Picked a 50 ton Grove over a Liebherr for a hospital job in Austin last Tuesday

Had to choose between a Grove RT5550 and a Liebherr LTM 1050 for setting HVAC units on a 6 story roof. Went with the Grove cause the rental was $400 cheaper per day and I know the controls better. Turned out the Liebherr would have needed a wider outrigger setup that the site didn't have room for. Anyone else ever dodge a bullet like that just by going with what you know?

2 comments

2 Comments

jadep411mo ago

Was the site super tight or did you just get lucky checking the outrigger specs beforehand? Cause I've seen guys show up with the wrong crane and spend half a day figuring out a different setup that still barely works. Grove controls are way more intuitive too, so that $400 saved is just icing on top of not having to recalibrate everything on the fly.

henrys741mo ago

Hold on now, @jadep41 I gotta push back on that. The Liebherr has a much better safety record with the load moment indicators and the telescoping is way smoother for precision work on a tight rooftop. Saving $400 is nothing if you're an inch off and that HVAC unit swings into a parapet wall. Plus, if the site was that tight, you're fooling yourself thinking the Grove had better reach - the Liebherr's outrigger spread is adjustable in more increments, so you could have worked around the space limit instead of just showing up with what you know. Operators get too comfortable with one brand and forget that Liebherr's computer will literally force you into a safe lift zone while the Grove just beeps at you and lets you make the bad call. That $400 looks real small when you're explaining to the GC why you scratched up their new roof edge.