The band most jobs land in. 50-ton machines for factory installations and rooftop equipment, 60 and 80 ton workhorses for transformers and weighbridges, up to 100 and 120 ton when reach matters more than raw lift.
Medium-band crane hire is the bread and butter of South African industrial work. If you're installing HVAC equipment on a rooftop, placing a transformer at a substation, erecting a weighbridge, dropping in a generator, or moving a piece of factory equipment that won't fit a 30-ton, you're somewhere in the 50 to 120 ton range — and our Crane Calculator can scope which specific machine you need without you having to guess.
The medium band runs from 50-ton mobiles through 120-ton machines, and the right choice depends almost entirely on lift radius — the horizontal distance from the crane's centre pin to where the load lands. A 50-ton crane can lift fifty tons, but only at minimum radius. Push the load out to where you actually need it, and lift capacity drops fast. That's why customers who try to scope cranes by load weight alone often end up needing a size up. The radius matters first.
The most versatile crane on the South African market. Short setup, modest counterweight, accessible site footprint. 50-ton mobiles handle HVAC unit lifts onto warehouses, light steel erection, generator drops, aircraft heritage moves like the Atlas Cheetah relocation, and tandem work on horizontal stainless tanks. If the load is under 30 tons at a reasonable radius, this is usually where we land.
Where the 50-ton runs out of radius, 60 and 80 ton machines pick up. Bridge beams. Substation transformers in the 30–50 ton class. Weighbridge installations like the one in the hero image — that 60-ton machine had the reach to clear the substation infrastructure behind it and place the bridge section accurately on its first attempt. The bulk of factory installs, telecom mast work, retail-development cranes, and weighbridge work.
The upper end of "manageable" — still mobilise on standard low-bed transport, set up inside a typical industrial yard, no outrigger mat extensions for ground bearing in most cases. Deployed for cargo lifts at OR Tambo, telecom infrastructure, transformer placements at distribution substations, and heavier mining and processing-plant jobs where reach and capacity both matter. Above 120 ton, you start mobilising in pieces — that's the large band.
Tell us the lift weight and the radius and we'll spec the right tonnage in seconds. The calculator uses our internal crane matrix — the same lookup our dispatch team uses internally. Open the Crane Size Calculator →
Tell us the lift and we'll come back with a number.