How Much Does a Crane Cost? Prices for Mobile, Truck and Tower Cranes
Key takeaways
How much does a crane cost depends on type and age: used cranes we checked asked $35,000 to $575,000, public records show crane trucks at $203,525 to $465,145, and new mobile cranes are usually quote-only.
- A 2019 crane rated for 65 tons can ask more than a 2008 crane rated for 275.
- Read two hour meters, not one.
- Every new crane on the dealer list we read said price on request.
- A tower crane brings an inspection and a load test to each site it goes up on.
A crane price means very little without a year, a tonnage, and a date attached. So how much does a crane cost once you attach them?
We pulled two kinds of records on November 1st, 2026: one crane dealer’s full inventory list, and public agencies’ purchase records, where the dollar figure goes on an agenda for anyone to read. Dealer numbers are asks. Agency numbers are what went before the board.
Paying for the machine is a separate question, and our page on crane financing covers it. We finance equipment, so weigh what we say with that in mind. For a one-week lift, you don’t need a lender. You need a rental yard.
How Much a Used Crane Costs by Type
A mobile crane carries its own power and travels to the work. All-terrain cranes run on highways and rough ground, rough-terrain cranes stay on the site, boom trucks mount on a commercial truck chassis, and crawlers ride on tracks. The tonnage in a model’s name is what it lifts in its strongest setup, close in, and it falls off with reach.
Shawmut Equipment, a crane dealer with yards in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Nova Scotia, posts its stock on one list. Most of it says price on request. These are the machines that showed a number.
| Type | Crane | Rated | Asking |
|---|---|---|---|
| All-terrain | 2019 Tadano ATF60G3 | 65 tons | $575,000 |
| All-terrain | 2008 Grove GMK5275 | 275 tons | $495,000 |
| All-terrain | 2008 Grove GMK4115 | 115 tons | $395,000 |
| Rough-terrain | 2020 Grove RT765E-2 | 65 tons | $400,000 |
| Rough-terrain | 2018 Grove RT765E-2 | 65 tons | $320,000 |
| Rough-terrain | 2013 Link-Belt RTC8080 | 80 tons | $319,000 |
| Crawler | 2007 Kobelco CK 1000-III | 100 tons | $290,000 |
| Crawler | 1981 American 9260 | 125 tons | $50,000 |
| Boom truck | 2014 National NBT30H100 | 30 tons | $225,000 |
| Boom truck | 2017 National NBT30H110-2 | 30 tons | $195,000 |
| Truck crane | 1997 Link-Belt HTC8670 | 70 tons | $95,000 |
| Truck crane | 1971 Link-Belt HC218 | 82 tons | $35,000 |
One dealer’s stock in one corner of the country isn’t a national price. Still, look at the top two rows. Eleven model years separate them, and the newer crane asks $80,000 more with less than a quarter of the rated capacity. Age beats tons.
The boom trucks run backward. The 2014 asks $30,000 more than the 2017. Check the meters. The 2014 shows 4,939 hours and 24,298 miles, while the 2017 shows about 15,805 hours and 256,302 miles.
Three model years newer. Three times the hours.
Real sale prices are harder to find. Few get published. A 2001 Manitowoc 2250 rated for 300 tons sold for $475,000 at a Ritchie Bros. sale in August 2021, five years ago now, so treat it as history. And when the Tennessee Valley Authority put a 2011 Grove GMK-5275 with 9,707 hours on GovDeals in May 2024, bidding opened at $255,000. That’s a starting bid. Not a sale. It still sits a long way under the $495,000 asked for the 2008 model above, and the space between an ask and a bid is where your negotiating happens.
Why One Model Can Ask Four Times Another
Shawmut lists two Terex BT4792 skidder cranes, both rated for 23 tons, both with a 92-foot boom. The 2012 asks $160,000. The 2010 asks $40,000.
Two model years don’t explain $120,000. The carrier might. The 2012 sits on a 2003 CAT 525B with about 2,081 hours on the crane’s engine and 10,763 on the carrier’s, while the 2010 sits on a 1993 John Deere Timberjack whose engine was replaced in 2015. Neither listing says that’s why. It’s where we’d start.
So price a used crane as two machines bolted together, then check what came with them.
- Both hour meters, upper and carrier. That $95,000 HTC8670 shows 29,182 hours and 180,395 miles, which is a very different question from its age.
- Counterweight, jib, and hookblocks. Does all of it stay with the crane?
- The last annual inspection report, since 29 CFR 1926.1412 has a qualified person inspect construction cranes at least every 12 months, with disassembly as needed to finish the job.
- Liens. Run a UCC filing search on the seller and match the serial numbers to the bill of sale, because a lender from years back may still hold a UCC-1 on the iron.
Skip that last one and the crane may not be entirely the seller’s to sell. Our used equipment financing page covers what generally gets reviewed on an older machine.
How Much a Crane Truck Costs on the Public Record
Crane trucks are the one class where we could read what buyers were charged, because cities buy them in open session. These five went through state or cooperative contracts, so they aren’t negotiated street deals, and each truck was specified for that agency’s work.
| Buyer | Truck | Date | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|
| Savannah, GA | Service body truck with crane | Nov. 2025 | $203,525 |
| Savannah, GA | 10-ton boom truck with crane | Oct. 2025 | $284,792 |
| Downey, CA | Crane truck on a Ford F-600 4×4 | Aug. 2026 | $295,751 |
| Des Moines, IA | 2026 Kenworth K370, 22-ton Manitex boom | Feb. 2025 | $348,462 |
| Fresno, CA | Kenworth T880, 26-ton crane | Dec. 2023 | $465,145 |
Fresno’s figure includes delivery and 8.35% sales tax, and the two Savannah amounts come from requests put before the council. Compare specs first. Used is a different world, as one California public utility district found out.
$35,999
plus tax for a 2011 Ford F-550 crane truck with 58,000 miles, against $172,997 for a new crane truck, in an April 2026 staff report
Source: Olivehurst Public Utility District, Used Crane Truck Purchase, 2026
Staff there had also priced adding a crane to a truck the district already owned, and that came in above $43,000, which is why the report recommends the used truck over both the retrofit and a new one.
Don’t read this as the going rate for a 22-ton boom. It’s a light truck. Light crane, too. It does show how far a low-mile used unit can sit under new, and why retrofitting isn’t automatically the cheap route.
New Crane Prices Come by Quote
Fourteen new cranes sat on Shawmut’s list when we read it, from a 9-ton Grove GCD09 carry deck to a Manitowoc MLC150-1 crawler rated for 165 tons. All 14 said price on request or price upon request. No exceptions.
You’ll see range tables online anyway. None we read names a source. We won’t repeat them. Ask the dealer for a written quote that itemizes the boom, jib, counterweight, and freight, because a new crane’s price is built from its options list, and a quote you can’t break apart is a quote you can’t compare with anything.
What a Tower Crane Adds to the Price
This is the hard one. On November 1st, the only tower-type crane with a number on Shawmut’s list was a self-erecting unit, which folds out and raises itself with far less assembly than a tower built section by section: a 2020 Potain Igo T130 rated for 8.8 tons, with a 164-foot maximum radius, at $450,000. It sits in the dealer’s Elmsdale, Nova Scotia yard and shows no currency, so ask which dollars those are.
Top-slewing tower cranes, the kind you see on high-rises? No public price we’d stand behind. The ranges we read disagree by several times over. None names a source. Get a distributor’s quote.
The purchase is only part of the bill, too. Under 29 CFR 1926.1435, each component gets inspected by a qualified person before it’s erected, and a load test follows each erection. That repeats on every site. Add the foundation, the erection crew, and the dismantle, and you’re pricing a project cost.
On a one-off building, get a rental quote with erection included first.
Rent, Rental Purchase, or Buy
Start with your lift calendar, not the sticker. Get a monthly rental quote for the same boom and counterweight. Multiply it by the months you’d honestly have work for that crane, then set the total beside the purchase price, less what you could resell it for, plus inspections, operator certification, insurance, transport, and storage. Idle cranes still cost you.
A rental purchase option sits between the two. It’s a rental in which part of what you pay can count toward buying that crane, so you can prove the work volume before you commit. Three things to read: the share of rent that gets credited, the price it’s credited against, and whether the option has to be signed when the rental starts. Some fleets require that. Ask early.
If you’re weighing a true lease against a rental buyout, our page on construction equipment leasing sets out how a lease differs.
What Buyers Ask About Crane Prices
Is there an average crane price worth using?
Not really. An average blends a 1971 truck crane asking $35,000 with a 2019 all-terrain asking $575,000, and the midpoint describes neither machine. Start from type, capacity, and year, then find two listings that match all three.
What’s a realistic floor for a used crane truck?
$35,999 plus tax is the lowest recent public record we found, for a 2011 Ford F-550 with 58,000 miles. That truck is at the small end. A heavier boom truck on the same dealer list we read asked $195,000 for a 2017 model rated for 30 tons, so decide what you need to lift before you go looking for a cheap one.
Who has to certify the operator on a crane you own?
29 CFR 1926.1427 puts that on the employer, who must make sure each operator is trained, certified or licensed, and evaluated before running covered equipment. Certificates from an accredited testing organization last five years. Equipment rated for 2,000 pounds or less falls outside this section, though other training rules still apply.
How old is too old for a used crane?
Age alone won’t tell you. The list we read had a 1960 Manitowoc 3900 rated for 100 tons asking $89,900, more than a 1969 3900B at $69,500. Maintenance records and a clean annual inspection will say more than the year, and an old crawler that passes both can still work for a living.
What happens to rent already paid if you skip the buyout?
It generally stays rent. You don’t get it back. Whether you can keep renting through the quoted term is up to the contract.
Does a private-sale crane change what a lender wants to see?
More paperwork, mostly. No dealer gathered it for you, so you’ll be the one finding the bill of sale, the serial numbers for crane and carrier, the last inspection report, and any lien on the iron. Lenders differ. Ask before a deposit moves.
Next Steps
Pick the type. Pick the tonnage. The money question gets easier after that. Ready to move on a specific crane? Start an application, or talk to our team first. You can also read how contractors fund new and used cranes, see how construction equipment lenders differ, or check excavator prices and what a forklift costs if the crane is one line on a bigger equipment list.