First lift for All’s new Liebherr

All Erection and Crane Rental’s latest all terrain crane, a Liebherr LTM 1650-8.1, nicknamed Blue Beast, performed its first lift in Cleveland, Ohio, USA.

The 700 tonne crane was first introduced at Bauma in 2019

The inaugural lift for the new 700 tonner took place at a Veterans Administration Hospital and involved construction of a mechanical room and lifting six air handler sections, which were each 9 metres long and weighed 7 tonnes.

The crane was set up on the street and had to lift over another building to reach the work area.

Up and over

The operator picked each section from a flatbed parked on the street, lifted and swung over the interceding building, and set each piece atop the target structure behind it.

Nicknamed Blue Beast due to its cobalt blue paint job

“Given where we had to set up the crane, higher capacity machines wouldn’t have fit, and cranes small enough to fit couldn’t lift the necessary weight at that distance,” said Brian Meek, equipment specialist at All Crane.

The 700 tonne crane was introduced at Germany’s Bauma exhibition in 2019 and is the successor to the 500 tonne capacity LTM 1500-8.1.

All’s crane has the VarioBallast system, which maximises performance with a smaller ballast radius. Its radius can be adjusted hydraulically between 6.4 and 8.4 metres.

Options for the telescopic boom are 54 or 80 metre versions.