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| Counterweight slabs are interesting with lifting eyes and ladders. |
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| The crawler frames have fold out booms which can be used to demarcate a danger area around the crane. |
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| Rear counterweight and luffing gear. The slabs do not stack perfectly though. |
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| Platforms are hinged to provide access to the crawler drive gear. |
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| Lifting the Gar-Bro concrete skip. Using the 16000 is not an efficient way to place concrete! |
TWH 016 - Manitowoc 16000 Crawler Crane
Model Review June 2008
The crawler tracks work very well. Each track frame has fold out booms to enable a safety zone to be marked and this feature makes for a convincing display, although not quite enough hazard tape was supplied with the review model to surround it completely. Rotation of the crane is very smooth. The cab can be rotated horizontally for transport and can be tilted to provide operator comfort, and an opening cab door provides interest. The walkway between the track frames is hinged to provide access to the track drives and this is a very nice touch.
To operate the model a tool is provided for the winches in the crane body. The winch drum for luffing the boom can be worked with the tool but the layout of the crane means that the counterweight slabs on one side have to be removed. There is no positive brake on the drum although there is enough friction to hold the boom above a 30° angle comfortably. A little less satisfactory is that although the luffing mechanism is helpfully reeved in the factory it consists of a separate line of string on each half of the luffing gear. The review model was reeved with more string on one drum than the other which meant that in some positions one of the lines loses some tension. The keen collector could correct this by unreeving the model and re-reeving it but this is easily a couple of hours of work.
The winch in the crane body has a spring loaded drum which is fine. The boom mounted winch has no brake at all which means it can barely hold more weight than the hook block. It is a pity this aspect continues from the 18000 model although the reality is that the collector can easily find a way to jam the winch one way or another and pose a load being lifted.
A few display options exist for the model with the large number of boom sections provided so if desired a very large model can be built. However in some respects it has much in common with the 18000 model in that it is not easily broken down to represent transport loads, so that is not a ready display option. Also a little more flexibility at the boom top would have permitted heavy lift display options for relatively little additional cost.