindly little erector set looking thing. I've never had to look at one for an appraisal.

they sure show up for sale in Crane Trader.

I had over 1000 hours running my Terex 17 ton boom truck, with it's wireless remote control. Not a mini tower crane I know, but those remote do hickies sure are fun! Like when I would stand up on a roof right next to the HVAC guys, or when I'd ride my Goldwing after a lunch break up under the hook, get the remote out of the saddle bag, and rig to the already rigged 'wing, and fly myself up onto the boom truck bed. Once I was on the bike, and flew myself up to the ridgeline of a 2 story house to hand the customer my bill, fun stuff. Being a light plane pilot and a boom trucker for some years at that point, it made perfect sense to me?!

skyking1 said:

I have worked rigging our picks for it but not had time to try it out again.

Click to expand...

Never made sense to me to run all the cribbing boards the same direction. I always like the second layer running opposite of the lower layer.

And they can have their remote. I like a seat and a cab and a cupholder.

One good thing about the portables- they sure don't take up much room on a jobsite. You can set that tower 10' off the side of the building, and its all in a 14'x14' footprint, and if your just setting light stuff, they can reach quite a ways. Not real handy though if it won't reach the whole building, they take a while to move.

I think it reaches about 90% of the building where it is. What is cool about that set is, it is outside the building proper, in a notch there. I am guessing they have set those forms out of reach with the forklift.

+1 on turning the cribbing, it just makes sense.

My best crews I work with know the cribbing deal, I trained them well, layers are alternated. I'm with CO these days, though the remote option (there is a hole on my op panel for such) is available for my 1300 series National, I'm too spoiled these days to get out of the heated cab, with the cup holder, SAT radio, foot rest, and the noise attenuation it provides from the air compressors or generators, sometimes both. Plus the music from the ghetto blasters.

IF you look at that tiny phone booth halfway up the tower, it is not nearly as inviting as your cab. I'd be walking around with the remote too on that setup.

That’s the old style cab. Not super comfortable. About the the only time guys run those from the cab is for the visibility. I also know guys that like the remote because you can run the crane from where you’re actually working. That model the cab is on a winch. Cab comes down to the ground and takes you to w.e height you want.

sure makes it nice if you have to work on the hoist up on top of the mast. But it is kind concerning just how small the cab hoist rope is. I think it’s 6mm cable in two parts. The higher you get the smaller that cable looks. Also takes a little getting used to the cab swinging around as much as it does being it’s on a cable. It does use the ladder as a track but it still moves a lot.