Lifting specialist takes on unusual heavy load

The lifting, storage and transport specialist utilised all facets of its business to move the winch from Portsmouth to Southampton for vehicle manufacturer Saab Seaeye.

The winch and ancillary equipment arrived from abroad on two lorries and was stored at the firm’s Portsmouth facility for two weeks before it was taken to Southampton, where it was loaded onto a vessel for shipment to an undisclosed location.

Paul Barber, managing director at RRS, said they used the Mega Lift gantry system, which it bought two years ago from Claxton International.

The Mega Lift was set up with four legs and two overhead beams. Paul said conventional gantries aren’t available for weights up to 40 tonne. It takes an hour or so to set up the Mega Lift but once rigged the lift took just minutes,’ he said.

The winch, which measured 4.5m by 3.5m by 3.5m, was unloaded and moved to outdoor storage, while an 18t Valla mini-crane from the RRS fleet was mobilised to unload the other equipment, including several smaller winches and cable drums.