Cranes belong to the biggest machines ever built. Have you ever wondered, which crane is the largest of them all? Well, your waiting is over! In this article, we are going to have a look at 10 of the world’s largest land-based cranes that are still being used in 2022. Cranes are machines equipped with hoists and wire ropes generally used to lift and lower materials. Their main purpose is to lift and transport heavy things and materials from one place to another. The list of the world’s biggest cranes is based on their maximum overall height configuration. Likewise, all data in specification tables under model descriptions represent maximum numeric values. Let’s find out who holds the title of the tallest crane in the world!
1. Sarens SGC 250 Big Carl
The 1st place and the title of world’s tallest land-based crane goes to SGC 250, launched in 2018. The ring crane nicknamed “Big Carl” was manufactured by Belgian heavy lifting specialist Sarens. As the model name suggests, the maximum height of the SGC 250 is exactly 250 metres. This is just two metres less than the height of Donauturm in Vienna. By comparison, the Eiffel Tower is 324 metres tall. Moreover, the ring crane offers astounding lifting capacity of 5,000 tonnes (equivalent to 50 blue whales) and a lifting moment of 250,000 tonnes. The Big Carl is powered by 12 CAT engines (each 310 kW) grouped in 6 pairs. Despite its size, the crane offers flexibility and mobility via 360° slewing thanks to 128 wheels that can move the crane along 6 km of tracks. This ability to relocate when fully rigged makes the SGC 250 so unique in its category. The world’s largest crane, Big Carl, was constructed in Ghent, Belgium, and undergone testing lifts at the local port. In 2019, the crane was disassembled and shipped to the UK in 280 trucks. The assembly took 10 weeks and since then, the SGC has helped to construct the Hinckley Point C nuclear power plant. It is scheduled to work at this site for 4 years in a £20 million contract.
2. Liebherr LR 13000
The 2nd tallest land-based crane in the world is Liebherr LR 13000, introduced in 2010. The machine’ maximum height is 248 m. It also offers a huge lifting capacity of 3,000 tonnes. This makes it the most powerful conventional crawler crane in the world. Moreover, the LR 13000 is able to work without derrick ballast thanks to an in-house developed slewing rig. This crane is suitable for a wide range of jobs such as construction of wind farm, power plants, refineries or lifting materials at harbours. Only few LR 13000 units have been manufactured so far and operated in various regions across the world, e.g. in the Netherlands, Germany, Mexico or Asia.
3. Mammoet PTC 200 DS
We are on the ranking podium. The 3rd place in the ranking of world’s largest cranes belongs to Mammoet PTC 200 DS. The Dutch heavy lifting and transport-specialized company introduced the PTC 200 DS in 2011. The ring crane measures 246 m in its biggest configuration. It would be still taller than for example 4 Leaning Towers of Pisa placed atop each other (57 m each). The lifting capacity is also pretty astonishing – 3,500 tonnes. This generates a lifting moment of 200,000 tm! The first unit of the PTC 200 DS was shipped in 2011 from Antwerp in Belgium to Brazil. The first job was to assist at construction of an FPSO for the offshore petrochemical industry.
4. Demag CC 8800-1
The fourth place belongs to Demag CC 8800-1. The largest crane configuration stops at 240 m. This crane was introduced by the German company in 2002 as its biggest crane at that time. It was firstly named CC 8800 and gained the “-1” suffix few years later due to an upgrade increasing its capacity to 1,600 tonnes. Moreover, Demag launched the optional boom booster kit in 2014, which can further increase the crane’s capacity by up to 90% (max. 3,040 tonnes). The lattice boom crawler is dedicated to executing the most challenging jobs and operates on construction sites all around the globe.
5. Demag CC 8800-1 TWIN
The fifth tallest crane in our ranking is the Demag CC 8800-1 TWIN, being 234 metres high. As the title suggests, it is basically the enhanced version of CC 8800-1 crane from the same German manufacturer. If you wonder what makes the difference, it is the addition of the TWIN kit — a two boom system freely mounted onto the carrier. The TWIN is a lattice boom crawler with lifting capacity of 3,200 t, which is exactly twice the amount of his crane brother CC 8800-1. Similarly, the load moment is boosted and reaches 43,900 tm. The first model was introduced in 2007 and sold to Al Jaber Heavy Lift and Transport based in UAE where it worked in the nuclear power industry and oil refineries. Other CC 8800-1 Twin cranes were shipped to India or Qatar.
In the video below, we can see World’s Top 10 tallest land-based cranes
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Video resource: Top Machine
