News Release

April 11, 2006

GMK6250-L delivered to La Grange Crane Service

The GMK6250-L lifts a 14.5 ton water tower in downtown Chicago.

La Grange Crane Service, located in Hodgkins, Illinois, US, has taken delivery of a new Grove GMK6250-L (GMK6220-L overseas) all-terrain crane. The new machine is the largest in the company’s fleet, which comprises 40 mobile cranes. A significant portion of the fleet is Grove cranes, supplied through local Manitowoc Crane Group dealer, Walter Payton Power Equipment.

The new all-terrain crane has already completed two successful jobs since delivery. The first of these involved lifting two 9 t (10 USt) air-conditioning units onto the roof of a Holiday Inn hotel in Elmhurst, Illinois, close to Chicago’s O’Hare international airport. The crane worked with full counterweight of 70 t (77 USt), and used its 72 m (236 ft) main boom to lift out to a radius of 40 m (130 ft).

The second job took place in downtown Chicago, where the crane lifted a 13 t (14.5 USt) water tower, measuring 7.3 m (24 ft) high and 4 m (13 ft) in diameter, on top of a 24.3 m (80 ft) high stand. For this task, the GMK6250-L used 55 m (180 ft) of main boom to handle the load out to a radius of 26 m (85 ft).

Judi Mooncotch, president of La Grange, says performance and service were the key factors behind her decision to invest in the GMK6250-L.

“Grove cranes have rightly earned their reputation for being good performers,” she said. “They are very popular with staff and customers alike. The availability of parts is excellent too. We never have to wait long for delivery thanks to the efficiency of Manitowoc Crane CARE.”

La Grange makes good use of Manitowoc Crane CARE’s after-market service offerings with George Little, craft foreman at La Grange, attending a number of training courses on the Grove all-terrain range.

Meanwhile, Rick Garry, project manager at La Grange, is a big fan of MCG’s Compu-Crane lift planning software. The program is proving a real benefit to both the company and its clients, as he explained.

“When we make a lift of any size, it is important for us to be able to show a customer, on paper, exactly how the lift will take place, taking all loads, capacities, heights, and obstructions into consideration,” he said. “Compu-Crane allows us to do this and also to plan which cranes will be best suited to each job. Compu-Crane is a very helpful and easy to use piece of software.”