Compact Crawler Cranes

With the purchase of our new SPX424 Jekko 
Compact Crawler Cranes was started by Cliff in 2018. It was a quick decision as I had sold Powerful Crane Trucks. Having a small crawler crane in our previous company I thought it would be worthwhile finding the best crane I could and start Specialising in tight access work. So I priced a Maeda up and and calculated the specifications. 
I had heard 600 cranes were selling Jekko Crawler Cranes which I had never seen before. So I called in one day to have a look and try it to see if it would suit as they had a crane in stock. This is the crane in stock ready to go. After close analysis I didn’t find any other crane with the features and the accessories the Jekko has.  

Accessories 

I was looking to see what accessories they had that I could use to make it more appealing. So I decided on non marking tracks and a 800 kg glass manipulator. The glass manipulator was not in stock and had to be ordered. I had never lifted a piece of glass with any crane this way but thought it would have to be useful. It was great for angled panels that normal lifters could not handle. 

I already had this truck but Dad was your to do car racing recovery most weekends so it was unavailable at times until he retired. 

This and most of our trucks were Prime movers and fitted with a removable tray. They are held on by 4 container pins so it can be easily removed  with a forklift.  

I had brought the crane so I needed to buy a small truck to carry the crane and glass lifters around. So I found this small truck which was a good small truck. It was a prime mover so I needed to build a tray. 

This was the building and setup of the tray. 

Truck was all fixed and tray was built so the crane was loaded and I was ready for work. 

First Job 

This was the first job all I can remember is bells and beepers were going off the whole job. The electronics are great once you become used to them. 600 crane were not familiar with this crane so they put me in contact with Laurie from Patterson Mobile Cranes who had purchased the same crane 6 months prior. 

I really learned a lot using this crane and it gave me a lot of difficult jobs that I had to try and accomplish. I also began to realise then benefits of this crane and its capabilities even more. 

After the difficulties lifting large glass panels in the frames I began thinking I needed a way  to carry the large panels in. So Laurie advised me to buy a track carrier to carry the glass with an A Frame on top. 

We had some panels to big and heavy to get through some doorways. So Laurie had made a tilt top which allowed the panels to be tilted to nearly 45 degrees. So we made our own which made carrying panels so much easier and safer. 

This is how the machine helps with large panels in tight spaces like this 280 Kg panel.

These are some of the jobs these machines are good at. 

After using the track carrier I found some days I needed to unload the items off the truck onto the carrier with the crawler crane. Then reposition the crawler crane inside the site to unload and install. 
the problem I found if I could not fit all the material on the track carrier at one time I would have to pack up the crawler crane and bring back outside multiple times. So I decided to find a crane truck so I could use the truck crane in the street to unload the trucks if this occurred. I found this truck which I worked out the tray would swap over to the new truck with a shortening. 

Making it more purposeful for the job. 

Laurie already had one of these Jekko MPK06 and said they were very useful. I ordered one that was already in a container to arrive in about 4 weeks. It finally arrived and it has been really useful. We have made couple of extra attachments to do jobs that can’t be done. 

Mpk video

I was in Keysbough looking for an address as I was looking I noticed this scissor lift parked out in the car park. So I knocked on the door and asked the owner if he was interested in selling it. He said he had 3 available and a trailer that I could buy if I was interested. So I went back the few weeks and picked them up. 
I liked the idea that if we need a scissor lift onsite I had one available to just put on the truck for the next days job. 

I found this machine for sale in Perth and I knew I could make it work somehow. So I purchased it and had it transported it to Melbourne. 

The build did not take us long at all.

Kubota out working. This crane has so many benefits for tight places and heavy loads. 

We hired this glass lifter for a job from Galaxy Glass Equipment for a job. I had returned it and they mentioned that were no longer hiring lifters anymore and they will be sold off. Due to the hassle of picking up and dropping off the hire units I decided to buy the lifters I needed to use t make sure we had them available. So I then purchased this lifter. 

Some of lifters 

I had a difficult coming up which we had no equipment to use. I was lifting a large panel up and install. The crane and panel would have go up numerous stairs. Then be installed next to a swimming pool. All the cranes were too heavy so I needed to build something crane to help with the installation. I found this Lindsey hoist remote crane advertised which was perfect. Then construction began and it worked well on the day. 

When JBS Printing was printing our new business cards a friend of the printer took a card as he needed a customer of his was after a Crawler Cranes to install Christmas Trees. So around June I was asked by Dovecoate Design if I was interested in help building them every year and dismantling after Christmas was over. Over the years another 2 or 3 companies contracted me to build their Christmas Trees too. 

I had been looking for an excavator base for a long time so I could build a larger track carrier. I found this on market place for sale in Ferntree Gully. It was an old drilling rig and going to be rebuilt to do a specific job but was never started. So I bought it and a diesel engine and winch he also was selling. We worked on it on days we had spare time so I was about 2 years from start to finish. 

Compact Crawler Cranes has very slowly moved to specialising in glass installation and replacement.