Three Liebherr crawlers for Canada

Canadian crane contractor Guay has ordered three LR 1700-1.0 crawler cranes from Liebherr. One of them has been ordered with a narrow track chassis.

The Canadian contractor plans to use the cranes for wind farm work. Left to right: Eric Beauvais, Jean-Francois Houde (both from Guay), Lee Spalding (Liebherr Canada), Michel Riverin (Guay), Kyle Jardine (Liebherr Canada), Guillaume Gagnon (Guay) Dr. h. c. Willi Liebherr (Liebherr International) and Tim Petersen (Liebherr Canada) (Photo: Liebherr)

The company plans to use the cranes for wind farm work, as well as industry and construction projects. The 700 tonne cranes will be the most powerful Liebherr crawlers models in the company’s fleet.

Heavier lifting

The economical transport concept of the LR 1700-1.0 was an important feature behind Guay’s decision to buy the new cranes, the company said.

“We are seeing a strong increase in demand for new wind farms in our market. The government is investing large sums in green energy to meet the growing demand. We need to invest in larger crawler cranes as wind turbines get heavier and taller,” said executive vice president Guillaume Gagnon.

“We will now be able to erect wind turbines up to 165 metres in height and the maximum hook height of 196 metres will enable us to work on tall buildings,” Gagnon added. “We chose the LR 1700-1.0 [as] compared to larger crawler cranes, the transport costs for the LR 1700-1.0 are lower due to the perfect weight and size of its components.”

Special features

The cranes come equipped with Liebherr’s VarioTray and V-Frame features.

VarioTray is a small counterweight frame that can be unbolted quickly and easily as required. This eliminates the need for tiresome stacking and unstacking of counterweight plates.

The V-frame ballast system is a hydraulically adjustable folding frame which enables the ballast radius of the LR 1700-1.0 to be adjusted between 13 and 21 metres. A rigid ballast guide system is therefore not required for large radii.

Gagnon continued, “The V-Frame increases the crane’s capacity and flexibility to do all the work we have planned. VarioTray saves us time when working on wind power projects because we only need a lot of counterweight to erect long boom configurations.”

Guay’s fleet is comprised of over 500 cranes, of various types, and the company has operated in Canada and the USA since it was founded in 1964.