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Crane disposal

We often see cranes at various sites that are at the end of their operating life, e.g. rusty tower booms, frayed caterpillar cabins, and truck cranes that can be heard groaning in their death throes of decay.

It is often economically unprofitable to restore the equipment to a functional state, and many not so conscientious people buy obsolete equipment, squeeze a couple of years out of it, and abandon it, and so on and so forth. Such a fate usually awaits truck cranes.

The honorable and proper act is to dispose of obsolete equipment, and not just dump in a field. And depending on crane type, this process varies.

With truck cranes, it's as simple as possible. Since they already stand on the ground, the main components are simply removed and the metalwork is cut into pieces. This can be done with little effort using a gas blowtorch.

The caterpillar crane is a bit more complicated, and requires dismantling from top to bottom. First the main boom and the fly jib are removed, followed by cab and counterweight. Finally, the frame and caterpillar tracks are disassembled

Gantry cranes can be brought to the ground with the help of a tractor. If there are a couple of truck cranes to support the bridge beam, it is possible to spread the supports along the rails and prevent the structure from outright collapse.

Overhead bridge cranes can be cut in half and dislodged to the ground below. For this, you’ll need the help of industrial climbers. However, there are some points to be taken into account here. Such cranes are often used in workshops, and the space below needs to be cleared of machinery or other equipment. Then the operator's booth and electrical equipment are removed; for this, a truck crane may be required

Gantry and tower cranes are the most difficult to dismantle, at least due to their size and weight. For gantry cranes, a work plan is prepared, which specifies a clear algorithm for dismantling and disassembly of components and parts. You can save time and money by simply dropping the crane and cutting it up.


You can also tear down the tower, space permitting. And if not - we will have to use another crane, climbers-cutters, slingers, electricians, riggers, and don’t forget cargo transport.

However, after crane disassembly, along with scrap metal, we can salvage control modules, electrical components, hydraulics, etc.

Some parts are indeed sent to the scales and sold at scrap prices of different categories. But if you take the Chelyabinsk Mechanical Plant's DEK caterpillar cranes as an example, you can sell their used tracks at a price of 10,000 rubles per link

Also, the entire series DEK has a built-in diesel power generator with a capacity of 60 - 100 kW, depending on the model. And it works perfectly autonomously, meaning that it would be silly to sale it at scrap part prices. This also includes pivots and such seemingly simple but important things as counterweights.

Truck cranes are valuable for their chassis; for example, the Galichanin has a KAMAZ chassis; CMZ cranes use a four-wheel drive Ural chassis, and the Klintsy cranes are placed on MAZ trucks. And if a crane is often extremely poorly maintained, just to do the job, then the chassis are more critical, they need to be taken to the facility.

For gantry cranes, the hoists and telphers are the so-called "business scrap". Don’t forget about gearboxes, cables, winches and a whole host of other parts, components and assemblies that can still be used on other cranes.

Naturally, each crane has to be considered separately, on the spot. For example, you have recently replaced all the electric wiring on it, but the mechanical part has finally failed or the new crane has collapsed – the possibilities are endless.

So don't just grab a bolt cutter and autogen, call in a specialist, assess the scope of work, maybe it will be more profitable to sell the crane as a whole. In any case you can always turn to us, MYCRANE, as our purpose is to solve problems with lifting devices!

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