Capital City Group maintains a secure spot on the list of the largest crane rental houses in North America, compiled by American Crane and Transport magazine, placing 54th in 2015 and 44th in 2016. The rental house, founded in 1993, specializes in operated crane rentals, and President Brian Gibson credits the company’s crew of experienced operators for much of the company’s success. “We have third-generation operators working for us.” Having qualified, experienced operators is one of the factors that distinguishes Capital City, he said.
However, having a crane fleet with the right kind of cranes is also important. Capital City owns 90 cranes, with more than a third of those cranes—35, to be precise— manufactured by Link-Belt.
One of the workhorses of the fleet is the Link-Belt TCC-750 telescopic crawler crane. Because they are so versatile, Capital City owns four of these 75-ton cranes. The 750 is commonly used on job sites with tight access, where there is no room to set up or tear down a lattice boom crane, Gibson said.
In addition to its ability to access tight spaces, “The TCC-750 is quick and easy to set up at a job site. We can move it into a job site with two guys and it will take them an hour and a half, two hours at the most. It minimizes congestion on the job site, and the customer is up and running quicker.” The TCC-750 is also a good fit where customers might typically use a rough terrain crane.
The telescopic crawler crane can be used for a wide variety of applications, he added. “It’s a jack of all trades, you could say. We’ve used it to set precast wall panels, on compressor station projects and pipeline projects. We’ve also used it for steel erection on bridges and buildings, and for pile driving.” Operators can use the full-power boom option to drive pile, he noted, adding, “You can’t do that on a larger rough terrain crane.”
The machine is also user-friendly, Gibson said. “It’s an easy machine to run. Assembly and disassembly is pretty easy.”
Capital City purchased its first TCC-750 more than two years ago. “The 750s have proved to be very reliable. We simply don’t have service calls on them,” Gibson said.
The company’s most recent acquisition is a Link-Belt HTC-86110, which was added to the fleet in January. The company was expanding its fleet and chose the Link-Belt telescopic truck crane over competing cranes made by Terex and Grove because of the ease of transport and greater capacity the 86110 offered.
The ability to move the crane without restrictions is an important feature for Capital City. “It seems like we do something different with it every day—from setting steel and precast to taxi-crane work—thanks to the crane’s versatility and ability to travel 24 hours a day. We can take it from branch to branch, leave early and get to the job site to meet the customer’s schedule,” Gibson said.
The 86110 also offers better capacities than other cranes in its class, including more main boom. It really competes with 120-ton cranes, allowing Capital City to use it for higher capacity work and still have the ability to travel freely, Gibson observed.
Link-Belt incorporated many upgrades into the 86110 to make it operator friendly, including upper cameras to provide a view of winch operation and swing, backup cameras on the carrier, as well as daytime running lights, LED lighting, and illuminated compartments for night operation. Capital City’s operator for the 86110 previously ran the company’s Link-Belt HTC-8690, and he likes the easy-to-use camera system and the LED lighting for setup and teardown.
In addition to all the features Link-Belt builds into its cranes, Gibson cites another reason to purchase Link-Belt, and that’s the support provided by Columbus Equipment Company. “Most of my branches are within 45 minutes of a Columbus Equipment branch, so if we need something, we can get parts, and we can get a technician if it’s something we can’t fix ourselves simply by calling the nearest Columbus Equipment Company branch.” Capital City has offices in Columbus, Toledo, Coshocton, and Ottawa, Ohio, and Morgantown, West Virginia.
The relationship with Columbus Equipment Company dates to Capital City Crane’s inception in 1993, Gibson noted. Brian’s father, Chet, who founded the company, was also a Link-Belt customer from the start, and before that, he used Link-Belts while employed with the George Igel Company from the early 1970s.
Today, Capital City Group is run by the second generation. Brian’s brother David Gibson is the sales manager and brother-in-law Shawn Hill is the rental manager. With the unbeatable combination of experienced operators, quality equipment—including reliable, versatile Link-Belt cranes—and dependable support from Columbus Equipment Company, they’ve grown Capital City Group into one of the largest crane rental houses in the region.
For more information on the Link-Belt TCC-750 and HTC-86110 cranes, contact Columbus Equipment Company or your local Capital City Crane location today to see how these machines can add to your portfolio of lifting services offered.
