Liebherr has developed a more powerful SL8F2 boom system in collaboration with Buckner HeavyLift Cranes for the LR 11000 crawler crane.

The Nordex Delta 4000 wind turbine with a rotor diameter of 489 feet is the latest generation onshore system in the four to five megawatts power class. In the past, three hoists were required to install the generator at 354 feet.

The SL8F2 system can hoist the completely assembled generator – the eighth version of the SL boom. The second version of the fixed F jib delivers a lifting capacity of 279 tons with a hook height of 374 feet, enough to hoist the 254 ton generator and load handling equipment up to the hub heigh of 354 feet.

Buckner completed the first Nordex Delta 4000 generator installed with a single hoist at a wind farm in Oklahoma. The LR 11000 was rigged with the 354-foot SL boom and 39-foot fixed jib, 143 tons of central ballast, 276 tons of slewing platform ballast and 88 tons on the slewing platform extension. This provided the required stability to hoist the gross load of 254 tons to a hook height of 374 feet.