23.03.2007

Link Belt comes to SED

Link Belt the Kentucky based mobile crane manufacturer has announced that it will be exhibiting its four axle HTT-8690 Telescopic Terrain crane, an 81 tonne all wheel steer truck crane.

This is possibly the first time that the American manufacturer has exhibited its mobile telescopic cranes in the UK and follows on from its appearance at Bauma in late April.

The HTT 8690 features all round super single tyres and all wheel four mode steering along with differential locks in order to give the crane manoeuvrability and rough terrain capability between that of a truck crane and all terrain crane. With nine metres outside turning radius.
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The Link Belt HTT8690 will make its European debut at Bauma and SED

The 8690 features a five section, 42.7 metre pinned boom which still allows the telescoping of the full load chart. A bi fold swingaway offers 10.7 or 17.7 metres extension to the boom and when equipped with two 4.9 metre inserts between the boom nose and the swingaway the maximum tip height is over 72 metres. The extension can be offset by 15, 30 or 45 degrees.

The standard counterweight package is 5,216kg with optional 12,020kg, 14,742kg or 17,917kg packages. The maximum loft capacity requires the 14.7 or 17.9 tonne counterweights.

Vertikal Comment

Link Belt will have its work set out to make any impression on the European market, however the timing is probably as good as it gets, with renewed interest, (at least on the surface) in truck cranes a favourable exchange rate for exporting dollar based products and of course excessively long delivery times for All Terrain cranes.

Concern will inevitably arise regarding the long term stamina of the company, many buyers will worry that the company might pull out of the European market if the dollar regains its strength. Distribution and support will also be issues of course.

However given Link Belts affiliation with Hitachi Sumitomo this need not be an issue.

As to the Truck Terrain concept if you have a sense of ‘deja-vue’ you are correct Grove introduced a TT750E with super singles and all wheel steer back in the mid 1980’s. Built at its Bicester plant the concept never really caught on.

Time will tell if Link Belts more compact package will do better. Timing is everything