Has anyone had any experience with the A770? I unload B-trains 6 or more times a year with 10ft drilling rods etc. and each weigh upto 1700lbs. I need to lift two at a time - so lifting 3400lbs. I then have to load these onto smaller trailers etc or store under a shelter untill such time. I am looking for a machine that has a good record and waranty and is not a zoom boom or forklift. I need a machine that can do other things such as articulate, clear smow from a couple of acres, etc. Will this machine do the trick? In the specs it says it has a 33 inch reach at full height. If I had 4ft forks on it does that mean the forks would reach out almost 7 feet from the farthest point of the machine?
When looking at the lift capacity of a machine take note of where the rating is determined. For example different mfgs will give a lift rating at the lift pins, or alternatively at some distance forward from the lift pins. Also, the max lift may be different at different heights. Sooo, if you need to lift 3400 lbs be sure to add in the bucket/forks etc. then adjust for the distance forward of the lift point in the spec then be sure to add a bit on top of that so that you are not at the scary edge of a machines capability.
As noted earlier, 3400 lbs at the pins (or attachment plate) is different than 3400 lbs at the end of 4 foot tines. If you need the reach (i.e. to reach to the middle of a truck bed or rail car) then be sure to size the machine up.
Alternatively you could build a jib crane or an overhead crane to unload the load to the ground. Then come in with a smaller machine than what would have otherwise been needed to pick up the load up close. This was handy for us because then we could unload a truck "on demand" even though our lift was on another task. Essentially we ended up with one "fixed" and one "mobile" lift device.
Another consideration might be a need to support the load at a wider space than the fork tines will do. For our product we needed a cradle (a spanner) to get the lift points further apart to avoid a kink in the middle of the bundle. This requirement added to the max height requirement when unloading from a truck.
I just looked up what a B-Train is - essentially a double tractor trailer, if I got it right. If you are unloading a full B-Train then it seems that you will have quite a bit of product to handle. We used to unload a single truck with a forklift and store the product outside. The product was of different dimensions so when we reshipped it we needed to select the right stuff. We ended up with about 800+ feet lengthwise of storage space so that we could put different product side by side instead of front to back. Invariably the stuff we needed would be behind the different stuff in the front. The switch to an overhead crane with A frame shelving allowed us to store the different product sizes in their own space and access any one at any time without moving something else first. This was a great time saver and I think it was safer also. It helped being indoors too. I hated shoveling snow off product to find out what size it was.
Maybe the cost of an overhead crane under cover could be offset by a less expensive utility machine?
I know I didn't answer your question about the A770 but maybe there is another answer hidden in here
