Tadano AC-500 AND AC-300 Team Up for Long-Reach HVAC Job

March 16, 2022 - Greiner Industries, a steel fabrication company in of Mount Joy, Pennsylvania, relied on two Tadano all-terrain cranes when it needed to place HVAC units on the roof of a major Johnson & Johnson facility in nearby Lititz.

Multiple rescheduling instances and a looming deadline meant the lifts had to take place over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend and that downtime wasn’t an option.

The HVAC units weighed about 6,700 lbs., and each one had to be lifted vertically 30’-40’ before being placed at on the roof, in some cases at radii longer than a football field.

Dan Haulman, Greiner’s crane services manager, deployed Tadano’s AC-500 and AC-300 Demag cranes. “The farthest reach was a 305’ radius,” said Haulman. “We rigged the AC-500 with 255’ of luffing jib. It’s the only crane with that capacity for that kind of reach.”

Greiner brought the cranes in on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, and by the Monday after the holiday weekend, the cranes were heading back to the yard with the job completed.

Transport was relatively easy. Haulman noted that Greiner removed the AC-500’s front outriggers and simply drove it to the job site 30 minutes away. A crew of eight had the cranes set up within eight hours.

Working around predicted windy weather, the crew took just two half-days of work, including one on Thanksgiving, to make 32 lifts that replaced some old units and added some new ones to increase the building’s HVAC capacity.

The AC-500 was configured with 108’ of telescopic boom at a 65° angle and had 352,000 lbs. of counterweight. The AC-300 was positioned on the opposite side of the building. It reached 230’ and was configured with 210’ of telescopic boom and 68’ of jib. Its counterweights totaled 206,000 lbs.

Haulman noted the AC-300’s versatility on the lift. "Just the length of that boom is really helpful. We ran that 210’ of main and a jib and still had radius,” he said.. ”That crane will give you a chart even if you’re not at a fixed main-boom angle. We had 65’, 70’, and 82’, but you had a chart anywhere in there. The flexibility of adjusting the main boom with the luffing jib on made it easy. Saved a lot of time and money."

Haulman also lauded the Tadano cranes’ reliability.

“We’ve had the AC 500 for over two years now, and it’s worked excellent,” he said. “Both cranes just go out and get the job done. There’s no down time, and the customer doesn’t have to wait because there are no breakdowns. We had a tight window to get this done. We couldn’t afford any kind of breakdown or malfunction.”

Greiner bought the AC-300 and AC-500 from Empire Cranes, of Syracuse, New York, and works regularly with Tadano’s eastern regional business manager Lance Rydbom. “Lance is always there to answer any questions, and the after-sales support is excellent,” said Haulman.