The hunt for the world’s largest boom lift has led to a surprisingly large number of manufacturers pushing their ambitious ideas, manufacturing acumen and operations teams to literal greater heights.
Part of this is for practical reasons; the higher a telescopic lift can go under its own power, the more versatile it is for a wide variety of tasks in a range of industrial sectors from heavy industry maintenance to forestry.
Another part of it is a matter of pride and ambition; inventive engineers want to break the limits of what is possible with the added benefit of immortalising themselves in the record books in the process. A business marketing itself as making the largest lift in the world gains some degree of clout.
In 2020 alone, a year when many manufacturers slowed down their operations in the name of public health, Snorkel announced that their “mega boom” 2100SJ telescopic lift reached a maximum height of 64m.
This smashed the previous record held by the JLG 1850SJ, which stood at 62.7m and had been the record for at least six years, with some people questioning how much further a telescopic arm could be pushed.
With Snorkel’s announcement coming within weeks of a near-total shutdown of manufacturing, it looked like this record would stand for a considerable period of time.
It would be beaten within the year, to the shock of everyone in the heavy equipment industry.
In December 2020, Zoomlion, a Chinese heavy equipment manufacturer that has chased other records in the construction, created a self-propelled boom that is designed to climb up to 66m and due to its design can reach a working height of 67.7m.
The Zoomlion ZT68J managed to push the envelope further for what is possible with a telescopic lift, reaching a height taller than the Kimpton Clocktower in Manchester.
