Spider crane lifts give garden visitors a summer sculpture treat
Contract lifting specialist Hird has used its Maeda spider cranes to help RHS Garden Wisley install two new exciting sculptures.
A Maeda MC405 mini crane was deployed to remove artwork called Giant’s Chair to make way for a new sculpture.
A Maeda MC285 mini crane was also used to install a new sculpture as a centrepiece of one of the site’s many specialist gardens.
RHS Garden Wisley near Woking, Surrey, covers 97 hectares and is the flagship garden of the Royal Horticultural Society.
Proud to help
James Carr, manager of the Hird’s Southern Depot, said: “We were very pleased to be able to assist RHS Garden Wisley in carrying out these two crane lifts.
“The garden is delightful, visited by more than a million people each year, and does vital work to promote gardening, and the preservation of many rare and important plants.
“Through its sculptures, it is also an important supporter of the arts, so we are proud to be able to support their work with our advanced crane lifting technology.”
The six-metre tall Giant’s Chair, created by artist Henry Brudenell-Bruce, weighs 2.8 tonnes and had been in place for two years.
Hird had also installed the sculpture at the top of Battleston Hill in the garden grounds using a Maeda MC405 crane in May 2019.
Narrow crane
The tracked spider crane has a maximum safe working load of 3.83t and a maximum working height of 16.8m, which can be extended to 20.7m with a jib.
At just 1380mm wide, the spider crane was narrow enough to be guided through a gateway as it was traversed along a garden path 70m to reach the lift site.
Giant’s Chair was removed to make way for a new sculpture of a horse’s head called Still Water by Surrey artist Nic Fiddian-Green.
Hird’s crane lifting experts were also commissioned to install a smaller wooden sculpture at RHS Garden Wisley.
For this second lift, they used a Maeda MC285 spider crane to install a sculpture called Wildlife Tower, by artist Tom Hare, in the Hilltop garden.
Ideal mini crane
The crawler mini crane has a maximum safe working load of 2.82t, a maximum tip height of 8.7m and a maximum radius of 8.2m.
Hird can supply the cranes with petrol, LPG, diesel or electric power. The latest version, the MC285-3, which has diesel and electric power options, has fully digital controls.
Just 750mm wide in stowed tracking mode, the Maeda MC285 was the ideal mini crane to install the sculpture as it could be moved easily along RHS Garden Wisley’s narrow paths.
The Hird lifting team used a Genie SLA 15 Superlift to transport the sculpture to the lift site.
The counterbalance material lift has a maximum safe working load of 454kg and can lift a load to a height of 10ft.
Material lift hire
Hird has a large fleet of Maeda mini cranes available for hire, or for contract lifting projects, ranging from the Maeda MC174, which has a SWL of 1.72 tonnes to the MC815, with a SWL of 8 tonnes.
It also has a wide range of material lifts ready for hire. They include the GML800+ material lift, which can be fitted with a glass manipulator.
Also available is the WLU KS Premium, an ultra-compact material lift. Just 750mm wide, it can lift a load weighing 400kg up to a height of 4m.
For more information on Maeda mini spider cranes and lifting equipment, available across the UK from Hird’s four operational centres, call today.
Email: [email protected]
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01482 227333
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01302 341659
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0203 174 0658