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New 700-tonne Liebherr expands crane hire company’s wind farm operations

Liebherr sells an LTM 1650-8.1 mobile crane to crane hire company Sommer Kranverleih to help wind farm construction.

Liebherr has sold a brand new LTM 1650-8.1 to German crane hire company, Sommer Kranverleih GmbH, to replace its 1500-8.1.

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Announced via press release this week, the 700-tonne crane was acquired by Sommer Kranverleih to help expand the company’s capacity in infrastructure projects as well as the construction and dismantling of wind turbines. Björn Sommer, co-owner of the Bremen-based lifters, said the company’s latest acquisition demonstrated its comfort with the larger crane market.

“We feel comfortable in the large crane class and demand in the market is good,” he said. “With the LTM 1650-8.1, we’re boosting our fleet in the upper load capacity segment on the one hand, and on the other hand we’re extending our LTM 1750-9.1 downwards, because with one less axle, the LTM 1650-8.1 is more compact and manoeuvrable.”

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On top of its 700-tonne lifting capacity, the LTM 1650-8.1 features two telescopic boom options of 54m and 80m that can be interchanged depending on job accessibility and road axle limits. Featuring a maximum radius of 112m and a maximum hoisting height of 152m, Sommer Kranverleih acquired the crane with both boom variants to ensure maximum flexibility, with Björn saying the flexibility offered provided “tremendous advantages”.

“The wind power configuration with the six-metre-long lattice type fixed jib typically allows us to significantly reduce the time needed to move the crane in wind farms,” he said. “It’s much easier to install than a luffing jib.”

His cousin and co-owner, Hagen Sommer, concurred with his sentiments.

“We also opted for the LTM 1650-8.1 – as this allows us to interchange ballast plates and lattice sections with those of our LTM 1750-9.1,” he said. “That comes with logistics benefits too.”

Upon acquiring the machine, Sommer Kranverleih immediately deployed the crane on its first job, dismantling six old wind turbines. Configuring the crane in T5 and operating with 75-tonnes of ballast, Björn said the machine offered reduced set-up times and was very simple to use as well as intuitive, offering a multitude of benefits compared to its older sibling, the LTM 1500-8.1 – especially when it came to not needing to construct a luffing jib or lattice type fixed jib to complete jobs.

The LTM 1650-8.1 was launched in 2019 at bauma, becoming the successor to the LTM 1500-8.1 that, according to Liebherr, is the best-selling large crane.

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