Pre-purchase inspection and operating cost of a Groves TMS750B

[Doc at Saline LLC]

I am looking at purchasing a used 1999 Grove TMS750B (50 ton) crane. It appears to be in good condition with a lot of hours and miles left in it. The crane has just had a new boom inspection completed. I would like to have a professional inspection completed on the entire machine. Who would you recommend to do the inspection (upper central US).

I am also trying to get a better handle on what operation cost will be. I will be using it to unload and load incoming and outgoing equipment at my business. It will be underutilized, so I would like to develop a crane service in our area. Can you give me some kind of idea on what operating cost will be?

 

[Manistar]

If you have a Grove dealer in your state that's probably your best bet for an inspection. In Minnesota there's Hayden Murphy and Aspen equipment that both do inspections. Other crane and boom truck dealers would do an inspection too but being a Grove, if it's somewhat close to a dealer that's where I would start. The inspection it self should only be a few hundred bucks, it's usually the repairs they find that are expensive.

If it passes inspection and you're not using it everyday I wouldn't see your maintenance operating cost being that bad. It has a cummins pre emissions motor. Grove made a lot of those 750b and Ive been told parts are available. Any parts dealing with cranes and hydraulics are going to be expensive the day something does breaks but it should be a somewhat reliable machine. Probably the worst thing is the lmi computer, depending on which one it has if something goes wrong with it they're obsolete and your looking at $10,000+ in just parts for the upgrade. The crane needs to have an annual inspection which is just that few hundred dollars a year as long as they don't find anything wrong. Depending on how much rental you do with it I would think $5000-$10,000 for yearly maintenance. Hope for less but also could be more.

Now that the easy stuff is out of the way comes the fun stuff. If it's a business your going to need a certified crane operator to run the crane. Which is a couple thousand to take the classes and then you also have to pass a practical exam(obstacle course) and written exam(understanding load charts and OSHA regs), which if you have zero experience operating a crane will be hard to pass. You also have to recertify every 5 years. You could also hire a crane operator that has a certification but they also get paid well.

If you get by all of that the last one is insurance. If you have the right umbrella policy they might cover you for your own personal work and then it's not too bad. If you're going to try to start a for hire crane service, the insurance is high and hard to get. We're a construction company so we have option 1 and its just another piece of equipment on our jobsite but I don't do any rental work. There are some other guys on here that do the crane service that can maybe give you ballpark numbers.

 

[Doc at Saline LLC]

Thank you very much for the information. The Lmi is a PAT D3 350 GW and appears to function fine but I bet you correct, it would be expense to replace. No one will go anywhere near that crane without being a certified crane operator. I am having a conversation with my Grove dealer today. I will ask him about the inspection. Again, thank you for taking the time to reply.

 

[Manistar]

I don't own one but I've looked at buying one and talked to different guys that have them. I've been told the pat ds 350 gw with the number key pad you can't get parts for the computer. I think as long as it's working there's nothing wrong with it, just know that if it does go down it's going to be expensive.

 

[skyking1]

you'd be surprised at how often it is a simple stock capacitor or resistor that you can get from digikey.
I dropped my pat150 on the boom truck and thought I was toast. it just dislodged one of the chips from the socket a bit WHEW!

 

[crane operator]

A 1999 750B would be one of the very last years for those. They are a great crane from the upper, but they are kind of a dog on the road- they only have a 8.3 cummins in them. Which isn't a big deal if its just in your yard, would be kind of unhandy if you want to do rental. The 8.3 was at 260 hp in those and that's a 70,000lbs machine. So they aren't a speed demon.

The DS 350GW are just as manistar says, you are unable to get parts if you lose a board or the display quits working.

The insurance to actually do rental work, is usually so cost prohibitive, that it isn't worth doing unless you are doing it full time. And usually your umbrella policy will only cover your own work, on your own yard.


I think you could keep a 750 running for under $10,000 a year. You dump a engine its going to cost you $20k, but that shouldn't be every year.

The 750b should be around 50-$80,000 depending on condition.

Here's a couple other threads on starting a crane business, just for more info.

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