In december of 2008 this special Terberg FM1950 was delivered to Freddy Pertien in Slochteren (NL). The company Pertien is specialized for lifting jobs at very tight locations, ar as the slogan of the company says "The square meter specialist". These jobs are mostly carried out in the Benelux, Germany and France.

The truck is a Terberg FM1950, this is a strong 8x6 chassis of which the front and both rear axles are driven. The front axle, the 2nd front axle and the rear axle all steer. A Terberg is built out of parts of several manufacturers, the most recognizable is of course the cab of the Volvo FM series. The engine is also from Volvo, it's the 13 liter version with 440 hp. Behind that hangs a ZF gearbox. The axles are from AxleTech, the new name for the old Rockwell. The chassis is made by Terberg. The legally allowed weight of this truck in Holland is 44,5 tonnes (11,5 - 10 - 11,5 - 11,5 ton) and technically it's 55 tonnes!

At the rear of the truck they mounted a Palfinger PK150002 in G version, a 8x hydraulically extending crane with an outreach of 18,8 meters. It still lifts 4,8 tonnes at that distance.

This 150002 is again a version with the cranes rotating bearing on top of the outriggers, a version that was developed especially for the Netherlands back then. Already 4 of these units have been sold so far. This way the crane-foot can be mounted as close as possible to the rear of the truck.

The truck has been kept as short as possible. This is necessary for optimum manoeuvrability, the steering axles are also helping here. The crane has been rear mounted so that heavy loads can be lifted directly behind the truck, a testload of 45 tonnes is the biggest load lifted so far! Therefore they use a special hook mounting. The hook is connected to the telescopic boom with a load devider, this connects to both availble connections in stead of only to 1 single connector.

Behind the cab we see a large pile of ballast, it is there to keep the truck stabil during heavy lifts behind the truck. This way this 45 tonnes can be lifted behind the truck without the need for extra outriggers at the rear, the normal 4 outriggers are enough.

As mentioned before, Pertien is the lifting specialist for tight locations. As a lot of these locations have doors or passages (pipe racks for example) that are lower than 4 meters, they had to come up with a special solution. This was found by making the crane tiltable.

A big hydraulic cylinder lies at the chassis and tips the crane over to the rear and also pulls it back into place. Now the system has been build, it looks rather simple, but is complexer than it looks. The engineers of VDA Konstruktie, the installer of the crane, had to find a way to get the entire crane low enough. Also, back in working position, the crane has to be firmly connected to the rest of the crane chassis.

When the crane is tilted (and the upper block of ballast is gone) the height of the truck is 3 meters. The ballast at the front of the truck is necessary now to keep the truck balanced, there is a lot of weight hanging behind the truck! The Terberg has complete air-suspension and automatically sinks down when the crane is used. The cab is the car-transporter version, this one is lower than the normal FM version.

The Terberg has been registered as a mobile machine, this way it is not allowed to carry any load. The adavantage of this way of registation are the allowed axle loads, 12 tonnes per axle in this case. The truck weighs, as pictured here with ballast, about 48 tonnes. This of course also gives good stability for lifting.

Here the crane was set up. The jib of the crane lies at this of the chassis. It is a PJ170E that extends 6x and gives the crane an outreach of 31,8 meters. The jib has the Dual Power System (DPS), this way the jib has more capacity when the last telescopic part of the main crane is not extended. A box for chains is mounted between the rear axles, this box can be pulled outwards. The space between the other axles was filled with a dieseltank and a toolbox with a built-in stairs to get to the jib.

Here the outrigger plates are layed out. These plates are stored in the rack at this side of the chassis, on top of the toolbox. In front of this toolbox they installed a power unit that runs at 380 volts so that the crane be used without a running truck engine. This is necessary for lifting inside of buildings of certain industries (especially foodindustry).

Here the crane is extending. The crane was painted in a nice green/white color scheme. A winch is mounted underneath the telescopic boom.

And here it is at full lifting height. The jib will be used often to install windows into buildings. The crane then provides the height and the jib horizontally installes the window.

Here we see the negative angle of the jib. This is especially important when the crane has to lift something underneath obstacles. The telescopic boom can also have a negative angle to the main boom, this way it can even lift under very low obstacles.

Here another view on this side of the truck. The power unit is standing over the 2nd front axle, where the small panel can be seen. The 380 volt connection is hidden behind a small door beside the Ad-Blue tank. On top of the power unit stands the big oil tank. The oilcoolers are mounted behind the power unit, not visible here. The crane is already folding together here. The jib has the special heavy lift hook. It can be seen above the linkage, the black bar. This can lift up to 12 tonnes.

The idea for a tiltable crane was first used on this Ginaf several years ago, it is also owned by Pertien. The base is a Ginaf M3333-S, a 6x6 with a steering rear axle. With some modifications Ginaf managed to get the cab mounted as low as on a normal 6x4 unit. Also the rear axle steering was changed to enable a crab-steering mode, with the middle axle lifted.

The crane on this chassis is a Hiab 870. It has 6 outriggers, 2 at the crane, 2 at the rear and 2 cross legs to the front. The crane can tip to the rear, over the flatbed. This way the truck gets a height of 3 meter. This Hiab has done enough work and will be replaced by a new crane, again on this truckframe with the tipping mechanism.

Many thanks to the company Pertien for the photo-allowance and the personel for the demonstration