The right lifting equipment can not only improve your business’s efficiency but also help keep your staff safe by stopping them from having to perform heavy lifting tasks manually.

However, if you want to get the most out of your vehicle-mounted cranes, it’s important you invest in the right equipment.

If you’re not sure which vehicle-mounted crane is the right fit for your business, read on to find out which cranes are best suited to some of Europe’s biggest industries. We’ll also reveal the guidelines you should stick to whenever you invest in a vehicle-mounted crane, no matter what your sector.

Guidelines for choosing the perfect vehicle-mounted crane

No matter what industry you work in, you should follow a few basic guidelines when it comes to buying a vehicle-mounted crane. When it’s time to invest in a new crane for your business, you should ask yourself the following questions:

How much lifting capacity do I need?

Ask yourself, what are you lifting and how heavy will the load be? You can view the specifications of all our vehicle-mounted cranes to find out each model’s lifting capacity. Before you invest in a crane for your business, you should make sure it can handle the kind of loads you need to lift.

What type of vehicle do you want to use the crane with?

Here at Penny Hydraulics, we produce both flatbed-mounted and van-mounted cranes for a variety of different tasks. It’s important to think about how a new crane is going to work with your existing fleet of vehicles to make sure you get the best value for money.

How will it help improve efficiency?

Your new piece of lifting equipment should improve your existing processes. While it’s unlikely that you’ll know the exact effect it’s going to have on your operations, you should know which processes it’s going to streamline and have an idea of how this will benefit your staff. This will allow you to invest your money in the most effective equipment.

How often are you going to use it?

If you’re going to use a crane every day in your work, you should invest in the most heavy-duty piece of equipment you can afford to make sure it stands up to daily wear and tear. On the other hand, if you’re only going to use it every now and then, you might be better off opting for a more affordable crane that can still fulfill your needs.

Is it versatile?

The more versatile the crane, the more situations you’ll be able to use it in, and the more cost-effective it will be. For example, many of the cranes in our selection of vehicle-mounted lifting equipment are demountable, allowing you to install them on a variety of different vehicles and use them for a diverse range of tasks.

Which crane is right for your industry?

To give you an idea of the types of lifting equipment that will help improve efficiency in your business, here’s a breakdown of which vehicle-mounted cranes are perfectly suited to each industry. Investing in the lifting equipment that is most appropriate for your sector will go a long way to improving efficiency throughout your workforce.

Construction

 

If you work in the construction industry, you need to be sure every piece of equipment you buy is built to stand up to the heaviest of demands. As you’ll be relying on your cranes on a daily basis, it’s important that you invest in the most robust equipment you can afford so it will hold up to the kind of daily wear and tear that is inevitable on a construction site. Take a look at our PH180 Crane, which has a remarkably low self-weight of only 180kg, yet can lift up to 1450kg. This makes easy work of lifting goods on and off a truck.

It’s good for business to save your staff from doing as much manual lifting as possible, as this will help protect them from injury. It’s therefore important that you invest in versatile cranes that can be used for smaller jobs as well. Our SwingLift Foldaway 500 is a light and compact electric crane that can be fitted to a pickup, dropside, or flatbed, making it perfect for transporting loads across your site. Our SwingLift FV500, which has a lifting capacity of 500kg, offers fully hydraulic operation for smooth and precise load handling and can also be fitted to any van, making it a versatile addition to any construction site.

Local Authority

Local authorities need cranes that are versatile, durable, and easy to use. Our SwingLift ML250ML500SB, and ML500LB van-mounted cranes can all be fitted to any van, making them extremely versatile and cost-effective options that are perfect for local authorities.

You should also focus on reducing the risk to your employees’ by providing them with equipment that will prevent them from having to perform so much manual lifting. Our SwingLift Foldaway 500, for example, can be fitted to a pickup, saving your employees from having to lift heavy items manually in a number of situations.

While helpful all-rounders such as our SwingLifts are cost-effective solutions that are useful in a wide range of situations, it’s also important to provide your staff with the specialist cranes they need to work efficiently. For example, every local authority should have a crane that is designed to lift drain covers quickly and safely, such as our GridLift GL250, or Jetter GridLift. Furthermore, our SwingLift Hotbox KJ is popular with local authorities for when they need to lift gas bottles onto hotbox vehicles. Investing in specialist equipment like this will help to prepare your staff for any eventuality.

Waste Management 

When it comes to waste handling, it’s important that you have appropriate equipment that you can rely on. Our van-mounted SwingLift CC100 is specifically designed to safely load and unload chemical drums for transport in confined spaces, making it the perfect investment for any business that works in the management of waste.

Mining and Forestry

Hydraulic PH Crane

If you’re investing in equipment for a mining or forestry business, you should be looking for cranes that are capable of handling intense workloads in harsh environments. Our PH400PH500, and PH510 cranes are designed to perform in strong winds and on steep inclines. They can also be coated in a corrosion-proof treatment if they’re going to be used in a marine environment.

Highways 

If you work in the highways sector, you need equipment that gets the job done without taking up too much space. Your lifting equipment also needs to be lightweight and intuitive enough that any member of staff can use it.

Take a look at the SwingLift MC250, which weighs in at just 20kg. This is the crane of choice for infrastructure support service leader Amey, who kitted their fleet of commercial vehicles out with the MC250 in 2017. This crane has minimal impact on the overall vehicle weight, maximising carrying capacity while keeping the emissions of your fleet to a minimum.

We developed our SwingLift CC100 in collaboration with Eurovia, one of the UK’s leading highway maintenance providers. They were looking for a crane that was perfectly suited to lifting wacker plates, as they found the options on the market were too big and bulky for this awkward operation. The CC100 is incredibly compact and it can be used to load and unload wacker plates and plant, signage, or chemical drums wherever space is at a premium. Weighing in at only 20kg, the crane is perfect for 3.5 and 7.5 tonne vehicles, where remaining within the weight and carrying capacity of the vehicle is always a challenge.

Utilities

In the utilities sector, it’s crucial that you have lifting equipment that allows you to safely raise and lower heavy loads down manholes. All our flatbed and van-mounted SwingLifts such as the SwingLift ML250 and ML500, come with high-speed hoists, making them the perfect choice for anybody who wants a practical, efficient, and cost-effective way to handle goods below ground. Our SwingLift KJ250 is particularly popular with utilities companies, as its 1.5-metre boom has two pivot points, meaning the operator can carry out lifts within a 3-metre radius of their vehicle via remote control.

If you require something a bit more heavy-duty, you can also have a high-speed winch added to the cranes in our PH range as an optional extra.

If you’re looking to improve efficiency and safety within your business, you’ll benefit from investing in the vehicle-mounted cranes that we’ve highlighted for your industry. This will help your staff perform their jobs faster and more safely, helping to improve your bottom line.

If your industry isn’t listed above and you’d like to know how our hydraulic vehicle-mounted cranes could improve the efficiency of your business, get in touch with us today. We can produce bespoke hydraulic lifting equipment that suits your exact needs, so contact our team to speak to one of our experts about how we can help. 

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Severn Trent Tap into Penny Hydraulics Range of SwingLifts to Help to Improve Their Workflow

Our partnership with Bott allows us to provide lifting solutions to customers with large fleets such as Severn Trent. We’re really pleased that Severn Trent have come back to us once again for the ML500 as a lifting solution – it proves that it is the correct solution for their application.
Daniel Casey, Marketing Manager View case study
Severn Trent Tap into Penny Hydraulics Range of SwingLifts to Help to Improve Their Workflow - Penny Hydraulics Ltd

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