Skip to main content

Tight spots for Grove long boom cranes

A single Tier 4 Final engine powers both of Manitowoc’s new Grove GMK5150L and GMK5250L all-terrain cranes. The company says that the concept was pioneered by Grove on its highly successful Grove GMK6400.
January 19, 2017 Read time: 3 mins
Manitowoc’s Grove GMK5150L and GMK5250L cranes: mounted and ready to go

A single Tier 4 Final engine powers both of 2123 Manitowoc’s new Grove GMK5150L and GMK5250L all-terrain cranes. The company says that the concept was pioneered by Grove on its highly successful Grove GMK6400.

The engine drives both the carrier and superstructure, reducing overall weight and lowering fuel consumption, which leads to lower operating and maintenance costs.

The “L” designation indicates long boom allowing the models more reach for a variety of applications, such as tower crane assembly, narrow lifts in congested cities or reaching over buildings to complete HVAC projects.

The GMK5250L has a 70m boom while the GMK5150L boasts a 60m boom.

Grove also offers the GMK5150 with a shorter, 51m boom and slightly increased load charts. Manitowoc says that the MEGAFORM shaping and Twin-Lock pinning ensure these hydraulic booms are among the most stable on the market.

The GMK5150L and GMK5250L also feature Manitowoc’s Crane Control System (CCS) that now features on every new all-terrain crane model, as well as crawler cranes, rough-terrain cranes and tower cranes. This makes it easier for fleets to operate and maintain a standardised set of crane controls across several crane types. Its Boom Configurator Mode makes it quick and easy for operators to select optimum boom positions for lifts.

Specifically, the five-axle Grove GMK5150L has a 150tonne capacity, making it the leader in its class. Its class-leading characteristics are retained both when configured with its maximum counterweight for maximum lifting capacity or for partial counterweight configurations. Due to the very low gross vehicle mass for a crane this size, more counterweight can be carried while still meeting the criteria for various road regulations in North America.

Maximum counterweight for the crane is 45tonne, which allows for an overall load chart increase of up to 20% over the previous generation GMK5165-2. With a capacity of 11.8tonnes with its boom fully extended, Manitowoc says the GMK5150L is ideal for tower crane assembly or where strength at height is needed.

The crane can carry up to 7.9tonnes of counterweight in the boom over front travel configuration—if roading regulations permit—enabling the crane to achieve a Gross Vehicle Weight of less than 12tonnes/axle. In addition, models in this range are equipped with attaching points that accommodate a boom dolly for areas that require travel in the trailing boom configuration.

Manitowoc says the 250tonne capacity GMK5250L was the first mobile crane to feature the VIAB turbo clutch module that eliminates fluid overheating and clutch burning while simultaneously delivering improved fuel economy. The VIAB module also enables class-leading maneuverability and driver comfort by working in tandem with the crane’s integrated retarder, resulting in wear-free braking and starting.

With its 12tonne/axle configuration, and dimensions suited to global roading requirements, the compact GMK5250L offers excellent roadability. Special attention has been given to the appropriate axle-group spacing, and specifically, the fact that this exceeds 2.4m—a strict requirement for roading mobile cranes in North America.

Other features on the GMK5250L include interchangeable counterweight slabs. These can also be shared among the GMK5180-1, GMK5200-1 and GMK6300L models. There is a self-rigging auxiliary hoist which is interchangeable with cranes in the GMK line from the GMK5180-1 up to GMK6300L.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Booming Chinese aggregate demand
    February 22, 2013
    Global demand for construction aggregates is set to increase 5.2% a year until 2015 to 48.3 billion tonnes, according to research by The Freedonia Group in the United States. The same source tips China alone to account for half of all new aggregate demand worldwide in the period 2010-2015. Guy Woodford reports on the growing importance of the Asian aggregates market. China is already the biggest nation for aggregate production and use in the world, and the competition among the giants of aggregate productio
  • Super job for a Demag CC 3800-1 without a Superlift counterweight
    July 4, 2019
    A Demag CC 3800-1 crane with an 84m-long main boom was recently set up in Germany without a Superlift counterweight to save space. The jobsite was the replacement of the old viaduct on the A45 Freeway that spans the Lahn River near Dorlar in Germany. Bietigheim-Bissingen-based crane service provider Wiesbauer solved the site’s space issues by using a Demag CC 3800-1. “This site required us to lift loads of 96-148tonnes at radii of 40-64m, so there was no option but to use a crawler crane in the 650tonne c
  • Excavator remains the key earthmoving tool
    February 17, 2012
    The excavator remains the key earthmoving tool, Mike Woof reports. The versatile hydraulic excavator has been at the heart of most earthmoving projects around the world for many years, a dominance that looks set to remain. Because of the importance to the construction sector of the excavator, manufacturers are keen to upgrade and improve their competing machines on an almost continuous basis. New technology proliferates in hydraulic excavators while firms are also focussing on increasing the range of tasks
  • Doosan’s new DX140LC-3 and DX160LC-3 crawler excavators
    June 24, 2013
    Both machines are powered by Doosan’s DL06K ‘common rail’ six-cylinder turbocharged diesel engine, said to meet Stage IIIB engine emission regulations through the use of EGR (Exhaust Gas Recirculation) and Diesel Particulate Filter (DPF) after-treatment technologies. The engine has a displacement of 5,890cm³ and is said to deliver 15% more power [82 kW @ 1850RPM] than previous Stage IIIA models. The engine also delivers 11% more torque (49.5kgf.m) in the DX160LC-3 model. Doosan said that factory tests had