IN Brief:
- Forsyth of Denny has taken Scotland's first LTM 1300-6.4, adding another 300-tonne Liebherr with a 90-metre main boom.
- The six-axle crane can carry its complete 90-metre telescopic boom while maintaining a 12-tonne axle load.
- LICCON3, VarioBase Plus, VarioBallast, and wind-specific load charts extend control and setup options on constrained lifts.
Forsyth of Denny has taken delivery of Scotland’s first Liebherr LTM 1300-6.4, adding another 300-tonne all-terrain crane with a 90-metre telescopic boom to its fleet. The machine is being targeted at renewable-energy, infrastructure, tower-crane erection, and other high-reach lifting work.
The new crane follows Forsyth’s purchase of an LTM 1300-6.3 in 2024. Both provide 300-tonne maximum capacity and long main booms, while the newer LTM 1300-6.4 introduces Liebherr’s LICCON3 control platform and the latest version of the manufacturer’s six-axle carrier design.
Liebherr gives the model a maximum telescopic-boom length of 90 metres, maximum hoist height of 120 metres, and maximum working radius of 94 metres. The complete 90-metre boom can be carried on the carrier while maintaining a 12-tonne axle load.
That transport configuration is important because crane productivity depends on considerably more than maximum lifting capacity. Additional boom sections, ballast, escorts, support vehicles, assembly time, road restrictions, and the space available for rigging can all determine whether a particular machine is practical for a site.
Carrying the full telescopic boom reduces some of that preparation on high-reach work. Liebherr lists tower-crane erection, antenna installation, and wind-turbine maintenance among the applications suited to the model, where long reach may be more important than the very highest capacities available from larger lattice-boom cranes.
Forsyth director Mark Syme said the company’s earlier LTM 1300-6.3 had performed strongly and that adding another crane with a 90-metre boom suited its workload, particularly across renewable projects.
The new machine uses an eight-section telescopic boom and can be fitted with lattice extensions where the main boom cannot provide sufficient height or radius. Liebherr lists a maximum lattice-jib length of 43 metres, widening the operating envelope for selected projects at the cost of additional transport and rigging.
LICCON3 provides the control architecture. Liebherr says the system adds a faster data bus, increased storage capacity, and more computing power while supporting future telematics and fleet-management functions.
Those digital functions are relevant to a crane-hire business because high-value plant moves constantly between sites. Utilisation, fault diagnosis, maintenance planning, and operating data all affect whether a machine is earning revenue or sitting unavailable in the depot.
The LTM 1300-6.4 also carries VarioBase Plus, allowing the crane to operate with different outrigger extensions and use the actual support geometry when calculating available capacity. That gives lift planners more options where fully extending every outrigger is impossible because of buildings, carriageways, excavation edges, or neighbouring work.
VarioBallast provides a similar degree of flexibility at the rear of the crane by allowing different counterweight radii. Reducing the radius can help on constrained sites, while extending it can increase lifting performance where sufficient space is available.
Neither system replaces engineered lift planning. Ground-bearing pressure, outrigger reactions, radius, ballast, wind, slew restrictions, exclusion zones, temporary works, and proximity to structures still determine whether a proposed setup is suitable.
Variable systems are valuable because they give planners more configurations between the ideal fully extended setup and a site where space is heavily restricted. That flexibility can be particularly useful on city-centre jobs or infrastructure schemes where the crane has to share a limited footprint with traffic management, construction compounds, or other trades.
Wind performance is relevant to Forsyth’s renewable workload. Liebherr provides load charts covering different maximum wind speeds up to 15.6 metres per second, allowing suitable configurations to be planned against defined operating limits.
Wind-turbine maintenance remains heavily dependent on weather, and no load chart can remove that constraint, but additional defined configurations can increase the number of conditions in which a particular lift remains permissible.
The LTM 1300-6.4 forms part of a wider fleet investment programme involving four Liebherr cranes. Forsyth has already received an LTM 1060-3.1 and expects a second, alongside an LTM 1110-5.2, expanding capacity across several crane classes rather than concentrating the investment in one flagship machine.
For clients, the practical benefit is availability. A lift can become programme-critical when it requires a particular combination of capacity, reach, roadability, and site footprint. A second long-boom 300-tonner gives Forsyth more flexibility when one machine is committed to an extended infrastructure or renewable programme.
The purchase also reflects a wider direction in mobile-crane design. Manufacturers are pushing longer telescopic booms, variable outrigger systems, improved controls, and more efficient transport configurations into road-mobile machines, reducing the gap between high-capacity lifting and the time required to mobilise it.
Scotland’s first LTM 1300-6.4 gives Forsyth another high-reach machine without changing crane class or operating concept. Its commercial value will be measured by something less novel than being first: whether the 90-metre boom and roadable configuration allow the crane to complete more lifts with fewer support movements and less assembly time.
