Crane, boom & bucket truck repair in Tacoma, WA

A boom truck is two machines bolted together, and they fail in completely different ways. Underneath is a commercial truck with an engine, air brakes and a DOT sticker. On top is a hydraulic machine that lifts loads over people's heads. Most shops are comfortable with one half and guess at the other.

What we work on

• Boom trucks and telescoping cranes on a commercial chassis.
• Knuckle booms and articulating loader cranes.
• Bucket trucks and aerial lifts — utility, tree service, sign and glass work.
• Digger derricks and line-construction equipment.
• Service and mechanic trucks with a deck crane, plus the compressor, welder and tool circuits that live on the same body.

Hydraulics, which is most of what goes wrong up top

Everything above the frame runs on oil, and oil systems fail in an order you can almost predict. Hoses chafe and burst where nobody routed them properly. Cylinders weep at the rod seal, then drift, then will not hold. Control valves stick and get sloppy. The PTO and pump drive wear or lose engagement, and the whole machine gets slow before it gets dead.

We handle hoses and fittings made up on site, cylinder reseal and replacement, valve and control work, PTO and pump drive repair, filtration and oil condition, and the leaks that have been dripping on your yard for a season. If a boom is slow, drifting or jerky, the fault is usually pressure, flow or a worn cylinder rather than anything structural — and telling those apart before anything is opened is the job.

Outriggers, and why they matter more than the boom

Outriggers are the least glamorous and most important part of a crane truck. Cylinders that drift let the machine settle under load. Pads that are cracked or missing put the whole weight on a corner. Pins, bushings and slide wear make a leg that will not deploy square. Locks and interlocks that no longer work take away the one thing standing between a bad setup and a bad day.

We repair and reseal outrigger cylinders, replace pads, pins and bushings, and get the deploy-and-stow sequence working the way it was built to.

Rotation, turret and structure

Slew and rotation problems, worn turret bearings and bolts that have loosened over years of cycles show up first as a boom that swings roughly or has play at height. Cracks appear at loading points, gussets and mounting plates — on the crane and on the frame it is bolted to. That is welding and fabrication work and we would rather do it on a lift with the machine unloaded than patch it in a yard.

The truck underneath, which still has to pass an inspection

A crane truck spends its life heavy, and the chassis knows it. Brakes and air systems, suspension, tires, electrical and charging, engine and aftertreatment, and annual DOT inspections are all ordinary work here. Short heavy runs with a lot of idle time also make DPF and DEF problems common on machines with very few miles on them — that is duty cycle rather than a defect, and it is manageable once somebody explains it.

Where we stop, and who to call instead

We are a truck and equipment shop. We repair the machine — hydraulics, structure, chassis and the systems that move it. We are not a crane certification body, and we will not pretend otherwise:

• Annual certified crane inspection and load testing belong with a qualified crane inspector.
• Dielectric testing of an insulated aerial lift belongs with a lab set up for it.
• Load-moment and anti-two-block system certification is the manufacturer's or a certified technician's work.

What we will do is get the machine into the condition where that inspection passes — which is usually leaks, outriggers, pins, cracks and a chassis that would have failed on its own merits.

Do you come out to a job site?

Yes, out to roughly 50 miles from Tacoma. Hoses, leaks, electrical, batteries and a lot of hydraulic work happens where the machine sits — see mobile service and the service area page. Tell us what the machine is and what it is doing, and be honest about the ground and the space: some repairs should not be done on a slope with a boom over them.

My boom is slow or drifting. Is that a cylinder?

Sometimes. It is just as often the pump, a valve, oil condition or a pressure setting, and replacing a cylinder that was fine is an expensive way to find that out. We test before anything is opened.

Can you get my bucket truck through its inspection?

We can fix everything that would fail it on the mechanical and chassis side and tell you plainly what is left. The certification itself has to come from a qualified inspector — and if you do not have one, say so and we will point you at someone rather than leave you guessing.

Do you work on the truck side as well as the crane?

Both, in the same visit, which is the whole point of bringing it here. Most crane owners run two vendors for one machine and pay twice in downtime.

Related services

Everything below is available on the road where it can be, and in the Tacoma bay where it needs a lift. Same techs either way.