Two businesses with the same load can need completely different equipment. One installs an overhead crane on a runway and never moves it again. The other buys an A-frame gantry, wheels it to wherever the work is, and takes it along when the lease ends. The load is not what separates them. The building, the lease and the way the work moves are.
What Each One Actually Does
An A-frame gantry crane kit stands on its own legs. Nothing is bolted to the building, nothing is cast into the floor, and the frame can be repositioned or dismantled. A chain block, lever hoist or electric hoist runs on a trolley along the top beam, giving lift and a short traverse within the frame.
An overhead travelling crane runs on rails carried by the building structure or on dedicated columns. It covers the full length and width of the bay it serves, and it lifts, travels and traverses under power.
The gantry lifts where it stands. The crane lifts anywhere in the bay.
When Portable Wins
You are leasing. Fixed lifting equipment is an improvement to someone else’s building. Runway steel, columns and rails have to be negotiated with the landlord, and the reinstatement clause in the lease may require you to remove them and make good at your own cost when you leave. A gantry is your asset, and it moves with you.
The building cannot carry a crane. Many older workshops, converted units, smallholding buildings and yard structures were never designed for the loads an overhead crane puts into the structure. Strengthening the building to take a runway costs more than the crane.
The work moves. Maintenance teams, plant hire operations, engine and gearbox removal, site work and outdoor yards all involve lifting in different places rather than one fixed station.
The requirement is occasional. If you lift a few times a week, a gantry and a chain block will cost a fraction of a crane installation and do the job safely.
When Fixed Wins
The lifting is constant and repetitive. A production line, machine shop or fabrication bay where lifting happens continuously needs powered travel and full coverage. Repositioning a gantry twenty times a day is not a workflow.
You need coverage, not a station. A crane serves the whole bay. A gantry serves the area inside its own frame and has to be moved to serve anywhere else.
Capacity or lift height is beyond a portable frame. Gantries are practical across a wide range, but at higher capacities and lift heights a fixed installation on a proper runway is the correct engineering answer.
You own the building. Where the premises are yours, a runway is a permanent improvement rather than a cost you write off at lease end.
Head-to-Head Comparison
| Factor | A-Frame Gantry | Overhead Crane |
|---|---|---|
| Fixed to the building | No | Yes, runway or columns required |
| Foundation required | No | Depends on the structure and design |
| Coverage | Area within the frame | Full length and width of the bay |
| Portability | Repositioned or relocated | Fixed in place |
| Suits leased premises | Yes, moves with you | Requires landlord agreement |
| Typical operation | Manual or powered hoist on a trolley | Powered lift, travel and traverse |
| Capital cost | Lower | Higher |
| Best for | Occasional or moving lifting tasks | Continuous, repetitive lifting |
| Statutory load testing | Required | Required |
Compliance Applies to Both
A common and expensive misconception is that portable equipment somehow sits outside the regulations. It does not.
Under Driven Machinery Regulation 18 of the Occupational Health and Safety Act, a lifting machine must be thoroughly examined and performance tested by a lifting machinery inspector before it is put into use, again every time it is dismantled and re-erected, and thereafter at intervals not exceeding 12 months. A gantry that is dismantled and re-erected at a new location triggers that requirement every time it moves in that way.
The user must also keep a register on the premises recording the performance tests, examinations, modifications and repairs, available to an inspector on request. Any chain slings, shackles or other tackle used with either type of equipment must be examined at intervals not exceeding three months.
Load testing and certification is not an optional extra on either option. Budget for it from the start.
A Third Option Worth Knowing
The choice is not always binary. Where a vehicle needs to drive through the lifting area, a portal or semi-portal crane, sometimes called a yard crane, straddles the space and lets the vehicle pass through. Where only one workstation needs lifting, a jib crane mounted to a column or wall covers a radius rather than a full bay at a fraction of the cost of a full crane installation.
Monorail cranes run in a straight line from one end of a workspace to another and suit narrow areas where a full bridge would not fit.
How to Decide
Map where the lifting happens. One fixed point, or several places around the site?
Count the lifts. Occasional lifting favours a gantry. Continuous lifting favours a crane.
Check who owns the building. Leased premises push strongly toward equipment you can take with you.
Work out the real hook height. Measure from the load upward, including slings and any lifting beam, rather than from the roof downward.
Confirm the structure. If a crane is the preferred answer, the building has to be able to carry it. That assessment happens before the crane is ordered, not after.
Weighing up a gantry against a crane installation?
We supply both, so the recommendation follows the application rather than the stock list. A-frame gantry kits in a range of spans and capacities, and overhead cranes from 250 kg to 100 tons in single girder, double girder, jib, portal, semi-portal and monorail configurations, with installation, commissioning and load testing handled throughout.
Talk to us about your lifting requirement
Office 011 363 0287 | Breakdowns 073 511 1363 | 24/7 line 064 543 5276 | 16 4th Avenue, Nigel, 1490
