Every aerial work platform spec sheet publishes more than one height, and the one in the product title is usually the least useful for deciding whether the machine fits your job. On our machines there are three: working height, platform height and folded height. They answer three different questions.
What each number measures
Working height. How high a person standing on the deck can reach with their hands above their head. It is the number a manufacturer can quote most generously, which is why it is the number that ends up in the title.
Platform height. How high the deck surface itself sits. This is the number you compare against a shelf, a ceiling, a roof truss or a branch.
Folded height. How tall the machine is when it is completely lowered. This is the number that decides whether it drives through your door or fits under your roof.
The gap is not a rounding error
Our mast lift is the clearest example, because we publish both figures for it: 11.2 m working height and 9.2 m platform height. Two metres separate them. Someone who needs to work at 10.5 m does not need an 11.2 m machine, they need a deck that gets them close enough to reach 10.5 m safely, and on this model the deck stops 1.3 m short of that. The extra reach is your arms and the guardrail, not the machine.
Model | Working height | Folded height | Deck size | Capacity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Mast lift | 11.2 m | 1.99 m | 0.62 × 0.87 m | 200 kg |
Crawler scissor 5 m | 5 m | 850 mm | 1,700 × 1,000 mm | 400 kg |
Crawler scissor 1.2 m | 1.2 m | 550 mm | 1,300 × 900 mm | 500 kg |
Articulated boom 5.5 m | 5.5 m | 1,550 mm | 1,200 × 800 mm | 200 kg |
These are the figures from the product pages. Platform height is published for the mast lift; for the other three it is not on the sheet, and we send it on request.
Which number answers which question
Will it get into the building?
Folded height, and then the packed dimensions if it is arriving in a crate. The mast lift folds to 1.99 m and the 1.2 m crawler to 550 mm. Measure your doorway and your lift cage against those, not against the deck size, which is a horizontal measurement and tells you nothing about clearance.
Can I reach the work?
Platform height, plus the guardrail. On the models that publish one, the guardrail is 800 mm high, so the top of the rail sits 800 mm above the deck. If you are working behind a shelf edge or against a wall, the rail is what you feel, and a deck that is too low cannot be fixed by standing on something.
Can I drive it while it is up?
That is a different set of numbers again. The mast lift publishes a travel speed of 0.5 km/h while raised, a tilt limit of X -2.5° and Y -2.5°, and 60 mm of ground clearance. Those three together are the practical limit on moving a loaded platform across a slab: 0.5 km/h is walking pace, 2.5° is less than most floors slope, and 60 mm will not roll over a cable protector or a raised threshold.
What we do not publish
For the crawler scissor range the sheet states working height only. Ask and we will send the platform height for the exact model and configuration, because it moves with the deck and guardrail option you choose. A quote that only repeats the number in the title has not answered the question.
The machines named above: mast lift, 5 m crawler scissor, 1.2 m crawler scissor, articulated boom lift. The whole range is in the store.
