The result is the Hiab Nugent Crane Trailer, which claims to be an ideal solution for builders’ merchants, farmers, landscape gardeners, local councils and any manual labourers.
Commenting on the launch, Alastair Evans, Hiab sales product manager for UK & Ireland, says: “The beauty of the new crane trailer is that it can reduce manpower and speed up small jobs.
“The manual handling regs state that a single person should not manually lift or handle a load that exceeds between 3kgs and 25kgs. With a lift capacity of 1.8tm, our new crane trailer can do the lifting of half a dozen people in one go.”
Evans continues: “The engineering teams at Hiab and Nugent have worked hard on the adaption of the trailer to make it suitable to take the crane. We wanted to retain as much payload as possible, while meeting the Whole Vehicle Type Approval regulations.”
The crane is a standard Hiab T-CLX 018 crane, but with the shortest legs possible, and has a lift capacity of 1.8tm. Featuring its own power source - (courtesy of two 12 volt deep cycle batteries) - it can be operated independently of the towing vehicle.
“The crane is fully electric, so is emission free and very quiet. We have also included a solar powered trickle charge enabling the battery to be charged while the trailer is in transit to the next job,” explains Evans.
The trailer - a Nugent F3720H 3.5 tonne Flatbed - utilises Nugent’s patented Dual Drive suspension, which is said to reduce vibrations and suspension chatter, minimises stress on the chassis and cuts shock waves to the towing vehicle.
Nugent marketing manager Maryanne Conway adds: “Nugent is always looking for ways to innovate and create new products to meet our customers’ needs. It made sense to partner with Hiab because they are also innovative and have a strong focus on quality.”