Conrad 20100 - Liebherr LTC1055 Mobile Crane
Model Review December 2005

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The LTC1055 - looking chunky and ready for action.

The usual Liebherr picture box. The crane has since been renumbered as the LTC1055-3.1 by Liebherr.

Sitting snugly in the box.

Looking good but it's a pity the boom can't sit right down like the real crane.

It looks the part when working and the fly jib stays on at all angles.

This is a 1:50 scale model of Liebherr Cranes first version of the popular 'City Crane' concept.

Packaging

The box presents no surprises as it is in the typical Liebherr style of a picture sleeve holding together two expanded polystyrene trays. Inside, the model is securely packed and there was no damage to the review model.  No instructions are provided with the model although some would be helpful to the crane novice.

Detail

Out of the box, this is a heavy and solid little model.

Beginning with the carrier, the wheels are of the standard type for Conrad truck cranes of this size with good rubber tyres mounted on plastic hubs. Outrigger beams are plastic as are the outrigger pads.  At the front are two latches which hold the separate counterweight. Tiny glass headlights peer out from under the counterweight.  At the rear a towing hitch is provided and there are place holders into which slots the rack which carries three fly jib sections.  The lights are painted on and plastic wheel chocks are attached. On top the carrier has textured walking plates.

The driver's cab includes some basic detail including a steering wheel. A plastic wing mirror is also provided which fits into prepared holes. Strangely the mirror consists only of black plastic without a silvered surface and we can only wonder why Conrad has left this off the model. Black plastic grab rails are provided rather than them being part of the die cast metal.  Presumably this has been done to provide an easy colour match of this part of the crane to the original. A pair of orange beacon lights is fitted to the roof of the crane body. At the rear a solid articulated counterweight block is attached.  The body of the crane has various cast in grooves and details and a metal ladder is fixed to the side.

The crane boom itself is a seven section telescope and it is something of a marvel that this has been engineered so well in such a small model.  It is raised by a pair of hydraulic cylinders which are relatively stiff for a crane of this size.  Two plastic brackets slot into the side of the first boom section which are used to carry the main fly jib.  Also a large plastic unsilvered wing mirror holder clips in. The tip of the boom has plastic pulleys and a slightly cheap looking boom protector for use when the crane is travelling on the road. A single pulley metal hook is provided.

A problem exists with the scaling of the model as the boom does not sit right down for travelling and remains around 10mm or so too high.  This is probably due to the plastic cylinder jackets on the rams being a little too long.  

The fly jib comes in a number of parts. All sections are metal except the final solid swing out section which is plastic.  Because of the small scale the pinning points on the three middle sections look disproportionately large.  All parts fit together well however and are held together by plastic pins.  As mentioned before the three middle sections are stored when not in use on a plastic rack which attaches to the carrier. Although this looks good the plastic used is very stiff and hold the sections by clipping them.  The result is that removing the sections easily leads to scratching the paint off where the sections are clipped in place.

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