the_kevin•1mo agoMost Upvoted

Just saw the weight rating on a 50 year old mobile crane and it blew my mind

I was looking through some old manuals at a retired operator's house last weekend. He had a Grove RT58 from the late 70s, and the max lift at full radius was like 2 tons. Meanwhile my rental from last month could do 15 tons at the same reach. I knew cranes had come a long way, but I didn't realize the gap was that huge in just a few decades. Makes me wonder what kind of safety margins they were running back then. Has anyone else compared old specs to new ones and been surprised?

2 comments

2 Comments

fiona3301mo ago

My dad's old crane from the 80s used to shake so bad I'd joke it was doing the twist while lifting a pallet of bricks. I looked up the specs once and it said 1.5 tons at full reach and I just laughed.

the_wyatt1mo agoTop Commenter

Man, totally. I ran into that same shock a few years back when I was helping a buddy sort through his granddad's old crane stuff. He had a Link-Belt from '74 and the chart showed like 1.8 tons at a 40 foot radius. I was comparing it to my 2020 model and it's night and day. The old steel just couldn't handle the stress like the modern alloys do, and the hydraulics were way weaker too. It's crazy how much safer today's machines feel just from the numbers alone.