Barnhart Crane & Rigging has taken delivery of a Liebherr LTM 1500-8.1 all-terrain crane. With a rated capacity of 600 tons, it is the largest telescopic-boom mobile crane in Barnhart’s fleet. It extends the company’s capacity to meet the demand from refineries and industrial plants, as well as the wind power sector. The eight-axle crane has a seven-section telescopic boom that extends to 276 feet. Attaching the lattice jib offers hook heights up to 476 feet and a reach of 354 feet. The addition of the Y-type guying system gives lateral support to the boom enhancing lifting capacity, especially when the crane is lifting with a long boom at short radius.

Barnhart took delivery of the crane at the end of August and within days had it operating on its first job, replacing a 125,000-pound vessel at a nearby refinery during a fall maintenance outage. Various boom configurations up to 276 feet were used for preparatory work, while the main lift itself was carried out with 189 feet of boom at a radius of 67 feet, using 88 percent of the crane’s load chart capacity.

Lifting through pipe racks, there were just inches of clearance on the boom, the pendants and the rigging, but with careful planning and supervision, the LTM 1500-8.1 had the project swiftly completed.

Thanks to its reach, capacity and ease of deployment, we were in and out of the refinery in just four days,says Tony Morelli, manager of Barnhart Crane & Rigging’s Oklahoma City branch, where the crane will be based.“This is roughly half the time that the exact same task took us back in 1997 when the vessel was last replaced—only back then we used a 300-ton conventional lattice-boom truck crane, which was the best choice available at the time. This project is a great example of the benefits of continuing to invest in the best equipment on the market.”

Alan Barnhart, president of Barnhart Crane & Rigging, says that the company chose the Liebherr LTM 1500-8.1 because of its capacity, accessories and mobilization combinations. “We were already operating the Liebherr LTM 1400 and so we were very familiar with everything that Liebherr offers and its market-leading technology,” he adds.