Spierings on crawler tracks for Kuiphuis and Herpertz

Dutch crane rental companies Kuiphuis and Herpertz worked together to develop an unusual crane combination to meet customer requests.

The two companies created a crawler mounted mobile tower crane. Kuiphuis took the first unit and the second, for Herpertz, was ready around 10 May, Bob Bruijsten, director at family firm Kuiphuis, told IC.

Using the upper works of a Spierings SK477 mobile folding or self erecting tower crane, the new model is mounted on a crawler track base jointly developed with Dutch specialist Verhoeven. "Spierings and Verhoeven had to work closely together on this. We appreciated the help from Spierings with this," Bruijsten explained.

The crawler mounted tower costs a little less to buy than its wheeled carrier counterpart, Bruijsten said, but, where it has to be repositioned a lot on site, it is much cheaper in use. Moving it around on site can be done with the crane fully erected.

Typical applications are construction sites where the crane is needed for three or four weeks. The first unit has gone to work at a large housing development site of more than 100 houses in Nijmegen, Holland. When that is finished in a few months it is booked to work for a cladding company on a site in Apeldoorn, Bruijsten said.

A second unit for Kuiphuis is planned and a third is under consideration, on the back of enquiries from Belgium, Denmark and United Kingdom.