A jib crane is only as good as what it is bolted to. Eight on-site stages, base moments and anchor loads from 0.125 to 5 tons, mast plumbing and boom alignment values, 2026 cost ranges, and the load test figures you have to hit before the crane goes into service.
A jib crane is only as good as what it is bolted to. Plan on 2 to 3 working days for a pillar jib on a sound existing slab, 1 to 2 days for a wall-mounted unit, and 5 to 10 days when a new foundation has to be poured and cured. The crane itself goes up in a day. The foundation is what takes the time, and it is also what most callbacks come back to. Budget USD 800 to 3,000 for installation labour and USD 300 to 800 for the load test on a typical 0.5 to 2 ton workstation jib.
This guide covers the eight on-site stages, what the foundation actually has to carry from 0.125 to 5 tons, how the mast is plumbed and the boom set, the 2026 cost ranges, the load test values that decide when the crane can go into service, and the handover paperwork worth insisting on. It is written for plant engineers and workshop owners who hold the installation contract.
Most people picture the crane going up. That is one afternoon of the job. The rest is foundation, plumbing and alignment, and those are the parts that decide whether the boom swings level for the next fifteen years.
A pillar jib is a cantilever. All the load hangs off the side of a single mast, so the base does not just carry weight, it carries a turning moment. A wall jib hands that moment to the column or wall instead. Either way, the crane supplier's scope usually stops before the concrete and starts again once the concrete is ready.
| Stage | Typical duration | Usually done by |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Site survey: slab or column check, reach and clearance sweep, headroom and services | 0.5-1 day | Owner plus crane engineer |
| 2. Design approval: foundation size, anchor bolt layout, base moment check | 3-10 days (office) | Crane supplier engineering |
| 3. Foundation: excavate, rebar cage, anchor bolts set to template, pour concrete, cure | 3-7 days cure | Civil contractor |
| 4. Mast landed on leveling nuts, plumbed, locking nuts tightened, base plate grouted | 0.5-1 day | Installation crew |
| 5. Boom landed on the pivot pin, rotation bearing and stops fitted, boom leveled | 0.5-1 day | Installation crew |
| 6. Hoist and trolley mounted on the boom, boom end stops set and verified | 0.5-1 day | Installation crew |
| 7. Electrical: power feed, festoon or collector, pendant or remote, travel and lift limits | 1-2 days | Crew plus electrician |
| 8. Plumb re-check under load, load test, commissioning, handover records | 1 day | Commissioning engineer, third party if required |
Stages 2 and 3 sit outside the crane supplier's scope on most projects. Stage 2 is office work and costs you no site time. Stage 3 is the one that eats the calendar, because concrete is another trade with another queue, and it does not care about your production start date.
Worth saying plainly: a supplier quoting "installation and commissioning" is not always quoting all eight stages. Ask which line items are in and which are excluded, in writing, before you compare two prices.
The variable is not tonnage. It is whether the mounting surface already exists, and whether it is strong enough. A sound 200 mm slab with no services underneath makes for a short job. A slab that needs a plinth poured, or a wall that turns out to be infill brick rather than a structural column, adds days and usually money.
| Mounting type | Typical capacity | Foundation work | Site days |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wall-mounted, fixed bracket | 0.125-2 t | Column or wall check, bracket anchors only | 1-2 |
| Wall-traveling, on a wall track | 0.125-2 t | Track brackets plus wall steel check | 3-6 |
| Pillar-mounted on existing slab | 0.25-2 t | Base plate anchored with chemical or mechanical anchors | 2-3 |
| Pillar-mounted on a new foundation | 0.5-5 t | Excavate, rebar, cast-in anchor bolts, pour, cure | 5-10 |
| Articulating jib, wall or pillar | 0.125-1 t | Same as the base mount it sits on | 1-3 |
The cure time is what shocks people. Concrete is normally specified at 3,000 psi, or about 20 MPa, at 28 days. A foundation can be loaded well before that if the mix is designed for it, but a week is the realistic window before you put a working jib on it. Pushing that is how you end up with cracked concrete around the anchor bolts six months later.
One more thing worth checking at the survey stage: on a pillar jib, walk the full rotation circle. The boom sweeps an arc, and that arc has to be clear of racking, pipework, door tracks and anything tall. It is a five-minute check that saves a relocation.
This is the part buyers get wrong most often. A jib crane does not push straight down. It pushes down on one side of the base and pulls up on the other, because the load hangs off the end of a boom. That couple is called the base moment, and the anchor bolts on the far side from the load are in tension, not compression.
Rough figure to carry into a conversation with your structural engineer: for a jib boom, the service moment at the base runs about 11.8 kNm per tonne-metre of rated load and radius. A 2 ton unit with a 5 m radius works out near 118 kNm. A published worked example for a 2 ton, 4 m jib puts the unfactored moment at 94.2 kNm, which lines up with the same method.
| Capacity and radius | Base moment (service, kNm) | Typical anchor bolt circle | Typical foundation block |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.5 t at 3 m | about 18 | 4 x M20 (3/4 in) | 800 x 800 x 800 mm |
| 1 t at 4 m | about 47 | 4 x M24 (1 in) | 1,000 x 1,000 x 900 mm |
| 2 t at 4 m | about 94 | 4 x M24 to M27 | 1,200 x 1,200 x 1,000 mm |
| 2 t at 5 m | about 118 | 4 x M27 | 1,300 x 1,300 x 1,000 mm |
| 3 t at 6 m | about 212 | 6 x M30 | 1,400 x 1,400 x 1,100 mm |
| 5 t at 8 m | about 472 | 8 x M33 | 1,800 x 1,800 x 1,200 mm |
Those moments are the unfactored service values. Your engineer will apply load factors on top, then check that the concrete mass, the soil bearing pressure and the bolt tension all work together. The block sizes are typical starting points, not a design.
Installation manuals for this class of crane commonly specify concrete at 20 MPa (3,000 psi) minimum and anchor bolts of at least 1 inch, or M20, diameter. Concrete floor slabs poured for forklift traffic are often fine for units up to about 0.5 t. Above 2 tons you want a purpose-built block, and you want it checked by someone who signs their name to it, particularly near slab edges, expansion joints and post-tensioned tendons. Drilling into a post-tensioned slab without a scan is one of those mistakes you only make once.
For a wall-mounted jib the numbers change completely, because the wall takes the moment instead. What matters there is whether the wall is a structural column or a panel. A reinforced concrete column or a properly designed steel column is ideal. Infill masonry is not, no matter how solid it looks. Get the column verified before you drill.
Order matters here, and getting it wrong is expensive. The mast goes up and gets plumbed before anything is grouted and before the boom is installed. Not after.
The standard sequence for a pillar jib, taken from the installation practice used across this class of machine:
Fit the first set of leveling nuts on the anchor bolts with their top face roughly 25 mm above the foundation. Land the mast over the bolts so it rests on those nuts. Fit the second set of nuts with plate washers and flat washers. Per AISC practice, oversized base plate holes get plate washers of adequate thickness, plus a standard washer, on every bolt.
Then plumb. Clamp a rigid plumb fixture to the mast cap plate or pivot pin, perpendicular to the mast. Hang a plumb line from a point on the fixture and take a reference dimension from the plumb line to the mast face near the top, then repeat at the bottom. Adjust the leveling nuts under the low side until the two readings match. Rotate the fixture 180 degrees and repeat, then work round the bolt circle in 60 degree steps if there are six bolts.
Hold the mast vertical to roughly 1 mm per metre of height. On an 8 m mast that is 8 mm at the top, and it is worth chasing, because any lean at the base is multiplied by the mast height and shows up as a boom that is visibly off level. Once the mast is plumb, tighten the locking nuts.
Do not grout at this point. Grout after the boom is on, then float the grouting compound under the base plate and re-check the locking nuts. The reason for the delay is simple: the base plate needs full contact with the foundation once finished, and you want that contact set with the machine carrying its real eccentric load, not an empty mast.
| Check | Value to hold | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Mast verticality | about 1 mm per metre of mast height | Lean is multiplied by height and throws the boom off level |
| Base plate contact | Full contact after grouting, no gaps | A rocking base plate fatigues the anchor bolts |
| Anchor bolt projection | Per the supplier's dimension sheet, typically plus or minus 5 mm | Short bolts cannot be recovered; washers bottom out |
| Nut torque | Supplier's figure for the bolt grade, recorded | Over-torque spalls the concrete cone; under-torque loosens under load |
| Boom level, no load | Level within about L/1000 | A sloping boom makes the trolley drift and the load run |
One detail people skip: the boom is not installed until the mast is properly plumbed. If the boom is already on, plumbing becomes guesswork, because you are chasing a moving reference.
With the mast plumb, the boom drops onto the pivot pin over the bearing cone. Check the boom for level within roughly L/1000. Then fit the rotation bearing and the rotation stops, and verify the swing covers the arc you actually ordered. A 270 degree boom that only sweeps 240 degrees because a stop was fitted in the wrong hole is a real and annoying find.
The trolley runs along the boom, so the boom end stops matter more than people expect. Fit them at both ends and check them by hand before the hoist goes on. Without a stop on the outboard end, the trolley simply runs off the boom the first time somebody pulls hard on a hand chain.
Deflection is the other thing to look at, and it is best checked under load. A jib boom is a cantilever, so it bends at the tip. Tip deflection for a cantilever is delta = P x L cubed divided by 3 x E x I, where P is the load at the tip, L is the boom length, E is the modulus of the steel and I is the section's moment of inertia. For a 2 ton jib with a 4 m boom built from a 300 x 250 x 8 mm box section in Q355B steel, a published worked example gives a tip deflection of 13.7 mm, or roughly L/292 at rated load.
Where the limits sit:
| Duty class (ISO 4301-1) | Structural vertical limit | Jib tip target at rated load | Typical use |
|---|---|---|---|
| A3 | L/500 | about L/200 | Occasional lifting in a workshop bay |
| A4 | L/500 | about L/200 | Maintenance and assembly bays |
| A5 | L/750 | about L/300 | Machine tending and loading stations |
| A6 to A8 | L/800 to L/1000 | L/300 or tighter | Continuous process duty |
If positioning accuracy matters, which it does the moment the jib feeds a machine tool, aim for the tighter end. A boom that sags further than the target is not a safety problem, it is a repeatability problem, and the operator will feel it every cycle.
The jib crane range SIEC builds covers 0.125 to 5 tons on jib radii of 2 to 10 m, with pillar, wall and wall-traveling mounting and rotation arcs of 180, 270 or 360 degrees.
Two numbers matter and buyers usually only ask for one. The crane price is the visible number. The installed cost is the one that lands on your budget, and on a jib crane the gap between them is wider than on most lifting equipment, because the foundation and the electrical work are separate trades.
Site conditions and installation scope routinely add 20 to 50 percent on top of a crane-only quotation. Freight, foundation, wiring and load testing are the usual culprits.
| Cost item | Typical range, USD | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Crane structure: mast, boom, bearing, rotation stops | 1,600-9,500 | Scales with capacity and jib radius, not with mounting type |
| Hoist and trolley | 600-3,500 | Chain hoist at the low end, wire rope hoist at the top |
| Freight and shipping | 300-1,500 | Boom length drives this more than weight |
| Concrete foundation, pillar models only | 1,000-5,000 | Zero for a wall jib on a verified column |
| Electrical wiring and power feed | 300-1,500 | Pendant control and simple limits sit at the low end |
| Installation labour | 800-3,000 | Two to four crew days including a mobile lift if needed |
| Load testing and commissioning | 300-800 | Higher with a third-party inspector and a written report |
Add those up for a typical workstation jib and you land between USD 3,500 and 14,500 installed for the 0.25 to 3 ton band, wall-mounted at the bottom of the range and pillar-mounted on new concrete at the top.
| Capacity | Jib radius | Wall-mounted, installed | Pillar-mounted, installed |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.25 t | 2-3 m | 2,800-4,200 | 4,200-6,500 |
| 0.5 t | 3-4 m | 3,500-5,500 | 5,500-8,500 |
| 1 t | 4-5 m | 4,200-7,000 | 7,000-11,000 |
| 2 t | 5-6 m | 5,500-9,000 | 9,000-14,500 |
| 3 t | 6-8 m | not typical | 11,000-17,000 |
| 5 t | 8-10 m | not typical | 15,000-24,000 |
The gap between wall and pillar columns is not the crane. It is the foundation and the extra crew day. If you have a verified structural column and the reach works, a wall jib is the cheaper install by a wide margin. If you do not, pillar is the honest answer and the concrete is unavoidable.
Commissioning is where a good install gets proven and a rushed one gets found out. Do not let anyone sign the handover sheet before the test load has been on the hook and the deflection has been measured.
Start with no-load. Run every motion through its full travel and full rotation arc. Check the lift limit, the travel limits, the rotation stops, the brake and the emergency stop, one at a time. Then bring in test weights.
| Test | Load | Duration | Acceptance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Operational, no load | 0 percent | One full cycle of each motion | Smooth travel, limits and brake operate, e-stop stops all motion |
| Static proof load | 125 percent of rated capacity | 10 minute hold, load at the jib tip | No permanent deformation, no cracking, no anchor movement, no base plate lift |
| Dynamic test | 110 percent of rated capacity | 3 to 5 complete cycles of lift, travel and rotation | Brakes hold, no unusual noise, no drift |
| Deflection measurement | 100 percent of rated capacity | Measure at the boom tip with the trolley at the outer end | Within the target for the duty class, about L/200 to L/300 |
| Anchor and bolt re-check | After the test loads are off | Re-torque to the supplier figure | Torque holds, base plate still in full contact |
ASME B30.11 covers underhung cranes and monorail systems, and it explicitly includes jib booms. For this class of machine the static test is normally run at 100 to 125 percent of rated capacity and the dynamic test at 110 percent, and the written record of what was tested and how is not optional. That record is also what a third-party inspector or an insurer will ask for. Replacing a wire rope or load chain is exempt from a full re-test as long as the hoist gets an operational check, but a re-sited, altered or repaired crane is not.
One practical note: weigh the test load rather than trusting the label. A stack of plates that is "about 2 tons" will not hold up in a report, and if the real figure is 2.4 tons the test is meaningless.
Ask for all ten of these in the handover pack. If the installer pushes back on any of them, that is information in itself.
| Item | What to look for |
|---|---|
| 1. Foundation design and as-built record | Block dimensions, concrete grade, rebar, anchor bolt type and grade, pour date |
| 2. Mast plumb and boom level readings | Actual numbers, not the word "checked" |
| 3. Fastener torque record | Target figure and grade for every critical bolt, with the value achieved |
| 4. Load test certificate | Test loads used and confirmed, hold times, instruments, pass or fail |
| 5. Deflection measurement at rated load | Figure in mm and as a fraction of boom length |
| 6. Electrical schematic and as-built wiring | Matching what is actually on the machine, not the generic drawing |
| 7. Limit switch and e-stop function test | Each device tested individually and recorded |
| 8. Operator and maintenance manual | In the language the operators actually read |
| 9. Maintenance and inspection schedule | Daily, monthly and annual tasks with the intervals spelled out |
| 10. Warranty terms and spare parts list | Cover period, what voids it, and which parts are consumable |
Two of these get skipped constantly: the torque record and the as-built electrical drawing. Both are cheap to produce during the install and expensive to reconstruct afterwards.
After enough installations, the same handful of problems shows up over and over. None of them are exotic.
The foundation gets rushed. Concrete is loaded before it has cured, or the mix was never designed for the anchor loading, and the result is a cracked cone around the bolts months later. There is no cheap repair for that. The anchor bolt is only as strong as the concrete it is embedded in.
The base plate does not end up in full contact. Grouting is skipped, or done before the boom is on, or done with the bolts not properly seated. The mast then rocks a little under every lift, and a small rock repeated a few hundred thousand times is what bolt fatigue looks like.
The boom goes on before the mast is plumb. Then the boom is off level, the trolley drifts, and the "fix" is to shim the boom, which hides the real problem rather than solving it.
The duty class was underspecified. Somebody buys an A3 jib for a workstation, then runs it as a machine-tending crane at 15 lifts an hour, and wonders why it needs attention in year two.
Chemical anchors get over-tightened. On a slab installation this is a common way to spall the concrete around the anchor and lose most of the holding capacity. Torque to the figure, not to feel.
And the boom end stop is missing or fitted on one side only. The trolley runs off the end of the boom, the load drops, and it is entirely avoidable.
Worth keeping in perspective: across overhead lifting equipment generally, wire rope degradation accounts for roughly 18 percent of reported incidents, according to CMAA figures. The lifting media is not the weak point on a jib, but it is the part that wears silently, which is why the daily visual check before the first shift exists.
If you want the numbers for your own layout before you buy, the jib crane product range covers 0.125 to 5 tons with the mounting options and rotation arcs laid out, and our engineers will send the anchor loads and base moments your civil contractor needs.
One to two days for a wall-mounted jib on a verified column, two to three days for a pillar jib anchored to a sound existing slab, and five to ten days when a new foundation has to be poured. On the foundation route it is the concrete cure that dominates, not the crane. The crane itself is typically up, aligned and load tested in a single working day once the base is ready.
Often yes, if the slab is sound and thick enough. Installation practice for this class of crane commonly calls for concrete at 20 MPa, or 3,000 psi, minimum, and anchor bolts of at least 1 inch diameter. Slabs poured for forklift traffic are frequently adequate for units up to about 0.5 t. Above 2 tons get a civil engineer to look, especially near slab edges, expansion joints and post-tensioned tendons. The figure they will need is the base moment, which runs about 11.8 kNm per tonne-metre of rated load and radius.
It depends on the base moment, not on the tonnage alone, but typical pillar jib foundations run 800 to 1,200 mm deep. A 1 ton jib at 4 m might use a 1,000 x 1,000 x 900 mm block; a 3 ton jib at 6 m is closer to 1,400 x 1,400 x 1,100 mm. The block is designed so its mass and the soil bearing pressure resist the overturning moment, with the anchor bolts on the far side from the load working in tension. Do not size it from a rule of thumb alone.
ASME B30.11 covers underhung cranes and monorail systems and includes jib booms. Practice for this class of machine is a static test at 100 to 125 percent of rated capacity held for around 10 minutes, plus a dynamic test at 110 percent through several complete motion cycles, with deflection measured at rated load. A written record of the test loads and the operations performed is mandatory for new, re-sited, altered, repaired or modified cranes. Replacing a wire rope or load chain is exempt as long as the hoist gets an operational check.
Wall-mounted, by a wide margin, when a verified structural column or wall is available in the right place. There is no foundation to pour and no excavation, and the installation typically finishes in one to two days against two to three for a pillar unit on an existing slab. The catch is that the wall or column has to be genuinely structural. Infill masonry will not take the moment, and finding that out after you have drilled is an expensive discovery. The jib crane product page sets out both mounting types with loads.
Installation labour runs USD 800 to 3,000, electrical work USD 300 to 1,500, and load testing with commissioning USD 300 to 800. A concrete foundation for a pillar model adds USD 1,000 to 5,000, and freight adds USD 300 to 1,500. Complete installed systems land between USD 3,500 and 14,500 for the 0.25 to 3 ton band. Site conditions and out-of-scope work routinely add another 20 to 50 percent, so ask for a scope list rather than comparing bottom-line prices.
Send us your workshop layout, slab or column details and the lift you need to make. Our engineering team will confirm the capacity and jib radius that fits, the base moment and anchor loads your civil contractor needs, the mounting type that keeps the install short, and a full installation and commissioning scope so nothing falls between contracts.
Request a Quote View Jib Crane ProductsRelated articles:
Traveling Jib Crane Installation & Commissioning 2026: Rail Alignment, Anchor Loads, Cost & Load Test Rules
How to Size a Jib Crane: Capacity, Jib Radius, Mounting Type & Duty Class Selection Guide (2026)
Jib Crane Cost & Total Cost of Ownership Guide: 2026 Pricing, Installation & 10-Year TCO Breakdown
Jib Crane Cost Comparison: Pillar-Mounted vs Wall-Mounted vs Portable (2026)
Jib Crane Standards 2026: ASME B30.11, OSHA 1910.179 & EN 14985