Canadian crane company credits Liebherr cranes for quality work

The LaPrairie group of companies, based in Western Canada, recently invested in nine new Liebherr machines. For their businesses in the construction and mining industry as well as in the oil and gas sector, especially, the new Rough Terrain cranes are important add-ons to the fleet. The LRT cranes are used in long-term jobs to free the existing fleet of All-Terrain cranes for their typical taxi crane jobs. Rough Terrain cranes are usually requested by LaPrairie's customers without crane drivers. Therefore the ease-of-use and safety of crane and operator were some of the decisive arguments during the selection process for the Rough Terrain Cranes.

"We chose the new cranes based on Liebherr's superior factory products and long term value and utilization that we have experienced in their All-Terrain Cranes and the LTR fleet that we have in use," explains Reagan LaPrairie, director and vice president operations of LaPrairie, "Liebherr provides the best product when it comes to cranes and how they keep working in extreme cold operating conditions."

During the decision to order the four new rough terrain cranes, the Liebherr LRT 1090-2.1 type was carefully selected. Usually rough terrain cranes are requested by end customers without crane operators; therefore, the safety aspect was an important criteria. Providing VarioBase, the variable outrigger system as a standard, the camera monitoring system and the large cab size as well as the deck layout, the Liebherr LRT cranes are the safest in the class according to the manufacturer, and were therefore chosen by LaPrairie. Another crucial point was the supply of spare parts as well as the customer service. "For the North American market I think the combination of the Cummins engine and the drive train is the best combination - also for service, parts availability and reliability in the long term," adds Reagan LaPrairie.

The LRT cranes were first presented to the North American market by Liebherr at Conexpo 2017 in Las Vegas. With more than 100 units sold within just one year after the start of delivery, the rough terrain cranes are being used worldwide in different industries. "It was an easy transition from our current fleet of Liebherr's All-Terrain cranes when it came to training our people on the new LRT cranes due to the similar systems on their AT cranes," observed Reagan LaPrairie. "The features on these cranes are really operator friendly. So the operators are happy, the mechanics are happy and our customers are happy - that's why I have to say the LRT is clearly a winner in my books. I think Liebherr really got it right on these RT cranes - they were listening to the crane guys when they designed it."

LaPrairie crane is a 100 percent Canadian family owned company and is part of the LaPrairie group of Companies with over 500 employees with divisions in Western Canada and the northern US. Providing a crane fleet of 95 machines, two-thirds of them from Liebherr, LaPrairie has a clear safety first-service and focus on always treating all their employees well and making them feel like they are part of LaPrairie's family - as they all work together in the same direction.