The 875c is the same crane as the earlier tms870. Grove just gave it a new chart with a couple feet closer radius, and
bam, they were a 75 ton instead of a 70 ton. Instant bigger crane.
Anyways, I ran a TTS870 for a couple years. That is the all wheel steer version of the tms870, it had super singles on the rear, and you could unlock the rears on the jobsite for rear steer.
You don't really want the rear steer one(TTS). Its not as handy as you would think, and its a much weaker rear axle set up than tandems. They had a lot of problems with the steering arms not being strong enough, and it would really squat with all the ctw. on the crane.
Here's a few things I remember from the one I ran:
#1 The 138' main had weak upper plates on several sections. Most of those booms have already blown out, Grove had a exchange program at one time, and a repair procedure to fix and beef up the top plates. The one I ran had been repaired the year before, it blew out on a different operator. Basically the doubler plates 4' down from the top of each section, where the other boom contacts them, were not heavy enough. It would pop the top plates off of the side plates while still within chart. Grove may know if the boom updates have been done if you contact them with the serial #. If it is unknown if the boom updates have been done, I'd look over the doubler plates pretty close before buying one. I'm sure grove doesn't do the exchange program any more, but they probably still have the repair procedure. The one I ran- I think section #2 was repaired, and the base section was exchanged.
#2 Jib is kind of a pain. There is a welded bar across the top of the top head sheaves, that the jib pins to. So to string cable out on the jib, you have to thread it all out under that bar, and then on top. Instead of just pulling a pin and tossing it off the side. Not a big deal if you have a operator in the cab and someone to pull cable, but I was by myself most of the time, so you would lay out 60' of cable, and have to drag it all through. Its a bigger pain than it sounds. The 110' booms have a top pin instead.
#3 Just so your aware, its a 8' carrier, but has 24' two stage outrigger beams. Not a 20' like your tms300. So it won't fit in most driveways. Either both sides are right on the edge, or ones out in the grass and the other is on the driveway. Also, ours always seemed weak on the jacks, it was difficult to jack a rear jack, and crib a front, and go back and forth, like you would in a crooked spot. The jack issue may have been particular to ours, i.e. a relief set to low.
#4 ours was 92,000 with no counterweight (I can't remember if that's with or without jib), so we were using a boom dolly and had 12,000 of counterweight in the dolly, I think the permits were for around 110,000-115,000, with 12k of the counterweight on the dolly. I would check your axle weights and permits for your state, so you know what it will take to drive it around legally. The chart changes very little between 12,000 and the full 18,000 counterweight, we rarely hung the last of the weight.
#5 The 138' boom has not one, not two, but three a2b reels on the side of the boom. They pull individual boom section length for the lmi with all the reels. It gives you plenty of wires to hang up if your going through the trees to get at something. You can't replace them with a wireless a2b, the lmi needs the section lengths.
#6 The carrier/ crane electrical system is a hybrid of 12v and 24v systems. There was a box behind the seat that had a equalizer system to keep the batteries charged correctly. Some of the stuff in the crane and carrier is 12v, some is 24v, and its always a pain to figure out what solenoid you have, and what its supposed to have. If I remember, the lighting was 12v, the engine was 12v with 24v start. The upper electrical for the crane was 24v.
#7 The one I ran had a odd hydraulic thumping that would randomly occur. Grove was out several times, they never found the issue, and never fixed it. I think it was a compensator valve, but we could never identify it.
#8 If you have all the boom out, and are running the factory A/C, the hydraulic oil will overheat in hot weather. You can help the issue by pulling in the boom every couple hours, and exchanging the hot oil in the tank, for the cool oil in the boom, but its looks odd to pull boom in at 11:00 in the morning because your oil is too warm. The factory A/C is hydraulic orbit motor, and there isn't a whole lot of oil in the tank with all the boom out.
#9 In hot weather it will knock out the function coils. They are under the boom in a bank. I always had a few with me, and a diagram showing which spool did which function. That way you could match coil replacement to the function you lost and be back running.
#10 Its kind of boom heavy, for what it has for counterweight- compared to a terex or a link belt of similar size. That's not really a good or bad thing, just a trade off. Its stouter built, and will last longer, but it hurts you for chart at radius having that heavy boom.
The good things: pilot controls are nice, the winches are the good old grove, 3/4" cable winches with two speed. The m11 is a good engine. Rockwell rears and standard truck rubber. 138' main is handy in a lot of spots. I know I listed a lot of issues, but I ran it for a while and I knew the guy that ran it before me, and he ran down the issues they had with it. Counterweight is easy to install/ uninstall. Overbuilt compared to the terex/linkbelt.
What I found with it, is that it couldn't do much on main, that I couldn't do with a tms300 with main and jib. So any job that was doable on main, the tms300 would go do with jib, unless you didn't have room to install jib. So most of the jobs I went and did with it, were with jib on. And that jib is a handful by yourself/ customer help.
If you want to run around with some of the counterweight on, and no dolly, your talking 105,000 on 4 axles vs the 75,000 that your tms 300 is.
If you really like the link belt you work with, link belt also make a 8670/75 with a 127' main. The boom sticks out the front a little more for making corners, vs the 115' boom versions.
So in summary- I liked the one I ran, its not all good, and its not all bad either. That model just has some trade offs that you have to decide if they are worth it.
The bar in green is the one that gets in the way putting jib on. Your day gets pretty bad if you flip any of the 3 length reel wires off on a tree branch.
