HIAB and Truck Mounted Crane Hire in Nairobi

HIAB and Truck Mounted Crane Hire: options, industries and applications

Capacities available

• Light delivery units
• Mid-range self loaders
• Heavy knuckle-boom units
• Side-lift stabilisers
• Container handling
• Operator included

Industries we support

• Construction
• Logistics
• Manufacturing
• Retail and signage
• Utilities

Typical applications

• Container offloading
• Construction material delivery
• Machinery relocation
• Site container placement
• Plant recovery

One vehicle instead of three

If the load sits inside the truck's lifting range and there is room to put the stabilisers down, the HIAB does the whole job alone. You pay for one vehicle and one operator rather than a lorry, a crane and the waiting time between them.

Where the load is beyond the truck's range, or where the load must go up rather than across, you want a mobile crane instead.

Where hiab and truck mounted crane hire fits

HIAB and Truck Mounted Crane Hire is not the right answer to every lifting problem, and it is worth being clear about where it fits before you book one.

The sectors that use it most here are construction, logistics, manufacturing, retail and signage and utilities. That is not a marketing list: those are the industries whose problems this machine was designed around, and it shows in how straightforward the jobs tend to be.

In practice the work divides into a handful of recurring tasks: container offloading, construction material delivery, machinery relocation, site container placement, plant recovery. If your job resembles one of those, this is almost certainly the right machine and the conversation will be short.

If it does not resemble any of them, that is worth saying when you call. It usually means either a different machine or a different approach entirely, and finding that out at the quoting stage costs nothing.

Standing position is the usual problem

A HIAB lifts to the side, so it needs to get alongside the load with the stabiliser legs down on ground that will hold. Yards tight against a boundary wall are the common failure, and a photo the day before solves it far more cheaply than a truck standing idle.

Capacity also falls as the boom extends. A HIAB is rated close in and handles considerably less at full reach.

Container and delivery work

Containers off a delivery vehicle, site offices repositioned, empties back to the depot, steel and blockwork delivered onto a plot with no crane on site. This is the daily work of these trucks across Nairobi.

Standing position is the usual problem

A HIAB lifts to the side, which means it has to get alongside the load with its stabiliser legs down on ground that will hold. Yards that are tight against a boundary wall are the common failure, and a photograph sent the day before solves it far more cheaply than a truck standing idle on the day.

Capacity also falls as the boom extends, exactly as it does on any crane. A machine rated for a load close in will handle considerably less at full reach, so where the load has to be placed matters as much as what it weighs.

What these trucks do all day

Containers off a delivery vehicle into a yard. Site offices repositioned. Empties back to the depot. Steel, blockwork and roofing delivered onto a plot with no crane on site. Generators and plant moved between branches. Broken-down machines recovered from a warehouse floor.

It is unglamorous work and it is the busiest part of the fleet, because for a large share of Nairobi jobs one vehicle doing the whole task is simply cheaper than a crane and a lorry arriving separately and waiting for each other.

What we need from you to quote

Quoting a hiab and truck mounted crane hire job accurately takes four things, and a photograph usually settles three of them at once. Send them on WhatsApp and you will normally have an answer the same day rather than after a site visit.

What the load is. Roughly what it weighs and what shape it is. A long or awkward item behaves differently from a compact one of the same mass.

Where the machine can stand. A photograph from the likely standing position. We are looking at surface, space, overhead obstructions and how the machine gets in.

How far it has to reach. The distance from the standing position to where the load lands is the number that decides the machine. A short lift close in and a long lift far out are different jobs even when the load is identical.

When you need it. Whether the window is fixed. A lift that must happen inside a shutdown or before a business opens is planned differently from one that can move by a day.

How the hire works

Hire runs by the day unless the job is short enough to price by the half day, and longer bookings are quoted at a weekly or monthly rate that works out considerably cheaper per day than repeat single bookings. If you are running a programme rather than a one-off lift, tell us the duration up front and we will price it that way.

The machine comes with its certified operator. Mobilisation to and from site is quoted separately and depends on distance and access, because a machine that drives itself costs a fraction of one that has to be transported.

We are open 24 hours, Monday to Sunday. Night and weekend work is priced as ordinary hire rather than as a premium emergency callout when it is booked in advance, which is why it pays to plan an out-of-hours lift rather than discover you need one.

Everything is confirmed in writing before the machine is dispatched: the machine, the operator, the window, the standing position and the price.

Safety, certification and what we will not do

Every machine leaves the yard load-tested and maintained on schedule, and every operator carries out a documented pre-use inspection before the first lift of the day. That inspection is not a formality: it is where a damaged sling, a hydraulic weep or a defective limit switch gets found while it is still cheap.

The operator works to the load chart for the configuration actually rigged, at the radius actually being worked. If the chart does not support the lift, the lift does not happen. That is a feature of what you are hiring rather than an obstruction, and it is worth saying plainly at the quoting stage rather than discovering it on the day.

Exclusion zones are maintained under the load throughout, and we will stop if people enter them. On sites where other trades are working through, that coordination is agreed before the first lift rather than negotiated during it.

Where a lift is complex, blind, over occupied space or involves two machines, we agree a lift plan and a signalling arrangement before anything moves, and we will ask for a banksman from your side or provide one from ours.

What goes wrong, and how to avoid it

Almost every job that goes badly does so for one of four reasons, and all four are avoidable at the enquiry stage rather than on the day.

The weight was estimated optimistically. A load described as roughly something turns out to be considerably more, and the machine that travelled cannot lift it. If you genuinely do not know, say so and we will size with margin rather than assume.

The standing position did not exist. The space that looked adequate on a plan is occupied, sloping, or over ground that will not take outrigger loads. A photograph taken from that spot resolves it before anyone travels.

Nobody checked overhead. Power lines, canopies, branches and neighbouring structures constrain the boom path far more often than people expect, and they are not visible in a plan view.

The site was not ready. The crane arrives and waits, because the fixing crew, the propping, the bearings or the access were not in place. Crane time spent waiting is the most expensive time on any site.

None of that is complicated. It is simply worth ten minutes before the booking rather than an hour of standing time afterwards.

Where we do this work in Nairobi

HIAB and Truck Mounted Crane Hire comes up constantly in Langata, where hangar and aviation facility construction and maintenance. We are on site just as often in Kibra.

The same job looks different again in South B and South C, where apartment block construction and rooftop plant. That is why we ask where the site is before we ask anything else.

We cover the whole of Nairobi. See every area we serve, or send us the location and we will confirm what the site needs.

Frequently asked questions about hiab and truck mounted crane hire