Two top class models – column loaded by Liebherr tandem hoist

“Everything has gone like clockwork up to now.” Marco Flossdorf, Managing Representative at Dietmar Flossdorf GmbH & Co. KG sums it up perfectly. The crane contractor based in Bad Neuenahr has now been working with its new LTM 1650-8.1 mobile crane for over three months. “Since then, we have used our new Liebherr mobile crane for bridge building, in refineries and to erect large silos,” says Flossdorf. For several weeks, the powerful mobile crane has been working at wind farms in East Germany, dismantling wind turbines. “It’s a powerful crane and really versatile. It makes us very flexible,” says a delighted Flossdorf. The company’s steadily growing fleet now comprises around 20 cranes. In addition to the new large crane, an LTM 1110-5.1 was also purchased from the Liebherr Plant in Ehingen. Marco Flossdorf: “We are adding two more at the end of the year. From Liebherr, of course.”

At the end of May the heavy load experts at Flossdorf received an order to load an enormous CO2 washer, a column over 40 metres in length, onto a barge at Andernach am Rhein. Another crane was required to handle the 140 tonne load. Working with the LTM 1500-8.1 from Autokrane Schares GmbH meant that the predecessor and successor of this crane class from Liebherr were working together on the quayside. The 500 tonne crane has been in production for over twenty years. The very final model left the production line at the factory in Ehingen during the last few days. With over 600 units, the LTM 1500-8.1 is the most successful large crane in this class.

Up to 70 percent increase in lifting capacity compared to its predecessor

The two cranes managed the tandem job on the banks of the River Rhine in Andernach smoothly. During the job, the different quantities of slewing platform ballast made the technical progress made by the Liebherr crane developers very plain – for the gross load case of around 77 tonnes, which each of the cranes had to hoist at a radius of twenty metres, the LTM 1500-8.1 required ballast slabs with a gross weight of 165 tonnes on its slewing platform. Thorsten Mahlberg, the crane operator in the modern successor, set the ballast radius on his crane to its maximum distance using the hydraulic slewing mechanism, meaning that it only needed 125 tonnes of counterweight. That meant that 40 tonnes, in other words almost one-quarter of the ballast, did not have to be transported to the site at all

The imposing lifting capacities of the LTM 1650-8.1 catapult the performance parameters for many of its configurations upwards. On average, the new crane delivers an impressive 30 percent more lifting capacity than its predecessor and demonstrates its incredible power with its long boom which requires no guying in many settings – enabling it to increase the values by up to 70 percent. In many areas, the new crane, which is bursting with power, even matches the lifting capacity table values used by the nine-axle LTM 1750-9.1. This delivers very large logistical and monetary benefits for customers, as many jobs can be completed without the use of telescope guying.