Tenacity Cranes recently took delivery of the first Tadano AC 4.080-1 in Queensland – only the fifth unit in the country. Company Director Santino Silvestro explains more.
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Santino started out in the crane industry in 1999.
“I started rigging in the structural steel sector, and eventually moved to operating cranes. I then moved into supervision and went back to operating larger capacity all terrains and big crawlers cranes,” he said.
Santino worked for a number of companies in South East Queensland and New South Wales for the first 10 years of his career before venturing to Western Australia were he worked for Kiewit Construction, an American-based construction company. He was a open crane operator and then became a Crane Maintenance Coordinator. That was in the Iron Ore and Oil and Gas sector in Western Australia.
“I worked in Brisbane, the Gold Coast and Sydney for about 10 years. I’ve worked in Northen Territory, in Perth and all over Western Australia but I’m Queenslander born and bred. In late 2014 early 2015, I was working for a company where we dry hired a lot of gear and I was considering buying a couple of pieces of equipment to dry hire back to them.
“When I had finance approved, I couldn’t find the right piece of equipment and then the finance period ran out. I wasn’t getting anywhere, and starting to get frustrated, I said to my wife, “I make good money working for other people, I’m not going to bother.” she said, “You’ve got the tenacity, you’ll get it done. I know you will,” and that’s where the name Tenacity Cranes came from,” he said.
Santino found a market for City Cranes on the Gold Coast. He knew a guy who had been chasing one to dry hire for some time, so Santino bought a 10t Kato City Crane.
“I didn’t borrow, I bought the crane with cash. I just spent a big chunk of the money that I’d saved, and I dry hired that out whilst I continued working for another company. It was 2016 when I decided to work for myself, and Tenacity Cranes was really born.
“In 2017, I started quoting small structural steel projects for that little crane and I starting winning work. I then moved on by adding a small Maeda mini crawler, a truck, and then a truck mounted, 25t capacity Kato.
“With the older gear, I was mainly working in structural steel, however the goal was to build the bank, I bought more City cranes over the years including a 12t and 16t Tadano City Crane, and eventually replaced our older cranes with newer models and that’s when the business really started to kick goals. I’ve replaced all the machines to brand new and I still have every capacity I started with, but they are now brand new.
Image: Tenacity Cranes.
The 80 tonne all terrain was Tenacity Cranes fifth, brand new Tadano. The AC 4.080-1 blends outstanding reach with exceptional versatility. Its compact size on four axles gives this all terrain crane best- in-class jobsite accessibility. It can transport up to 9.3 tonnes of counterweight itself while remaining under a 12 tonne axle-load limit, and all while also carrying the swing- away 16 metre jib. The AC 4.080-1 will set standards in its class. With its 60m main boom length, it can lift up to 5.4 tonnes. With this, an operator can take on jobs for which they would normally need a 90t or a 100t crane.
The AC 4.080-1 comes with the IC-1 Plus control system. In combination with Flex Base, you can extend the outriggers to any point within their range. That means that it can determine the max available lifting capacity in real time with any outrigger configuration.
Whether used as a main crane or a powerful assist crane, the lifting capacity in steep boom positions makes the AC 4.080-1 unbeatable in its class.
Tenacity Cranes has always been well positioned in structural steel but after COVID-19, Santino started targeting government work. He knew that was where the money was getting spent and he started quoting on the installation of gantry signs and winning more Tier One work.
“We have been working on the inbound and outbound Brisbane Metro Bus terminals. We installed all the gantry and road signs for the Burpengary by-pass and we are working on the gantries for the Tugun and Currumbin upgrade. We are working on the Victoria Street bridge crash rail, and it looks like we are in the hot seat for work on a couple of the bridges on the Coomera Connector as well,” said Santino.
With the new cranes, Santino also moved the business into more general industrial applications, including the structural steel element of distribution centres for major supermarkets.
“With all new cranes in the fleet, targeting general hire was the next step. Where we are quoting for the structural steel install, the builder will generally give us a general crane hire package as well.
Now we manage the crane hire prior to the structural steel, and then come back with our new cranes and install the structural steel and assist other trades after the structure is complete like roofing and air con contractors.’
“We also operate an access division which is under the same banner. We’ve got our own small scissor lifts and boom lifts,
so when install the structural steel, our tilt tray brings our scissor lifts, or our boom lifts to site. We’ve got our own boiler makers, site supervisors, riggers as well as our own new cranes, so we have the capabilities of bringing the complete package to site,” he said.
Santino’s relationship with Tadano started when he first started operating cranes 20 plus years ago.
“I have always been drawn to the Tadano brand, their cranes are easy to operate, they are great lifters, and the models feature really good charts. Over the years I’ve operated every brand including Liebherr, Grove, Kobelco, Manitowoc and Kato. I’ve operated old Lima lattice booms and P&H friction driven cranes and that’s real old- school, but for me, Tadano’s have always been a good crane to operate and I have always been drawn to that.
“I bought my first brand-new Tadano in early 2021 and that was a ATF-50, 50t all terrain. After that, I bought the GT-300EL, which is a 30t truck mount. I then bought a GR-200EX 20t City Crane and then the GR-130EX, 13t City Crane and now the Tadano AC 4.080-1. There’s a strong market for this size crane on the Gold Coast and in Brisbane, especially with the way it travels with counterweight,” said Santino.
Santino goes on to discuss the importance he places on the service and support he receives from Tadano. The team is always available from sales to product support all the way up to branch manager nothing is a problem.
“Apart from the Tadano brand and the user-friendly operator system, the biggest key factor with me continuing to buy Tadano is the product support I receive. The product support has been second to none.
“Nothing’s ever a problem. Typically, we’ve found the Tadano models have been ready to go, but if there are any issues,
the guys are onto it straight away. They’ll drop anything to get down and get it sorted as soon as possible. I can’t fault Tadano’s products or support, I’ve never had an issue, it’s been A1 all the way,” said Santino.