Tms250E

[John Griffin]

Are Tms250E's grey market? Went to look at one today. It was made in England. The load chart was in kilograms.

 

[crane operator]

Need a picture. Grove and Coles were partnered for a while. There were some tms250's from that partnership with 80' mains, and they are like the old tms200-250's from the us, except with 2 man cabs, and some are duetz air cooled engines. Shouldn't be anything exotic with those, that you couldn't get with a tms 250 serial #. Some are basically a tms300 with a two man cab, some of those were also deutz air cooled, but a lot have been converted to something with a radiator- most to 855 cummins that I've seen.

Some later stuff was shipped from us to england to korea and then back here. Those are either daewoo or cummins powered, and are grey market. 3 axle 105' main. Grove will not sell you parts, but you can source most of it without grove. The cummins powered are better than the daewoo ones, but they are all a pain. All the axles are oddball, its 24 volt and a goofy electrical system also. Its kind of like a tms640 105' main boom, with a short swing away jib and stinger. They are prone to frame damage. The computer systems are non repairable.

So which one of these does it look like? (last two pictures are the same model crane):

 

[crane operator]

I personally don't like the two man cabs, visibility stinks. And I've run the daewoo ones, and the uppers are okay, but the rest of it is hard to source parts for, it would have to be really really really cheap, and even then I probably wouldn't.

 

[John Griffin]

It looks like the first picture. It's got a V8-210 cummins in it. It has an 80 ft main.

 

[John Griffin]

It's like very very cheap. Basically twice scrap price. I'm just afraid its an orphan. It's not currently running but it probably would with a battery and some fresh fuel. I have seen it run in the past.

 

[crane operator]

They can be hard to keep cool in hot weather - the cabs block the radiators. The cummins is known as a 555 "triple nickle" and aren't a great engine. Neither are the 3208's or the 6v-53's which were the other two factory options. I repowered two tms 250's to 8.3 cummins and that was money well spent. Mine were both 3208 powered originally, andthe 3208's just wouldn't hold together hauling 50,000lbs around in my hills. I've driven one that was 5.9 cummins powered and it wasn't up to the task.

The tms 200's are a stout crane, I still own one, and ran it today. The 80' main is just too short in a lot of places, you'll get good at swinging jib. The tms 200's don't bring much $$$, to me the two man cab, and if its 24v - and if its coles electric, all makes it worth even less $$$$.

I'll take my tms 200 over my national 1300 boom truck any day, unless I have to have the 95' main, or have to drive a hour plus away. The boom truck isn't built like the truck crane is.

Even if its really cheap, you still have to upkeep the engine trans rears tires and all the seals, and insure it. If it hasn't been being used, its a project. Then it comes down to if you have time for a project, and if its a crane you want to own after you get done with the project.

 

[crane operator]

Is it 24v?

Is it 20" or 22.5" rubber?

Old small box 613/6613 transmission?

What does the extension and retract cables in the boom look like?

Any LMI/ scale A2b and is it operational if it has them?

 

[John Griffin]

I've been casually looking for a smaller crane than our TMS300s. We use them for tree work only. We mainly do residential removals with a bit of commercial work. Sometimes it's hard to get enough room to setup a TMS300. We did one on Wednesday that we had to wiggle the crane back and forth probably 10 times to get around a corner where we could setup. If we had the crane three feet father forward we wouldn't have been able to get the boom up due to the guy wires from a tower. We were less than 5 feet from being boomed all the way up while we were operating. Our TMS 300s have a 104 ft main with the dead stick out. 81 ft without putting out the dead stick. Probably half the time we don't use the dead stick. We did another job today where the front of the crane was sticking out in the road due to having to set up in a short driveway. It would have been nice to have a shorter carrier. We only used 81 ft of boom on this job.

 

[John Griffin]

I don't know on the 24V.

It's still on 20" rubber. The rubber is pretty bad. Can 22.5 wheels be swapped? They look a bit different than I'm used to seeing.

It has an RTO613 in it. It looked very similar to the one in the TMS300s.

The extension cables looked good from what I could see of them but it wasn't running. Someone stole the batteries.

It has a Kruger setup but I wouldn't count on it working.

 

[crane operator]

I wouldn't want it if its 24v, that's a pain. Lights switches solenoids etc.

Is it 20" dayton or the 20" that use 'bus" type rims?

I don't mind the small box trans, but they are getting kind of rare. I have one that's been replaced one with a 9513.

The old kruger is junk.

 

[John Griffin]

Yeah 24v could be a pain. I did notice it has all euro style cylindrical fuses.

Its the bus style 20s.

I don't mind driving a 13 speed at all. The other guy that drives our cranes doesn't mind them either.

 

[skyking1]

Has anybody operated the Terex T340? I always liked the looks of that rig, nice charts, sometimes two drums, etc.

 

[crane operator]

Has anybody operated the Terex T340? I always liked the looks of that rig, nice charts, sometimes two drums, etc.

The charts are better than the machine is- I.E. they aren't built very well. Terex is now out of the crane business, no parts are available. They were typically a lot cheaper than a comparable link belt or grove, and it shows.

 

[skyking1]

I see them for sale with really high hours, so they get used. I suppose everyone is bailing on them without parts support.