Product of the Month – OctoPlus 17 spider lift
Our Product of the Month for September is a new addition to our access platform hire fleet – the Oil&Steel OctoPlus 17 spider cherry picker.
Hird has been providing tracked spider lifts hire options for a long time. But this is the first Oil&Steel platform to be added to the fleet.
So, we thought we’d take the opportunity to give the OctoPlus 17 spider lift a bit of an introduction, because it is very much worth a closer look.
Tracked spider lifts have been growing in popularity for some years now, thanks to the specific advantages they provide for working at height.
This process has been accelerated by key trends, notably in building inspection, maintenance and construction, as well as tree management, for which platforms like the Oil&Steel OctoPlus 17 provide ready solutions.
For example, spider lifts are likely to be deployed by structural engineers as they urgently check schools, hospitals and many other buildings due to concern about reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC).
Indoor-outdoor working
The Oil&Steel OctoPlus 17 spider lift is designed to be extremely compact in tracking mode. In fact, with its quick-release basket removed, it is just 785mm wide and 1998mm high.
This means it can be tracked through many single doorways or through a narrow garden gate or pedestrian path to reach worksites that would be out of bounds for a standard cherry picker.
As a tracked boom lift, the OctoPlus 17 is also ideally suited for working across rough terrain outdoors or over sensitive, low load-bearing floors indoors.
Once the platform has reached the work location, its four outriggers are deployed and the platform levelled with the touch of one button, ready for safe operation.
Again, these outriggers support working in confined and difficult spaces: they can stabilise the platform while set at different levels or on slopes of up to 18 degrees.
Lithium battery power
Hird’s Oil&Steel OctoPlus 17 spider cherry picker has a maximum working height of 17m and a maximum horizontal outreach of 15m.
Its basket has an unrestricted capacity of 250kg – higher than most other comparable spider lifts available for hire in the UK.
Proportional controls and an articulating jib allows the basket to be positioned confidently with extreme precision, optimising safe and productive working.
We have selected a lithium battery powered Oil&Steel OctoPlus 17 for our access hire fleet. This provides our hire customers with a number of important advantages.
The platform can be used with no restrictions both indoors and outdoors. This is useful at a time when contractors are looking to maximise utilisation rates, reduce costs, and declutter work sites.
Lithium long-life batteries deliver plenty of power for long operational shifts, with no power reduction over time. Fast and continuous charging capabilities add to the platform’s productivity.
As an all-electric platform, there is no need to store diesel fuel (at a time of high fuel costs), and the risk of fuel spills are eliminated.
As a zero-fumes, zero operational emissions and low-noise platform, Hird’s lithium Oil&Steel OctoPlus spider lift faces no restrictions when operating in pollution control zones or in sensitive areas, such as near hospitals, schools or nursing homes.
It also contributes to our customers’ sustainability and net zero targets, and those of their customers, which is a helpful selling point for our customers.
Excellent ground clearance
To enhance the flexibility of our Oil&Steel OctoPlus 17, it is fitted with white non-marking tracks which supports both indoor and outdoor working.
The platform is tracked using a hand-held wired control unit which is then plugged into the basket and combined with a 7-inch digital display screen for working at height.
Safety features include visual and audible safety alarms. The boom can also be lowered manually from the basket or ground level, if necessary.
To support safe movement of the platform the tracks can be hydraulically extended from 735mm to 1115mm, making it more stable across the most difficult terrain.
This allows the OctoPlus 17 to be tracked up a slope with a maximum angle of 35% or down a slope with an angle of up to 27%.
A key feature of all Oil&Steel OctoPlus spider lifts is their excellent stablised ground clearance which assists working across particularly uneven ground.
For example, our OctoPlus 17 has a stabilisation height of up to 625mm, which makes working at height in all conditions safer and more productive.
Flexible working at height
This array of performance advantages – confined space and all-terrain operation, indoor/outdoor capability, and sustainable working – makes our September Product of the Month ideal for many working at height tasks.
The Oil&Steel OctoPlus 17 is ideal for building inspection and maintenance, especially in built environments where space is constrained, both indoors and outdoors.
It is equally at home in a range of other spaces, for example in parks for safely pruning or felling trees, or maintaining lighting in pedestrian areas.
The platform is ideal for being deployed on construction sites, especially for fit-out, snagging or cleaning work, also for maintenance tasks in shopping centres and office atriums.
Find out more
Talk to Hird today about hire options for the Oil&Steel OctoPlus 17 tracked cherry picker, or the other spider lifts in our fleet, with working heights from 14m to 25m.
Hird is also the UK and Ireland distributor for Oil&Steel, which also supplies truck-mounted platforms, so we welcome purchase enquiries.
We can also provide IPAF Static Boom (1B) training for operating spider cherry pickers nationally via our three operating centres.
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