30.01.2009

Aichi’s new crawler boom ready

Aichi has begun shipping its new 38ft and 45ft crawler mounted straight telescopic booms that it unveiled at APEX in September. The new models, one with jib and one without, are designated the SR12C and SR14CJ.

The new models use the superstructure from the company’s SP12C and SP14CJ wheeled self propelled booms which were launched 12 months ago. The superstructures are mounted to an improved version of Aichi’s well proven crawler chassis.
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The new Aichi SR14CJ

The 12C offers a maximum work height of 13.7 metres with up to 10.7metre outreach, while the 14CJ has a 15.6 metre working height and 12.6 metres of outreach. The use of a three section boom, rather than the usual two section on this height, means that the two units retract to very compact dimension for storage and shipping.

Aichi has also extended its 2-3-5 Warranty programme to all products, the programme includes two years basic warranty on the whole machine, with three years on specified hydraulic components and five years on all structural components.
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The SR14CJ with 45ft platform height

The new crawler mounted models were subjected to one of the most abusive test programmes the company has ever implemented. Theo Plichta, of Aichi Europe, its Dutch based distributor, told Vertikal that he was given access to the machine for several days at the company’s rugged test track in Japan and told to “try and break it”. He says that no matter what he did the machine just kept on working and in spite of repeated and extended attempts during the week was unable to create a single fault.

Vertikal Comment

Aichi produces some of the best boom lifts on the market, with an almost legendary reputation for reliability and low cost of ownership. If those involved are to be believed the company has managed with this unit to raise its game still further.

The challenge will be the initial price, which has always been higher than most competitors. In spite of this the company has a large following in Holland and Germany where several rental customers claim that the reliability levels are so significant that they can almost double the number of machines that a single engineer can look after.
With the products from other main manufacturers improving all the time, is that claimed gap large enough to justify the extra cost? Some will say yes, some will say no.

In Europe the true test for Aichi will come when its first articulated booms arrive, the first challenge will be to get the specifications right, and then to maintain the same design and build quality as its telescopic models and then price will of course be a factor. Finally if all those factors are met, it will come down to good distribution, something the company tends to struggle at outside of its home market.