Lee Lifting took delivery of a 150-tonne class LTM 1150-5.3 in February and has now added a 60-tonne LTM 1060-3.1 with and 90-tonne LTM 1090-4.2. The cranes are fitted with VarioBase, second winch and remote-control option. The 90-tonne model also comes with Varioballast.
The three-axle LTM 1060 has a six-section 48-metre main boom topped by a 9.5-16 metre bi-fold lattice swingaway fly jib to offer a maximum tip height of 67.5 metres. This machine is expected to be working mostly on construction sites where its size makes it ideal for use by maintenance contractors.
The LTM 1090, on the other hand, (60-metre main boom and near 80-metre max tip height) is expected to be busy in Lee Lifting’s particular niche market of providing lifting services to the film industry. For Lee Lifting the major selling point of the LTM 1090 is how narrow it is compared to its rivals which makes it useful on restricted access film sets.
Founder Lee Whitmore started his business in the 1980s, with his wife Kath, working closely with stunt teams in the film and television industry. During his career he worked behind the scenes on many of Britain’s biggest movies, from James Bond (15 of them) to Harry Potter. Lee Whitmore made Quidditch possible. You can see a full list of Lee Lifting’s film credits on the company’s website.
Twenty years ago his favourite cranes were Japanese Kato truck cranes for the smoothness of their controls. Lee Whitmore retired from the business in January 2018 (he is now 71) and the company is in the hands of the next generation. Liebherr appears to be the brand of choice these days.
Lee Lifting director Jody Whitmore said: “It’s the overall quality and servicing of the machines that brings us back to Liebherr each time we are in the market for something new. It’s also a real advantage when you have multiple machines from the same manufacturer as it means that our operators can move across machines with the same operating system. It’s for these reasons that we’ve just placed an order for a LTM 1230, due for delivery in early 2023. We can’t wait!”
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