San Antonio, Texas — “It’s crunch time!,” said Steve Icke, superintendent for general contractor Bartlett-Cook. “We have a $10 million electrical, mechanical, and plumbing ADA upgrade contract at the Coke R. Stevenson Middle School. We must have it done by August in time for school opening. We recently had to set some support brackets and some 5,000-pound (2.3 mt) air handling units up on the roof of the building. The units were to be positioned about 100 ft (30.5 m) in from the edge of the roof, which required a heavy duty crane with lots of reach,” said Icke.

“So we called Howell Crane & Rigging for a machine that could handle those parameters. They sent us the Link-Belt ATC-3130 II all terrain crane with a main boom reach of 170.6 ft (52 m). Everyone concerned estimated that it would take about six hours to make all the lifts. That proved to be an over estimate. Howell’s men moved in, made the lifts, and were out of here in about half that time. The reasons for this were that Howell’s men knew what they were doing and had the right machine to do it with. That new Link-Belt ATC-3130 II is some machine. There was only negligible setup and breakdown time with a crane like this. It really did the job for us,” continued Superintendent Icke.

Dale Kotara, Howell Crane’s operator, commented that the picks were “all in a day’s work.” They required the ATC-3130’s entire 170.6 ft (52 m) main boom set at a 134-ft (41 m) radius and a boom angle of 36 degrees.

“The controls of the Link-Belt ATC-3130 II are as smooth as you could ask for with heavy picks and the visibility from the cab is such that I can easily and safely view both the ground level work and a placement area down in a hole. I can also tell you that the factory installed air conditioner makes all the difference when it gets as hot as it does here in mid-summer,” continued Kotara.

Bartlett-Cook finished their work and got the school opened on schedule. “On time and under budget” is the ultimate goal of every Howell Crane rental operation. The new Link-Belt ATC-3130 II is helping them achieve this.

Audie Howell, vice president of Howell Crane and Rigging, says, “Small wonder that there has been an almost constant demand for the rental of our new Link-Belt 3130 II all terrain crane ever since we took delivery of it. We bought the state-of-the-art machine because of its time and money savings potential.”

Howell said that the new Link-Belt cranes are “a significant improvement over the machines of a decade ago. Better engineering, better construction, heavier steel add to this. The longer boom lengths, more power, and greater lifting capacity add to improved reliability and dependability of an already proven machine performance.”

Frank Howell founded Howell Crane and Rigging 27 years ago. Today, his son, Audie Howell is vice president and operations manager. They have 27 cranes including 10 Link-Belts. Although officially retired, Frank Howell is still the firm’s president. He keeps busy with his 1800-acre (728 h) ranch near Seguin, Texas. He also gives his son a little quiet advice now and then.