IN FOCUS / FRANNA PICK AND CARRY
FRANNA FLEXIBILITY KEY TO UTILISATION A.J. Scarr has built its business on the flexibility of the Franna pick and carry. It recently completed a pool installation with a Franna AT20. A.J. SCARR CRANES OPERATES throughout the Central Coast and Newcastle regions an hour or so north of Sydney. Like many smaller crane operations Frannas are very much the ‘go to’ for the taxi hire services the business provides. Anthony Scarr started the business 13 years ago with a 20t truck mount crane. Today, he runs a 3t Maeda mini crawler, a 13t Kato city cranes, two Frannas and a 30t Kato truck mount. Glenn McAuliffe is the business manager for A.J. Scarr Cranes and has been with the business for six years. “I started out in cranes 20 years ago working with Central Coast Cranes. As most do, I began dogging and learning the cranes to eventually driving them. I left to work for Pearce Cranes and that’s where I met Anthony. We worked together there for a few years and then Anthony started out on his own and I went to Western Australia. “In WA I worked with Boom Logistics and Norwest Crane Hire mainly up in the Pilbara region. I was operating cranes, everything from Frannas through to 350t capacity all terrains. The work was varied but mainly involved heavy lifting and a range of different types of lifts relating to the mining industry,” he said. McAuliffe goes on to discuss the role the Frannas have in the fleet and the flexibility they offer. “Franna is a purpose-built machine and a lot of the work we do with a Franna, no other machine will do. This www.cranesandlifting.com.au
The Franna AT20 is ideal for projects with tight tolerances.
means the utilisation of Frannas is terrific which is great from a business point of view. To get the best out of a Franna, you need to know how to drive it, and for the guys who have spent time behind the wheel and know what they are doing, they know Frannas are great machine,” he said. “This Franna AT20 is 10 years old, and we’ve had it in the fleet for four years. It was an upgrade in terms of capacity moving from our 15t to 20t capacity. It’s been an excellent machine. It features a Mercedes Benz engine, great driveline, plenty of power and having the larger capacity it has opened up more work for us. It’s a great machine with a maximum lifting capacity of 20 tonne at a 1.4m radius and a main boom length
17.9m,” he said. Work on the Coast has remained fairly constant although COVID hasn’t helped in terms of confidence says McAuliffe. “A.J. Scarr is mainly in the taxi hire business so much of our work involves pools, trusses and we manage a fair amount of tree work with the local arborists. We’ll be dropping in five to six pools a week for various pool companies. There are some tricky ones amongst them with tight and limited access, but the Franna is perfect for this type of job,” he said. One of pool companies working with A.J. Scarr is Waterstone Constructions, a relative newcomer to the Central Coast pool scene. Ben Silver is the owner and his November 2021 CAL / 45
