First Liebherr crawler crane for Crane Service Inc.

It is the first time that the Southwest company Crane Service Inc. with more than 55 years of experience in rigging and heavy hoisting has opted for a crawler crane of Liebherr. “The LR 1300 SX is a highly versatile crawler crane. Furthermore, it offers a better capacity compared to other crawler cranes in the same tonnage class”, explains Mr. Bob Warianka, Business Development Manager of Crane Service Inc., some of the reasons for purchasing the Liebherr crane.

The LR 1300 SX is additionally equipped with pendant links made from carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP). Besides being basically maintenance-free another benefit of these carbon fiber pendant links are the increased load charts, as Mr. Bob Strohacker, Branch Manager of Crane Service Inc. in Sweetwater, Texas, emphasizes: “A key reason for purchasing the LR 1300 SX was the opportunity to upgrade the crane with CFRP pendant links. They further increase the lifting capacity of the crane, thus providing an even better lifting solution especially for operating in wind parks.”

In the specific combination with carbon fiber pendants the crane is able to self-erect 86m (282 ft) of main boom and a 23 ft (7 m) heavy duty wind jib. In this configuration the LR 1300 SX is able to lift a maximum of 83 tons (168,000 lbs) at a radius of 15m (50 ft).

The premiere jobsite of the LR 1300 SX is in a wind park in Nolan, Texas. The crane is used for hoisting and then again for installing the rotor of five 80m (263 ft) tall wind turbines for maintenance works. Each of the rotors has a weight of approximately 76 tons (152,000 lbs). The rotors have to be removed in order to replace the gearboxes and main shafts in the wind turbines.

The LR 1300 SX is powered by a 390 kW (523 hp) Liebherr diesel engine. Another distinguishing feature of this most successful model of the LR-series is its enormous number of boom and jib configurations and thus potential applications. The combined length of main boom and luffing jib can be as much as 169m (555 ft), comprising of 56m (184 ft) of main boom and 113m (371 ft) of luffing jib.