Summit Truck Bodies service truck deploys outriggers on a logging site.Photo: Summit Truck Bodies
In the service truck industry, there are as many different types of cranes and hoists as there are kinds of cargo to lift. But whether the load is heavy or light, big or small, in the middle of the city or the middle of nowhere, outriggers are essential tools for ensuring stability, balance and safety.
Outriggers, and various other kinds of hydraulic stabilization legs, have been around for decades. And like so many things, innovation and technology keep making them better and more efficient.
Old-school hand-crank outrigger systems remain a cost-effective option particularly on electric crane trucks not equipped with hydraulic lines. But for reliability, versatility, convenience and ease of deployment, hydraulic outrigger systems have become the stabilization accessories of choice for most operators.
Bullish on outriggers
One of the leading manufacturers of outriggers is Power-Packer, a division of Actuant Corporation, headquartered in Oldenzaal, Netherlands.
“We really see a lot of growth potential in this area,” says Ann Roche, Actuant’s marketing
Ann Roche of Power-Packer stands by the company’s hydraulic outrigger system displayed at its 2019 Work Truck Show booth.Photo: Keith Norbury
manager of engineered solutions.
“In the past we just supplied hydraulic cylinders but about five or six years ago we started manufacturing entire systems. We’re really bullish about our outriggers. We think it’s one of our best products and we have become one of the key suppliers.”
Some companies, among them Maintainer Corporation of Iowa Inc., manufacture outriggers in-house for use on their own line of trucks. Power-Packer, on the other hand, doesn’t deal in chassis or bodies and instead specializes in providing assembled outrigger systems and components to body builders and service truck wholesalers, many of whom “white label” Power-Packer’s products under their own brand.
Power-Packer’s basic hydraulic unit comes with a center tube, one or two power extend outriggers (36 inchesto 42 inches), 20-inch stroke stabilization legs, control panel and pump and manifold assembly, with a boom stabilization capacity of approximately 14,000 pounds.
Options include round or square legs, manual or hydraulic or a combination of both, a 12-volt or 24-volt electric/hydraulic pump and a choice of power takeoff or self-contained power unit.
The company’s web site touts a “streamlined, integrated design” with flexible components that can be adapted to individual needs, including “universal mount capability” for under- and over-frame installation.
Actuant Corporation is a $1.2-billion diversified industrial company serving customers from operations in more than 30 countries. The U.S. head office is in Menomonee, Wisc.
Rather than outsource its truck stabilization systems, Maintainer incorporates them directly into its service truck designs, an approach that adds strength and enhances safety, said Kurt Vos, the company’s product engineering manager.
“Our outriggers are different from many of our competitors in that they are part of our bumper assembly. They are not a bolt on assembly,” Vos says. “We want the outriggers to be a welded component of our body so that the crane forces can be directly transferred through our substructure to the outriggers.”
Safety controls
The location of the outrigger controls is another safety feature, he added.
“The controls are centered on the truck so that both outrigger locations can be seen while operating the controls and keeping the operator away from these areas,” Vos says.
Most of Maintainer’s outriggers are designed specifically for the bodies and cranes the company manufactures. The outrigger extender lengths vary from 30 inches to 57 inches.
“For increased stability with some larger cranes on smaller chassis we have outriggers that extend out both sides of the truck and extend down,” Vos says.
Steve Lynch, Power-Packer’s product line manager, points out that outrigger specifications vary widely depending on the size of the crane, weight of the truck and the specific type of use the unit is intended for.
“It really comes down to specifically what kind of problem they want to solve,” Lynch says. “We looked at a variety of applications for work trucks and utility vehicles. You need mobility and safety — one or both of those two things. It all depends on the specific load that needs to be balanced.”
For lighter loads that are picked up at the curbside, a single outrigger might suffice. Shoe size can vary according to the type of terrain — smaller footing for a paved parking lot and larger shoes for soft ground in work sites and other off road location.
“It also depends what goes up in the bucket,” Lynch says.
Frame options
While Power-Packer sells both H-type and A-frame outrigger systems, with A-frame option a little more common in heavier vehicles.
“We see about a 50-50 split on the H-type and the A-frame, but in the in the 30,000 to 40,000 (GVW) range there’s more A-frame,” he says. “It all has a lot to do with the chassis of the vehicle.”
Cincinnati-based Venco Venturo Industries LLC offers a full range of outriggers built specifically for its line of electric and hydraulic crane bodies, including one with a 72- inch crane side extension and 48-inch opposite side extension, 214-inch total spread, and a 30-inch hydraulic stroke.
Venturo also offers manual pullouts with hydraulic legs and well as fully manual options.
Full width double mounting tubes permit 100 percent stability in all rotation zones.
Wathena, Kansas-based Summit Truck Bodies has taken automation to a new level with the development of “advanced safety electronics,” a system of switches and sensors that provides real-time data to crane operators and helps them make informed decisions on crane use and load placement.
Summit’s top-end outrigger systems have the ability to auto-deploy and level the outriggers, auto-stow the crane, and control the lights, air compressor, PTO and engine.
“We’re actually the only ones that offer it,” says Summit marketing manager Sondra Kirby. “We’re working on Phase 3 technology now so we’ve been doing it for awhile.”
Summit designs and manufactures all its own bodies, cranes and outriggers, except for the hydraulic cylinders, which are outsourced.
Engineered in-house
“We’re fully integrated we do as much as we can in-house. We engineer and design the finished product,” Kirby says.
Outriggers aren’t required by law. “But if you want to take advantage of your truck’s lifting capacity without damaging the truck you need them,” she adds. “It’s a common-sense thing. You can’t rewrite the laws of physics.”
Where safety incidents do occur, “operator compliance” is a larger factor than a lack of proper stabilization equipment, Kirby says. Reports published by the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Act indicate that human error is to blame in about 80 percent of crane upsets, either when operators exceed the crane’s lifting capacity or fail to properly deploy their outriggers.
To prevent damage to hydraulic lines during deployment, Pride Bodies of Cambridge, Ont., offers an outrigger system with hoses that expand and retract inside a protective tube.
“There a long spring in there that stretches out and the spring pulls the hoses out so they don’t drag on the ground,” says Pride’s regional sales manager Jim Guest. “They’re inside a tube so they’re more resistant to crimping and leaks. It gives the lines a place to go instead of just dancing there.”
Pride, which specializes in aluminum service bodies, bills itself as an eco-conscious company.
“Aluminum is very green product. It’s 100 percent recyclable and it’s much lighter,” Guest says. “With a heavier product you’re going to burn more fuel and have more fuel at the weigh scales.
“You put an 8,000-pound crane on a 19,000 GVW chassis and you don’t have much payload left.”
In addition to service bodies, Pride makes lube bodies, construction/crane bodies and railway bodies, all with varying outrigger requirements. The outrigger components are imported from Italy.
Custom designed
“We do a lot with the yellow iron industry — municipalities that have to service valves and pumping stations, railway vehicles that go down the track to replace a piece of equipment,” Guest says.
“We have some basic outrigger models but most of it is custom designed. We don’t make cookie cutter models. We don’t make widgets.”
Like Pride Bodies, Power-Packer has expanded its outrigger business beyond its core “highway market’ business into growing variety of light and heavy industry uses — drill rigs, mobile medical imaging (MRI) equipment, temporary office structures, heavy-duty mining vehicles, movable rock-crushers and high-rise cement pumpers.
“We’ve been focusing on expanding our products line to better meet the needs of different kinds of customers,” Roche says. “We make a lot of different types of stabilization legs.”
—Brennan Clarke
Brennan Clarke is freelance writer based in Victoria, B.C.