James and Tadano still trucking at 100

James Equipment has sold its 100^th Tadano GT-550EX truck crane since becoming Australian distributor for the manufacturer in 2004.

It was the fifth GT-550EX to be delivered to Goldfields Crane Hire, based in Kalgoorlie. The company has a fleet of 27 cranes. "Crane companies and industrial operators the length and breadth of Australia have purchased the GT-550EX," said Peter Shelton, group general manager of James Equipment.

"This model from Tadano is quite an exceptional model due to its universal appeal. There seems to be no let up in demand as we are sourcing as many of these cranes as we can get from the Tadano factory in Japan," Shelton continued.

Rick Musarra, at Goldfields Crane Hire, was equally complementary. "We keep a close watch on competitive products but nothing comes close to the GT-550EX. It has superior lifting capacities and I particularly like the fact that the carrier is built in Japan by Tadano themselves, and not sourced from China like some competitive brands. Right now I have another six Tadano cranes on order, ranging from a 65 tonne model through to a 160 tonne crane," Rick Musarra said.

The Tadano GT-550EX has a 55 tonne capacity, a 42 m main boom with 14.6 m fly jib. It includes Tadano's own four axle carrier with a Euro 2 six cylinder turbo diesel engine and a top road speed of 83 km/h.