Capital Equipment News January 2015

ABA ADDS 13 TH GROVE to its UK fleet

A BA Cranes Ltd, one of the UK’s larg- est crane hire companies, has added a fourth Grove GMK4100L all-terrain crane to its fleet. The latest unit arrived in September, bringing the company’s total fleet of Grove cranes to 13, which it pro- vides to a wide variety of job sites across the midlands. ABA’s Grove cranes are always at work. The only time they spend at their base in Bloxwich is for routine maintenance, which company manager Dale England is delight- ed with. “We keep buying Grove cranes because we know they earn their keep,” he says. “They are very versatile units that are quick to set- up and easy to use. Hardly ever seeing them means they are doing a good job and I am sure we will buy more Grove cranes in the future.” ABA bought its first Grove crane in the year 2000. Since then, the company has regu- larly added to its fleet, which now includes

cranes with capacities from 35 t to 130 t. The company bought its first Grove GM- K4100L in 2007. The Grove cranes are deployed at a wide range of construction and individual lift projects. Recent jobs have seen the cranes install an industrial chimney stack at a pro- cessing plant, lift pre-fabricated structures and general materials at a residential de- velopment, and placing static caravans at a holiday park. Grove’s GMK4100L is a 100 t capacity, four-axle, all-terrain crane. It offers an im- pressive 60 m main boom, which can be extended to 77 m with a jib. The GMK4100L is built at Grove’s manufacturing plant in Wilhelmshaven, Germany. Established in 1980, ABA has more than 35 employees. The company’s 28 operators tend to stick to the same crane, making that specific unit their specialised tool, and speeding up work at the job site. b

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