Dual Tadano all-terrains complete 32 HVAC lifts over holiday weekend

A steel fabrication company based in Mount Joy, PA needed to lift and place HVAC units on the roof of a major Johnson & Johnson facility in the nearby town of Lititz. Due to multiple rescheduling instances, a looming deadline and downtime not being an option for J&J meant the lifts had to take place over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend.

The units were placed at various locations on the roof, in some cases extending beyond the length of a football field.

Dan Haulman, crane services manager for Greiner Industries, deployed Tadano’s AC-500 and AC-300 Demag cranes – two models in their fleet that proved the best tools for the job. These HVAC units, weighing around 6,700 pounds each, had to be lifted vertically 30-40 feet before being placed at various locations on the roof, in some cases indeed extending beyond the length of a football field.

“The farthest reach was a 305-foot radius,” said Haulman. “We rigged up the AC-500 with 255 feet of luffing jib. It’s the only crane with that capacity for that kind of reach.”

Greiner purchased the AC-300 and AC-500 from Empire Cranes of Syracuse, NY.

Greiner was able to bring the cranes in the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and by the time Monday arrived the cranes were heading back with the job complete.

Transport was relatively easy – Haulman noted they 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 windy weather predictions, the crew took two half-days – including one on Thanksgiving – to achieve 32 lifts, replacing some old units while adding some additional units to increase the building’s HVAC capacity.

The AC-500 was configured with 108 feet of main at a 65-degree angle with 352,000 pounds of counterweight. The AC-300 on the other side of the building reached 230 feet and was configured with 210 feet of main and 68 feet of jib; its counterweights totaled 206,000 pounds.