Crane hire in Johannesburg
Last updated
Mobile crane hire prices in Johannesburg
Every crane comes with a certified operator and a current load-test certificate. Prices are per day, excluding VAT.
| Crane | Lifts at 10 m | Lifts at 20 m | Per day |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20–25 t mobile crane | 7.8 t | 2.15 t | about R4,500 |
| 40 t mobile crane | 9.1 t | 3.0 t | about R7,600 |
| 80–90 t mobile crane | 24.7 t | 9.9 t | about R22,000 |
| 8–10 t crane truck (lifts and delivers) | about 2.9 t | out of reach | R2,500–R5,200 |
Johannesburg is one of the main centres we send machines from. The mobile crane drives to site, so travel is small and confirmed on WhatsApp with your price. Rigger, road permit and traffic-control costs, if your lift needs them, are separate lines. How the total is built: mobile crane hire rates.
Get a Johannesburg crane price on WhatsAppThe lifts Johannesburg hires cranes for
Inner city: CBD, Braamfontein and Doornfontein
Building conversions, rooftop plant, aircon condensers, generators and water tanks going onto roofs, and steel for new floors on old buildings. Stands run to the boundary, so the crane usually stands in the street, which brings in the JRA's approval and traffic control. The lift is often over a parapet several storeys up: height and radius together decide the size, so we size it from the building height and the distance from the kerb.
Sandton and Midrand towers
High-rise sites in Sandton and the offices and warehouses along the N1 through Midrand. Tower cranes do the daily lifting on the tallest sites, but a mobile crane assembles each top-slewing tower crane, section by section, and takes it down at the end. Mobile cranes also lift rooftop plant, glazing stillages, steel and precast where the tower crane can't reach or has gone. Warehouse portal frames, with the heaviest members at the longest radius, are usually 40 t or 80–90 t work.
East Rand industry
Ekurhuleni describes itself as historically the manufacturing capital of the Southern Hemisphere, with industry around OR Tambo in Jet Park, Isando and Spartan, and heavy industry in Germiston's Wadeville. Crane work there is machinery installs and moves, transformers, steel tanks, silos and roof steel on factories. These sites are in Ekurhuleni, not Johannesburg, so street permissions go through that municipality. Germiston is about 12 km from Boksburg by road, inside our normal delivery area. The mobile crane drives to site, so travel is small and confirmed on WhatsApp with your price.
Homes and small businesses
Roof trusses across the northern suburbs, pool equipment and precast over houses into back gardens, plastic water tanks onto stands, generators and containers. Most of these are 20–25 t lifts.
Ground, storms and access in Johannesburg
- Granite soils in the north: much of northern Johannesburg sits on residual granite soil that can collapse when wet and loaded. University of Pretoria research names it as a hazard in the city's expanding north. On a 25 t crane one outrigger can carry up to 26.9 t, so after rain we set the outriggers on larger mats and keep them off new backfill, trenches and soakaways.
- Mine land and fill in the south: Johannesburg south and parts of the East Rand are old mine ground and industrial fill. Expect rubble in the first metre; mats spread the load, and doubtful ground gets checked before the crane sets up.
- The ridges: Parktown, Northcliff and the other quartzite ridges mean steep driveways. A crane must set up level on its outriggers, so we pick the flattest spot, usually in the street.
- Summer storms: the rain falls between October and March (South African Weather Service), mostly in short, heavy thunderstorms. Lifting stops in lightning and strong gusts, so book summer lifts for the morning and leave room in the day.
- Power lines: suburban streets carry overhead lines. Nobody may come inside a line's safety clearance with the crane or load without permission from the utility that runs it (Electrical Machinery Regulations, reg 19(5)), so arrange a switch-off or written clearance first.
Crane sizes most hired in Johannesburg
- 20–25 t (Tadano GR-250N or similar): trusses, tanks, aircon units, generators, containers and lifts over houses. It weighs about 25.6 t on two axles and needs 6.6 m of width on full outriggers.
- 40 t (Liebherr LTM 1040-2.1 or similar): loads of a few tonnes at 15–20 m, warehouse steel, and inner-city lifts over parapets from the street.
- 80–90 t (Liebherr LTM 1090-4.2 or similar): heavy factory machinery on the East Rand, big tanks, tower crane parts and long reaches over buildings. A counterweight truck follows it for full capacity.
Not sure? Send the weight, the radius and the height and we size the crane. Load charts at every radius are on mobile crane hire, and every machine we hire in the city is on plant hire in Johannesburg. Further out we also cover crane hire in Pretoria and crane hire in Witbank; to the west, Carletonville is about 82 km from Johannesburg by road. Transport for a mobile crane there and back usually comes to R7,060–R8,520, shown as its own line on your quote.
WhatsApp us your Johannesburg liftQuestions people ask
Do I need permission to put a crane in a Johannesburg street?
Yes. Pavements, verges and streets are road reserve, and in Johannesburg work there is controlled by the Johannesburg Roads Agency (JRA). If the crane or its outriggers will stand in the road or on the pavement, get the JRA's approval and arrange traffic control before lift day. We give you the crane's footprint for the application: about 6.6 m wide on full outriggers for a 25 t crane.
How much is a crane per hour in Johannesburg?
Mobile cranes are priced by the day or as a minimum charge for a short lift, because set-up takes the same time whether you lift once or all day. For a light load near the street, an 8–10 t crane truck is about R1,000 an hour with operator; see crane truck hire in Johannesburg.
Can a crane lift over my house into the back garden?
Often, yes. A 25 t crane lifts 2.15 t at 20 m and a 40 t crane 3.0 t at 20 m, measured from the centre of the crane, so a pool filter, tank or precast item can usually go over a single-storey house from the street. Send the weight, a photo and the distance from the kerb to the drop point.
Related
Sources we checked
- Johannesburg Roads Agency, Wayleaves
- University of Pretoria, Collapse of residual Archaean granitic soils in South Africa
- South African Weather Service, What kind of droughts does South Africa experience? (summer rainfall season)
- City of Ekurhuleni, A city to live, play and invest
- Tadano GR-250N 25 t crane specifications and load chart
- Liebherr LTM 1040-2.1 technical data
- Liebherr LTM 1090-4.2 technical data
- Electrical Machinery Regulations, 2011 (GN R.250), regulation 19: overhead power lines
Need a mobile crane in Johannesburg?
WhatsApp us the job, the town and the dates. We confirm the machine, the start date and the price in writing before the machine moves.
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