Powerful Crane Trucks

The Beginning 
Powerful Crane Trucks was registered by Cliff Power in 1998. I originally purchased my first second hand truck which was an ex bin truck from Moorabbin Bin Hire. When I Purchased it I realised it needed a lot of work to be done on it. Being a bin truck it was only a short wheelbase.
The first few things needed to be done was to extend the tray so I could have a 7.4 meter tray. Then a crane sub frame was needed to be  built and a tray built and fitted. After I had all repairs carried out. I needed to have chassis lengthened. I managed to find a second hand tray and had it modified it to fit that truck. I found an old ex brick crane in good condition so I purchased it and we built the subframe and fitted the Palfinger PK10500 which had about 12 meters reach. It started me off by allowing me to do the smaller jobs. Most of my work came from Plunkett Crane Trucks, Abettalift Crane Trucks and A A Portable Buildings  . I realised quickly that the crane I had purchased would need to be replaced with something bigger to keep up with the growing industry. 

Trailer 
I found I needed to chase up more of my own work. I began cold calling companies and accepting as many jobs possible to make enough money to continue covering our cost. I also needed to buy more equipment those customers requested. The first purchase I needed to make was buying a trailer. I modified this old local council mobile stage into a  trailer so it allowed me to carry nearly twice as much product to and from sites providing it was light weight. I found this to be beneficial for customers to save them time and money. It helped the business as it increased revenue. This trailer was used extensively during the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne in 2006, delivering Water Filled Barriers day and night. 

New Crane 
Approximately 3-4 years later I ordered a new Palfinger Crane. The new  subframe and crane was fitted at Serviceworks in Derrimut who were the agents for Palfinger Cranes. They fitted the subframe front legs and crane and certified the crane. When we picked it up I had to fit the tray and container pins before it went to work. So now the truck had a 7.4 meter tray and also 21 meters reach which in 2004, not many crane trucks had this much reach. 

International T- Line 
Due to the work load increasing at a fairly fast rate I thought I may need to look at another truck to stop giving away work to subcontractors. At this stage I already had Mick who had asked me for a job. I obtained a customer Icon Septech that I delivered concrete pits for, had an old crane truck with a large crane in their yard. It needed a real lot of work which I was prepared to do. I can remember the day I picked it up they said to me ” make sure you get home before it gets dark as it has no lights that work “. I also tried to tilt the cabin but it would not work. Thinking it was jammed only to find out the rear of the cabin was full of concrete tops. 

It took about 8 months to completely repair and build this truck before we could start using it. Mick started driving it when it was ready for work.  The International T Line was a good reliable truck in the end. We purchased a plant trailer with ramps for this truck as well for extra carrying capacity. 

Volvo FM12
By this time Mick and I seemed to be doing a lot of truck and trailer work. So I began looking around for a crane semi. I discovered that Baz Tranz had a Volvo FL12 crane prime mover for sale. I thought about it and believed it would suit the job. While I was negotiating, Baz Tranz also said I could take a trailer as a package as he had many for sale. Next thing I know I was up there picking it up and selecting a trailer that I liked. This was a really good combination. 

Fl12 finished and was working 

Trailer 

This is the trailer we picked. 

Moffett Forklift 
During the Christmas holidays Mick and I mounted this Moffett Forklift to the back of the trailer. I realised that for stone deliveries, the crane trucks difficulty as site access were not good and a lot had a power line issues. The Moffett Forklift made the job a lot easier and safer.

This was a job in Officer where I was asked to winch some pipes so they could be pushed under the road. 

Link Pumps 
From the start we begun working for Link Pumps in Williamstown. One wet Saturday morning I was called out to Cheetham Wetlands to replace a pump that was unable to pump the water out sufficiently as you can see.  The Hi-Lux Ute was struggling with the river crossing that was further down that track.

Dropdeck

A regular customer Eastern Oak that gave us a lot of variation in jobs  kept asking for a semi drop deck with ramps. So I found one that was available from a friend so I bought it. 

More Work 
I was delivering to a customer and the company next door asked if we had a Telehandler for our dropdeck trailer. They had their owner driver retiring in a short period, so they needed some to fill his position. 

The telehandler was so good for different types of work that was difficult for others to unload or access. This was one of our favourable job lifting the bronze statue of Rod Laver at Rod Laver Arena. 

Tigerturf
We then brought the Telehandler and had a probe built to unload the rolls of synthetic turf. Tigerturf was a New Zealand company that delivered all around Victoria and NSW. We found out later that the Moffett Forklifts would unload the smaller rolls just as easy as the Telehandler would. 

For TigerTurf we delivered rolls with a probe or pallets with just forks on a Moffett or telehandler. 

Septech
One company I had really tried to start working for was Septech in Bayswater.  I approached them many times to no avail. Then the first time they called I could not do the work at then time they required it done. But eventually we would work for them nearly every day. It was not the easiest of work and very hard on equipment as everything was so heavy. 

FM12 8X4 

We purchased this truck from Sydney without a crane and eventually found a crane to put on it and sold the International T-Line.

Finally on the road and being used 

We would slowly pick up more companies as we went along. We worked for a few portable building companies delivering new and hired buildings. 

Volvo FL7
We brought this old truck from Queenslcliff for the greabox and parts. On the drive back, it was decided that it was to good to scrap. We had it extended and built a tray and mounted a removable Moffett forklift bracket. We made it with 6 container pins so the bracket, when not in use, you could unlock it an lift it off with a forklift and use it as a tray truck. 

This is the old cement mixer truck, mounted a Moffett forklift complete. We picked up a company delivering potting mix, one day a week delivering potting mix to nurseries which was easy. 

Palfinger BM214 Forklift 
One of the best machines I bought was a Palfinger BM truck mounted forklift. These are a remote controlled forklift that folds down into a box under the trailer.I found it on an Auction site in Sydney. So I bought it and we had to work out how to get it out of the box for the first time. It didn’t take us long to mount the box under the trailer.  It was the first Palfinger forklift to be registered in Australia. 
Brilliant Machine. 

This forklift was capable of doing so many different jobs. Every job you would arrive at the customer would think you didn’t have a forklift on board. 

Avanti Marine 
We did a lot of work for Avanti Marine swapping boats on trailers in their Bayswater yard. We needed a special lifting bar made and slings to lift the boats properly. 

Australian Growers 
Australian Growers was an easy job where we would do about 2 loads a week from Somerville to Monbulk or Wandin.

Volvo FM12 
I needed a a spare prime mover at times just for the odd job, so we bought this with the help of my brother in law Charles from CMV Derimutt. 

Mechanic 
By this time we needed a full time mechanic so this is Flavio washing a truck ready for next day. 

Eagle Towing 
Another good customer we picked up was Eagle Towing. Mind you, I think we used them more than they used us. This is a Scania truck rolled over on Healsville – Kinglake Rd Steels Creek. We unloaded the timber and had to deliver it to the customers. 

This was Eagle Towing lifting the semi back on its wheels 

In this photo I was called to lift and remove 2 signs at Jeff’s Shed. As we lifted, one of the signs eyelet pulled out causing the sign to drop and fall through the 3 windows to the side of the sign causing a mess. 

Mini Crawler Crane 
I was searching ads under machines for sale and found a cheap forklift for sale. The location was only 5 mins away in Bayswater so I headed down to find they had this crawler crane for sale. I had to buy it straight away so organised the money and picked it up that afternoon. 

First job for this crawler crane was with Sid from L Arthur Machinery. This robot was always in demand and it had a fault. So they thought it may have a faulty bearing and need to replaced. We were there just incase the arm needed to be removed. In the end we were not needed. This crane continued to be busy with all sorts of jobs from spas steel Aircons and chandeliers.

Volvo FL10 
I found this truck for sale in Mt Gambier. It was Delivering concrete products. We needed the crane but not really the truck. I bought it and when I picked it up I realised it was not to bad to keep using the truck. We removed the crane and modified the rear of the truck to hold a Moffett forklift. 

This is the truck finished when we started using it. 

Skel Trailer 
Then we always had trouble finding a short semi trailer. So we decided to buy a skel trailer and build a trailer and mount a forklift on the back. 

This took longer than I thought as we were so busy and it was a slow process. 

Eagle Towing 

Late one night I was called out to Swan St Bridge as a semi has gone under and rolled over. They wanted a forklift so I left straight away and Mick came down to take the bales to the customers. 

Loading for customer’s  delivery.

Volvo FH16 
I seemed to be always getting calls that required a bigger semi trailer and a crane than the one we had. I found this truck advertised in Cairns. So I flew up the had a look at it and decided to buy it immediately. Mick flew up a week later and drove it back to Melbourne as he requested he did it as he felt it was his truck. 

This needed a fair amount of work before it was on the road as it was a road train for the previous owner. 

As a Road train 

When it was finally finished 

Just a Timelapse video of unloading for TigerTurf 

Motorsports

Since I had started I have been interested in motorsports. So in about 1998 I applied to be a recovery vehicle for the Melbourne F1 GP. In 2000 I was accepted. I really enjoyed myself the first year I attended so I continued every year since then. This was the first year attended. 

I was asked to attend more motorsport rounds. I decided to try on the weekends I wasn’t working. I began by doing recoveries at Sandown, Calder, Phillip Island and Winton. Most times we would recover open wheel categories like Formula V, Formula Ford. Over the years we have been asked to lift a lot more vehicles which depended on the accident. 

As the years went on we seemed to do a lot more motorsport events. Dad and  Daryl started attending the Melbourne F1, GP and all the other motorsports we were asked to attend as I could focus on other tasks.

Michael Schumacher 

This is the year Michael Schumacher refused to go back to the pits on a boundary bike and wanted to remain with his car. So Daryl took him back 

At one Motorsport round I heard that due to this accident a marshal was injured overseas. Porsche decided into making a lifting bar that connects in the roll cage in all GT3 cars.   

Porsche Motorsport Australia asked us to run a trial. This trial was to see if we thought we could pick up a sedan can with one or two people in under 3 mins. So Dad and I made a video proving that with one person we could comfortably load the car in under 2 mins. We found an old commodore and welded concrete tank lifter to see how it would work. 

After many discussions with Porsche Motorsport Australia I had managed to find the maker and had permission to purchase a lifting bar for Porsche Carrera Cup GT3 cars. 

The new lifting bar became very useful and can save some extra damage on the cars when being recovered and being returned back to their pit area. 

You can return the cars into pit tents. 

Or they can be lifted into the team trailers if required. 

Here is a Timelapse of a formula ford recovery at Phillip Island 

A look back through the years 

This is proof we have gone everywhere nobody else wanted to go. So I sent Mick to that job 🤣. 
I sold the company to VCH in Dandenong who destroyed it so I could pursue a different type of crane hire business.