1. Product Overview
Knuckle Boom
Crane Truck, also widely known as Truck-mounted Crane,
Lorry Crane or
Loader Crane, is a professional specialized vehicle that integrates a hydraulic crane system with a heavy-duty modified
Cargo Truck chassis. This innovative vehicle is purpose-built for lifting, lowering, loading and transporting heavy loads, perfectly combining flexible road mobility and powerful lifting performance in a single unit.
The knuckle boom crane is a portable folding boom crane installed on a reinforced truck chassis. Adopting advanced hydraulic drive system, it uses hydraulic knuckle boom folding and stretching actions to lift, shift and handle various heavy materials. Different from telescopic straight boom cranes, the knuckle boom features a foldable and compact structure, making it more flexible for complex and narrow-site operations. The whole vehicle consists of four core structures: truck chassis, cargo bed, hydraulic crane (knuckle boom / telescopic boom optional), and hydraulic stabilizer outriggers.
This crane truck covers a complete lifting capacity range. The standard small and medium-duty models reach 2 tons to 20 tons, while customized heavy-duty versions can exceed 100 tons, fully meeting light, medium and ultra-heavy lifting demands for global engineering and logistics industries.
2. Working Principle
The
Knuckle boom truck mounted crane adopts mature hydraulic transmission working principle. The truck chassis provides power to drive the entire hydraulic system, realizing stable hydraulic lifting, precise boom extension, folding and retraction. Equipped with a 360° full rotation mechanism, the crane supports omnidirectional operation without dead angles, greatly improving construction flexibility and efficiency.
Before formal lifting operation, the hydraulic stabilizer outriggers are fully extended to form a wide and stable supporting base, effectively balancing the vehicle body and preventing tilt during heavy-load operation. Through accurate hydraulic control, the knuckle boom can freely fold and adjust the working radius and lifting height, realizing flexible and safe material handling in limited working spaces. The whole operation process is smooth, stable and easy to control, suitable for long-time continuous working.
3. Daily Application Scenarios
With dual functions of lifting and transportation and excellent mobile performance, the knuckle boom crane truck is widely applicable in multiple professional fields, including construction engineering, logistics cargo handling, municipal engineering and emergency rescue.
It is widely used for building material loading and unloading, steel structure handling, urban road maintenance, infrastructure construction, heavy equipment transportation and field rescue work. Benefiting from its compact folding boom design, it can adapt to narrow construction sites, low-height working environments and crowded urban operation spaces where ordinary straight boom cranes cannot work normally, realizing all-scenario mobile hoisting and transportation tasks.
4. Comparison With Traditional Models
Compared with traditional single-function cargo trucks and separate fixed cranes, the integrated knuckle boom crane truck has obvious comprehensive advantages. The traditional working mode requires separate purchase of transportation trucks and lifting cranes, which brings high procurement costs, low equipment utilization rate and tedious vehicle scheduling.
This knuckle boom crane truck integrates dual functions of lifting and transportation, with extremely high versatility, effectively reducing equipment investment and labor costs. It features a compact overall structure, saving working space and daily operating costs. Equipped with professional stabilizer outriggers, it achieves more stable and safer heavy-load operation than traditional cranes. Meanwhile, it has flexible mobility and can quickly reach various remote and narrow working sites, breaking the space limitation of traditional fixed lifting equipment.
Knuckle Boom Crane Truck |
General | Chassis Brand | Sinotruk HOWO |
| Overall Dimension(L×W×H) | Approx 5995×2200×3200mm |
| GVW / Kerb Weight | 11995kg / approx 7500kg |
Cab | Cab Type | Single-row Wide-body Standard Cab |
| Cab Capacity | 3 seats (1 driver + 2 passengers) |
| Air Conditioner | Standard equipped |
| Power Windows | Standard equipped |
| Central Lock | Standard equipped |
| Audio & Entertainment System | Standard equipped |
Engine | Fuel Type | Diesel |
| Engine Brand | Weichai / Sinotruk original matching engine |
| Rated Power | 160-190HP/118-140kW |
| Displacement | 3.0-4.5L |
| Emission Standard | Euro2/Euro3/Euro5/Euro6 optional |
Chassis Parameter | Drive Type | 4×2 |
| Transmission | 6/8-speed manual gearbox with PTO interface |
| Wheelbase/No.of axle | 3360mm / 2 axles (3815mm optional) |
| Tyre Specification | 7.50R16LT heavy-duty radial tires |
| Tyre Number | 6pcs + 1 spare tyre |
| Max Speed | 100km/h |
| Paint | Standard: silver/white weather-resistant finish for cab and cargo box, yellow finish for crane jib |
Superstructure | Standard Rated Lifting Capacity | 5 tons (3.2/6.3 tons optional) |
| Crane Brand | XCMG/domestic famous brand, imported brand optional |
| Crane Type | Articulated knuckle boom truck mounted crane, full hydraulic 360° continuous rotation |
| Max Working Radius | ≥10m (for 5 tons model) |
| Max Lifting Height | ≥12m (for 5 tons model) |
| Hydraulic System | Domestic famous brand hydraulic pump & valves, working pressure 16-20MPa, stable operation, low noise, with overload protection |
| Control Mode | In-cab manual lever control + ground remote control (wireless remote control optional) |
| Outrigger System | 4 hydraulic outriggers, with safety interlock device, can be operated independently or simultaneously, with automatic leveling function optional |
| Cargo Box Dimension | Approx 3500×2100×400mm (customizable) |
| Cargo Box Material | 3mm thick Q235B high-strength carbon steel, with reinforced side rails and anti-slip floor |
| Standard Accessories | Safety overload protection device, height limit device, anti-sway device, hydraulic oil tank with filter, emergency stop button, operation manual & maintenance kit |
| Anti-corrosion | Epoxy primer + weather-resistant finish paint, anti-rust treatment for all metal parts |
5. Vehicle Purchase Guide
Customers can select the most suitable configuration according to actual working scenarios and load requirements. For urban municipal maintenance, narrow-site construction, low-space operation and logistics distribution, the knuckle boom crane truck is the preferred option due to its flexible folding performance and compact size.
For conventional small and medium-duty material handling, 2–20 ton models can fully meet daily working needs. For large-scale heavy engineering projects, customized heavy-duty models above 100 tons are available. If your working site has large space and requires super long working radius, you can choose the telescopic boom type; if you focus on flexibility and space-saving performance, knuckle boom is the best choice. All models are equipped with hydraulic stabilizer outriggers to ensure full-load operation stability.
6. Operation and Maintenance
6.1 Standard Operation Instructions
Before operation, comprehensively inspect the truck chassis, hydraulic oil level, pipeline tightness, boom integrity and outrigger flexibility to ensure no abnormal faults. During operation, must fully extend all stabilizer outriggers to ensure stable vehicle support. Strictly implement standard operation procedures, prohibit overload lifting and violent boom folding or rotation, and keep the lifting and moving process slow and stable to ensure construction safety.
6.2 Daily Maintenance Methods
Regularly check and replace hydraulic oil and filter elements to keep the hydraulic system clean and stably powered. Regularly inspect the knuckle boom connection joints, folding parts and outrigger structures to avoid loosening, jamming and oil leakage. Clean dust and sundries on the crane and truck body regularly to reduce component wear. Scientific and standardized daily maintenance can effectively reduce failure rate and prolong the service life of the crane truck.
7. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Q1: What is a knuckle boom crane truck?
A1: It is a multifunctional special vehicle integrating hydraulic folding crane and truck chassis. It is designed for lifting, lowering and transporting heavy loads, integrating mobility and lifting capability for construction, logistics and utility work.
Q2: What is the difference between knuckle boom and telescopic boom?
A2: The knuckle boom can be folded compactly, featuring higher flexibility and space-saving performance, suitable for narrow and limited working sites; the telescopic boom has longer working radius and higher lifting height for open-space operation.
Q3: What is the lifting capacity of this crane truck?
A3: Standard capacity ranges from 2 tons to 20 tons for small and medium-duty work, and customized heavy-duty models can reach over 100 tons for ultra-heavy operation.
Q4: What are the core advantages of knuckle boom crane truck?
A4: It has dual functions of lifting and transportation with high versatility. It features flexible mobility to access various working sites, compact structure to save space and operating cost, and matched stabilizer outriggers to ensure stable and safe operation.
Q5: What industries is it suitable for?
A5: It is widely applied in construction engineering, logistics cargo handling, municipal engineering maintenance and emergency rescue fields.
Conclusion
The Knuckle Boom Truck Mounted Crane is a high-versatility, cost-effective and multi-functional mobile lifting equipment. Composed of truck chassis, cargo bed, hydraulic knuckle boom crane and stabilizer outriggers, it supports 360° full rotation, hydraulic lifting and extending, realizing integrated lifting and transportation operation.
Compared with traditional single-function equipment, this crane truck solves the problems of high cost, single performance and poor flexibility. With compact structure, flexible mobility, stable hydraulic performance and complete safety support, it adapts to various complex working environments. Covering 2–100+ ton full-range lifting capacity, it is the ideal reliable solution for global construction, logistics, municipal and emergency rescue mobile hoisting work.
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