Hiab to log crane conversion

[Timbermcpherson]

I have been pricing log cranes, and for something Im not going to be using every day, its hard to justify spending the kind of money asked for a new one.

If I wanted something really heavy I can pick up an old forwarder crane for less than 2k as our forestry industry use them alot and they are made locally.

We have no small forester industry, I know of only ONE botex crane in the whole country and no other simular machines. Ive never seen a log crane mounted to a trailer or tractor otherwise.

 

What I can get my hands on is Hiab units off trucks cheaply, but I havent seen anyone do a conversion to turn one into a log crane aside from one unit in germany.

 

My question is, why not? They seem to have all the lift, availablity, cheap, and most of the flexiblity. Is there a reason Im missing that they are not converted and used?

 

Gebrauchte Traktoren und Landmaschinen ? Technikboerse die Nummer 1 bei gebraucht und neu :: Gebrauchtmaschine HIAB Hiab 650 Ladekrane/Rückezangen - verkauft

[Mortimer Firewood]

I have been looking for a 3 point linkage timber crane and there is very little in the uk. So will follow this thread with interest. I want mine for yard use so i can stack high and get at it.

[agrimog]

timber cranes dont generally have the same lifting capacity as a hiab/atlas style crane, in as much as there construction is a lot lighter, as long as you can run an extra two hydraulic circuits there is nothing to stop you using one(one circuit for the rotator, one for the grab/bucket), some cranes are already piped this way, usually ex utility company ones, the other advantage of a hiab is that you can usually stick on a manual extension jib which can give you a lot longer reach usually without sacrificing to much lift capacity, swings and roundabouts!!, most can be adapted to fit a variety of mounts, even adapted to fit a three point linkage. have a little chat with your local engineering fabricators and see what they can come up with

[treequip]

I have been pricing log cranes, and for something Im not going to be using every day, its hard to justify spending the kind of money asked for a new one.

If I wanted something really heavy I can pick up an old forwarder crane for less than 2k as our forestry industry use them alot and they are made locally.

We have no small forester industry, I know of only ONE botex crane in the whole country and no other simular machines. Ive never seen a log crane mounted to a trailer or tractor otherwise.

 

What I can get my hands on is Hiab units off trucks cheaply, but I havent seen anyone do a conversion to turn one into a log crane aside from one unit in germany.

 

My question is, why not? They seem to have all the lift, availablity, cheap, and most of the flexiblity. Is there a reason Im missing that they are not converted and used?

 

Put simply for production forestry they are too slow and that's all about the geometry

 

Forestry cranes are "long arm", their geometry means they achieve maximum reach quickly, they do this at the sacrifice of load. They don't lift as much as a "Short arm crane but they do it at distance and the cycle time is quick which is ideal for the repetitive action of loading timber.

 

Short arm cranes like the one in your link achieve distance by extending telescopic booms which is much slower, the are built much heavier and are able to lift more weight at distance

[aspenarb]

I use a top seat 650 Hiab on our trailer and it serves us well. As said above they are slow and are a bit short on reach but for what we do its not a problem. Its got enough grunt to lift a 3` diameter oak stick 20` long which is ideal for what we do. Brick grabs give more reach and are normally a lot cheaper but they dont fold up.The upside of the 650 is it will handle a monster of a grab ,ours opens up to 8`, the trailer runs a donkey engine for the hydraulics.

 

Bob

 

 

 

 

Modified brick grab on the back of the 6x6 project truck. As you can see there is no chance of it folding up but it has got lift at 8ton meter. and 8mtr reach

 

 

 

Bob

[scraggs]

You could look into muck grab cranes which are similar to timber cranes.

I took the rotator and grab off my crane as it was just too slow, generally much bigger ram bores on standard cranes because of the higher lifting capacities which also slows everything down.

I would imagine the reason for so few 3 point linkage cranes is the stability testing would be a knightmare, put it on a different tractor and it would need retesting.

[scraggs]

 

Modified brick grab on the back of the 6x6 project truck. As you can see there is no chance of it folding up but it has got lift at 8ton meter. and 8mtr reach

 

 

 

Bob

 

You really need to sell that project to me

As said before when you posted them pics, that is one cracking lorry.

[difflock]

Did someone once tell me a key difference was slewing capacity.

Since "Hiab" type lorry cranes are always set up dead level, despite their generally higher tonne metre capacity, they are easy to rotate.

A timber crane on the other hand, will, or indeed can, rarely be properly levelled and will be routinely expected to slew "uphill", which with the leverage of the reach is heavy work.

Marcus

[gensetsteve]

Put simply for production forestry they are too slow and that's all about the geometry

 

Forestry cranes are "long arm", their geometry means they achieve maximum reach quickly, they do this at the sacrifice of load. They don't lift as much as a "Short arm crane but they do it at distance and the cycle time is quick which is ideal for the repetitive action of loading timber.

 

Short arm cranes like the one in your link achieve distance by extending telescopic booms which is much slower, the are built much heavier and are able to lift more weight at distance

 

 

I agree on the speed. I used to own this timber trailer and when we hired this tractor in we had to programme the hydraulics down as the speed of the crane was too much. Great for working fast but the crane was always at full reach and thats alot of weight when it swings at 100 mph

[aspenarb]

The slewing on the 650 is really strong, the slew rams are about 4" in diameter. We have a timber trailer that goes behind the mog and thats got a Botex crane on it. Plenty of reach but sadly lacking in lift but then you can have it both ways, something with loads of reach and lift would probably be too heavy. You cant see the push out on the 650 because its retracted but it goes out to about 6mts. The mog ended up with a pto driven pump on the back to operate the crane, that livened it up a bit

 

Bob