10.05.2017

Ruthmann to go higher

German truck mounted lift manufacturer Ruthmann is to change its policy on building platforms over 75 metres.

The company said last week that given the current situation and delivery times for 90 metre truck mounted lifts it senses sufficient demand for a third producer to enter the market. The company has set itself the challenge to have a product ready to show next spring at Intermat.

Ruthmann is being typically coy about the exact working height of the new machine, labelling it the T9XX HF -although it is likely to be just 90 metres- the HF designation indicates that it will follow the specification and design configuration of its recent High Flex models, currently topped by the 75 metre T 750HF, including a long upper boom/jib and extreme platform rotation, complete with a short articulated end jib. While being labled as an HF model, it is also being referred to as a ‘Sky Performance Steiger’.
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Ruthmann is looking to build in greater versatility into the machine to reach challenging areas

The plan is to allow the main or lower boom of the new machine to work at elevations at least as low as 72 degrees, at the same time as the 30 metre upper boom or jib is in normal use, rather than requiring it to be locked into its maximum elevation first. With this in mind the company expects to achieve an outreach of at least 39 metres. The lower boom will need to be electronically locked into position before the platform will be able to reach anything like maximum height.

The new lift is likely to be mounted on a standard truck chassis from Scania, MAN or Volvo with a permissible total weight of between 48 and 52 tonnes and an overall length of 14.99 metres. The company said: “The new T9XX HF will be the world's most mobile large platform in the truck mounted lift market and will further strengthen and expand our current market position in the large-scale segment nationally and internationally."
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The first Ruthmann T900XXHF has been ordered by Felbermayr

While we will not see the final product until 2018, Ruthmann says that the first units have already been ordered by Felbermayr and Hüffermann with a third unit ordered by a well-known aerial lift specialist in Eastern France – Joly Location perhaps?.
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The second unit will go to Hüffermann

Vertikal comment

This announcement followed by further details this week took us by surprise, given that in previous interviews senior managers have always declared that demand for this size of machine is too limited to justify the high costs and resources to design it.

However it senses that with Bronto under new ownership and only Palfinger in competition there is a chance for it to muscle in and displace one of them. This is not the first time that the company has ventured north of 75 metres, 16 years ago it launched its TTS1000 which proved something of a flop with only three units ever sold. A case of not quite the right concept and being too early. All three units are still in operation and with their long outreach in demand.

The announcment last week came at the very same time and place - Apex - as Palfinger unveiled its updated 102.5 metre model, the P1000 mounted on an updated Tadano crane carrier. A coincidence? Who knows? One thing is for sure the competition is going to hot up in this rarefied market sector.