Qwest Crane Hire is a privately-owned crane company in central Queensland and has been operating for close to two years. In that time, the crane fleet has grown to include 14, ranging from Frannas up to a 220t DEMAG all terrain. Qwest operates three depots in Rockhampton, Gladstone and Emerald.
Grant French is the owner and works in the business day in day out as the Operations Manager.
“The business works in everything from residential and commercial construction through to mining,” said French.
QWest recently invested in a TADANO GT600EL.
“As a rule we run DEMAGs, and this is the first TADANO we’ve owned. We bought the truck-mounted crane for travelling the long distances between our depots. I didn’t want to put kilometres on our all terrains, so we bought the 60 tonner,” said French.
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“The crane does everything from our concrete tilt panel work, commercial and high-rise building works and out to our mine site customers. The crane does anything and everything,” he said.
The GT-600EL has a number of key features including its high tensile steel rounded boom which decreases its weight whilst increasing strength. A two-stage underslung jib enables the crane to operate in applications with limited access and narrow spaces. The Smart Chart expands the work area, enhancing efficiency and the HELLO-NET, ECO Mode system & Positive control system helps improve fuel consumption. The GT-600EL is a truck crane built for mobility and safe operator comfort.
The carrier is a new design, right down to the suspension and it has passed long and rigorous road tests in a variety of environments. The cabin has been remodelled with features that contribute to operator comfort and the automatic mechanical transmission enhances safe driving.
The GT-600EL features a high-performance engine, the Daimler OM457LA GT-600EL 4-cycle, turbo charged and after cooled which has a maximum output of 260 kW {353 PS} and maximum torque of 1,850 Nm {188 kgf-m}.
The new suspensions on the carrier feature rubber suspension mounts, co-developed with Hendrickson, and these are designed to optimise driver comfort and increase protection for the carrier.
The high tensile steel boom provides smooth and powerful crane operation. The operator can select either of the two boom telescoping modes based on the designated job plan which provides enhanced crane capabilities in accordance with the work at hand.
With the GT-600EL, both the main winch and the auxiliary winch have powerful line pull of 4.5t and operate at high speeds increasing efficiency.
The crane operating levers are ‘finger-tip control’ type and respond sensitively to the operator.
Specifications on the GT-600EL include:
Crane capacity: 60,000KG
5-Section long boom: 43m
2-staged jib:9m/14.3m
Maximum lifting height; 43.4m (boom)
57.3m (jib)
Maximum load radius: 34.0m (Boom) 44.0m (jib)
Tadano’s new AML-C provides ‘the brains’ for every lift allowing the operator to simultaneously monitor boom angle, boom length, operating pressure of the elevation cylinder, the extension width of outriggers, slewing position, rated lifting capacity and present hook load.
All of these features enable the AML-C to move easily through lifting capacity changes without changing configurations and codes to make a lift. The AML-C with ‘Operator’ pre-set working range limits and the automatic slow stop function assists the operators to deliver safe and smooth operations.
When operating with asymmetric outriggers extended, the AML-C detects the extension width of all of the crane’s outriggers (front, rear, left and right) to measure maximum work capacity in each area.
The Tadano’s new Smart Chart taps into a crane’s full potential by expanding the rear part of the conventional circular work area into a square for increased load radius when the outriggers are extended to improve safety and efficiency.
The HELLO-NET System is used to monitor the crane’s activities straight from a computer or mobile device. It provides the ability to view work history, machine position data and maintenance information. HELLO-NET also provides advanced customer support between the owner’s site and Tadano Oceania.
The system effectively controls the quantity of hydraulic pump discharge during the crane’s operation in response to the amount of movement applied by the operating lever and it also controls the maximum engine speed during operation.
Overall, French says QWest has been very happy with the performance of the GT660EL.
“We’ve been happy with the crane’s operation it’s second to none. As far as the crane function is concerned, I don’t think there is much better than a TADANO, it’s definitely a good crane. It fits into our fleet well, it does what we ask it to do, and it’s become the workhorse of our business,” said French.
“We’ve also had a really good experience dealing with the guys from TADANO. Anthony Grosser and his team in Brisbane are excellent and good blokes.”