 | | Liebherr branded box. |  |  | | The counterweight carrier has treaded tyres carried on four independent bogies. |  | | Counterweights are made up of the same sized pieces as the base crane. |  | | Hydraulic lines run from the carrier, along the telescopic extension to the crane. |  | | Luffing bridle. Tiny brass nuts and bolts make the connections. |  | | View of the derrick taken from a passing Cranes Etc trained pigeon. |
| The Liebherr LR1300 Crawler Crane can have its lifting duties significantly extended by the addition of a derrick and additional counterweight. The counterweight can be suspended or mounted on a wheeled carriage. As an example the base crane with a 50m main boom and a 65m jib can lift just over 17t at 50m radius. With a fully loaded counterweight carriage set at 15.8m radius, the lifting capacity is improved to over 25t.
This optional kit for the LR1300 base model includes a derrick, counterweight carriage with 120t of counterweight, and an additional boom and jib section.
Packaging
The kit comes in a Liebherr style box with the parts well packed within an expanded polystyrene tray. It had no defects or missing parts.
A large instruction sheet is provided which is printed in German and English, and it has good photos to help assembly. Understandably, the instructions are written from the perspective of dismantling the base model and rebuilding it with the derrick attachment, and a few hours should be allowed for this. Skilled collectors may be able to affect the changes quicker without so much dismantling. The instructions are good for assembly but they do not explain the function of the carriage so well as they ignore the steering of the wheels and the telescopic extension of the connection to the crane.
Detail
The carriage is almost entirely of metal construction. Good treaded tyres are mounted on smart hubs and these are attached to four sets of bogies. They are hydraulically adjustable for height on the real machine but are fixed on the model. Two hydraulic stabilisers have metal pads. The counterweight slabs are in 10t and 5t pieces and have a clip to keep them stable when loaded on the carriage.
The telescopic connection has metal walkways and handrails, and rubber hydraulic lines run to the connection with the crane. It is connected to the carrier with friction rivets so it is not easy to separate the connection from the carrier in order to produce realistic transport loads.
The derrick boom sections are the same high quality as the base crane, and they are joined with the same brass nuts and bolts and it is possible to break the derrick down into four separate pieces for transport. The derrick and the luffing bridle have excellent free-rolling metal pulleys.
Features
The bogies on the carrier can be individually set for steering so the carrier can be towed or moved in a circle when lifting and slewing. The two hydraulic support rams can be lowered and these just pull out rather than being screwed.
The telescopic connection can be extended to increase the radius from the crane and it can be pinned in three separate positions. The rubber hydraulic lines extend out to follow the extension of the telescopic connection.
The pendant connection at the top of the derrick has a screwed adjustment mechanism in order to accurately set the length of the pendants to the carrier.
Quality
This is a high quality kit matching the base model.
Price
Compared to the crane, the cost of the derrick is a little on the expensive side although it does significantly enhance the base model.
Overall
The derrick kit is well engineered and improves the stability of the base crane. It also can be used to create a very big model standing around 2.3m high so it is definitely one for impressing people with. The kit matches the crane model and is highly recommended.
Footnotes
The kit was announced at the Nuremberg Toy Fair in 2010.
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|  | | The parts inside the box. |  | | Metal handrails and platforms. |  | | The overall arrangement looks very effective. |  | | The whole model including luffing jib. A boom and jib section is not installed. |  | | The connection to the crane extended to the maximum. This provides additional stability to the whole model. |
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