Manitowoc Crane Care, along with its dealer partner H&E Equipment Services, presented Turner Industries with a completely refurbished Manitowoc 888 crawler crane at Manitowoc’s stand during ConExpo. The unit was the first completely remanufactured crane under the new Encore Partners program.
Bob Hund, executive vice president of Manitowoc Crane Care, said that the Encore Partners program is a financially attractive option for customers to have their cranes rebuilt or remanufactured by OEM-approved technicians. H&E Equipment Services was able to remanufacture the crane for about half the cost of a brand-new crane.
“This program offers Manitowoc and Grove crane owners extremely competitive remanufacture and repair options from several Manitowoc dealers, with highly qualified factory-trained technicians using repair procedures developed in collaboration with factory engineers,” said Hund. “When using one of our Encore Partners, the customer can rest assured that all work is performed to exact factory specifications and the original load chart remains valid.”
The Model 888 unit, owned by Turner, was originally manufactured in 1996 and worked along the U.S. Gulf Coast region on general construction, as well as chemical and petrochemical projects.
Mike Morain, vice president of equipment for Turner Industries, said that refurbishing this crane made the most sense when looking at the overall composition of Turner’s crane fleet.
“We own a full arsenal of lift enhancement attachments for this crane, including a fixed jib, luffing jib and heavy-left ringer attachment,” he said. “The investment in these attachments was one of the deciding factors when considering whether to remanufacture this crane.”
Tom Fox, service manager for H&E’s Birmingham, Ala., facility, said the crane was completely overhauled and remanufactured following Manitowoc Crane Care specifications.
“The crane was disassembled to its bare frames, weldments were inspected, new parts and components were installed and finally the entire crane received a ‘show quality’ paint finish,” he said. “Every component and structure on this crane was thoroughly inspected and refurbished from front to back and boom top to crawler pad.”
The technicians and certified welders working on the crane underwent extensive factory-certified training.
The crane will be sent to Turner Industries’ Baton Rouge, La., fleet where it will go to work on a new project shortly.
