Yes, we found this Picture immediately to your left as “Unique” a Crawler as we had seen in a while. As you can see from the Photo’s below left, you have your Conventional Crawler Crane with Cab Body Cab mounted directly above the tracks, as well as a Photo of what a typical Crawler Mounted Excavator with the Cab Body mounted directly above the tracks working in water, placing Rip-rap. As you can see, such an Excavator has its limitations; more specifically…deep water.
Obviously, ANY conventional Crawler Crane and/or Crawler mounted Excavator has its limitations when working in the water. One is basically limited to boom reach and then of course, the water level and well, once it reaches the top of the tracks…that’s the end of that! You go any further and the next thing you know your Cab Body is under water, and we don’t need to explain to you what happens next to your Diesel Engine.
Then we recently came across the following Photo… Now this, we found UNIQUE! I must say, in my 30+ years of being in the Marine Construction Industry I have NEVER come across a “Crawler” with an Extended Cab Body as shown in the picture above; hence the reason for wanting to share this Photo with our readers. While I don’t know the exact height of the “extension” itself, based on the individuals walking in the picture, my best estimate would be 6 ft. at a minimum. I would not be
surprised if this set-up was able to install the ENTIRE sheet pile breakwater in the background the ENTIRE length into the ocean; thus, eliminating the need for a Crane Mounted Barge to complete
the work in deeper water.
I will say this, while my immediate thoughts were “what an incredible idea”! But, if it is such a novel approach to the design of a Crawler, then why hasn’t Link-Belt, American, Manitowoc, Liebherr, P & H, Kobelco, Mantis or even CAT for that matter producing such an animal?
Well, I could only imagine that an “extension” of this kind might just play “hell” with the Mfgrs., suggested “Lift Capacity Ratings”. Let alone, there goes any “Low Center of Gravity” with the Cab Body Six (6) ft., higher than normal. Who only knows what the maximum reach would be? I am by no means an expert on Crawlers; far from it. However, we at MC Magazine would be interested in hearing from any of our readers as to your comments. Feel free to send them to the Attention of Chris Smoot – Editor, Marine Construction Magazine. Email: [email protected] or
mail to: P.O. Box 1915, Naples, FL. 34106.
