Modern mobile cranes are available in all manner of shapes and sizes, and if you need potent lifting power in an awkward location you can hire a crane capable of getting there. However, sometimes conventional, wheeled mobile cranes are defeated by rough, unforgiving terrain — in these situations, hiring a tracked mobile crane can save you a lot of headaches.
However, tracked cranes provide more advantages over wheeled cranes than you might think, and you may find a tracked crane that is ideal for your purposes, even if you don't have rough terrain to deal with.
What are the advantages of choosing a tracked mobile crane?
All-terrain ability
The most important and obvious advantage of tracked mobile cranes over wheeled cranes is their ability to move swiftly and safely over virtually any kind of terrain. The increased surface area provided by tracks makes them much more effective at gripping uneven ground than even the most robust all-terrain wheels, while also providing a smoother ride over rough ground for the comfort and safety of the operator.
Buoyant
This increase in surface area also increases the buoyancy of your crane, a useful trait when dealing with waterlogged or flooded terrain. Tracked cranes can smoothly and efficiently move over such unforgiving terrain, while wheeled cranes often become sunken and hopelessly stuck as their wheels dig into the soft earth.
Increased stability
Tracked mobile cranes also tend to have a much greater degree of stability than wheeled models, due to both the increased surface area provided by the tracks and the specialised suspension that attaches them to the crane itself. This allows tracked cranes to lift safely on gradients considered no-gos by wheeled cranes, and also reduces their reliance on outriggers for added stability.
Maneuverable
Each track of a tracked mobile crane can move independently of the others, and the tracks on one side of the crane can even move in the opposite direction to the other side's tracks simultaneously. This allows for extremely tight turning circles, and some tracked mobile cranes with shorter wheelbases can even turn on the spot. As you can imagine, this can be a tremendous boon in confined work areas, and will also come in useful if your crane has to navigate tight, winding public roads to reach the site.
No adjustments necessary
If you choose to use a wheeled mobile crane on rough terrain, you will almost certainly have to adjust tire pressures and ballast weights on your crane before it can safely navigate it. When moving over several types of terrain in a single job, this constant adjustment and readjustment can becoming tiresome and cut into working hours. By contrast, tracked mobile cranes do not have to worry about tire pressures, do not use ballast and are almost instantly prepared to tackle any terrain.
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