Tadano starts truck crane chassis production

In Japan, Tadano Ltd has started production of its new truck crane carrier at its Shido factory. The first units were shipped in March and around 100 are scheduled for this year. They are for the 60 ton capacity GT-550E and the new carrier will also be supplied to the BQ-Tadano (Beijing) Crane Co. Ltd. joint venture in China. Later this year Tadano will also begin production of a carrier for the TL-300E, estimated at 30 units a year.

Former carrier supplier, Nissan, stopped production after it was taken over in 2004 but Nissan Diesel Motor Company supplies the powertrain for the new Tadano carrier. The left-hand drive 8x4 carrier has a 257 kW turbocharged six-cylinder Nissan PF6TB diesel engine. Driven through a single plate dry clutch with hydraulic release mechanism and air assisted booster, the transmission has seven forward and one reverse speeds, with synchromesh on second to seventh gears while first and reverse are constant mesh.