Taxi or maxi

The new Grove five-axle AT announced at the Bauma exhibition in Germany last year makes its exhibition debut at ConExpo in March (see the show guide in this issue). In markets outside the US the GMK5130-1 is rated at 130 tonnes and at 165 US tons in the US.

One of the main features of the new crane is its 60 m (197 ft) six-section main boom with Megaform profile and Twin-Lock pinning system. Its smaller stablemate, the GMK5100, has a 51 m (167 ft) five-section main boom and the previous GMK5130 had a 46 m main boom. Maximum load with the boom fully extended is 10 tonnes (11 ton). Its overall length of 14.98 m is almost 1 m shorter than the previous 130 tonner and the carrier of the new model is more than a metre shorter than the new one.

The 11 to 18 m (36 ft to 59 ft) hydraulically luffing swingaway jib can be extended with inserts to 32 m (105 ft), giving a maximum tip height of 95 m (312 ft) where it will pick 1.9 tonnes (2.09 ton). A manual offset swingaway is also available. On full counterweight at 10 m radius with 27 m of boom the chart shows it will pick 37.5 tonnes and with 8.5 tonnes of counterweight the figure is 23 tonnes.

Like other recent GMKs this new one follows the “Taxi-Maxi” principle of 'two cranes in one.' As a “taxi” crane for travel to site at 12 tonnes per axle, it is ready to work with 8.5 tonnes (9.35 ton) of onboard counterweight, jib, hook block and the optional 10x8x10 drive/steer and 16.00 R25 tyres. Or it can be configured as a “maxi” crane with the addition of up to 31.6 tonnes of counterweight (maximum total: 40.1 tonnes (44 ton) and support vehicles for maximum lifting capacity. A total of 13 counterweight combinations allows the configuration to be adjusted to meet different axle load regulations.

The five-axle carrier with Megatrak suspension is a modified version of the one used by the 100 tonne capacity GMK5100 (120 ton GMK5120B in the US). In the carrier is a 380 kW (510 hp) V8 Mercedes-Benz OM502LA diesel coupled to the company's 16 speed (plus two reverse) G 240-16 transmission with EAS (Electronic Automatic Shifting) similar to ones used in large trucks.

In the upper is a four-cylinder, 130 kW (177 hp) Mercedes-Benz diesel. And there is a new aluminium operating cab like the ones on other recently introduced GMKs. Mounted in a new console are the ECOS (Electronic Crane Operating System), and EKS5 (Light) load monitoring system.