A planetary gear drive is among the new features on the HC-7x truck crane from Auto Crane.
The gear system results in less side-to-side play on the crane, said Todd Hannum, Auto Crane’s director of sales marketing, during an interview at the 2019 Work Truck Show in Indianapolis.
“In this particular crane, because it’s longer, it allows it not to do all of that shaking at the end,” Hannum said.
The X in HC-7x stands for extended.
“So it’s a 30-foot crane adapted to a Class 5 truck,” Hannum said. “We also have an HC-8x, which is the same concept but that allows you maximize your lift capacity on a Class 5 truck. And that’ll then make it where you can lift with 100 percent stability as much as you can around a Class 5 truck.”
Also new at the Auto Crane booth was a personnel basket attached to the boom of the HC-7x.
HC-7x truck crane lists PBAF-350 personnel basket at the Auto Crane booth at the 2019 Work Truck Show
“Our basket is foldable,” Hannum said. “You actually fold it up, kind of like a cardboard box.”
The basket can lift a single person to perform repairs on jobs in jurisdictions where the use of ladders is restricted.
“If you’ve got to do something that has some reach and do something that has a hydraulic attachment or hoses or whatever it is that you need to do to make a repair, a lot of customers have turned to this kind of a basket now,” Hannum said.
According to documentation on the Auto Crane website, the PBAF-350 personnel basket has a patent-pending designed that weighs 215 pounds, has a capacity of 350 pounds including tools, and fits most existing Auto Crane cranes.
Based in Tulsa, Okla., Auto Crane is a subsidiary of Ramsey Industries.
For more information, visit https://autocrane.us.