What wind speed is too much for a tower crane?

It depends on the model and on what is being done. The limit for erecting, climbing or dismantling is significantly lower than the limit the crane works to in service, and both come from the manufacturer manual for that machine.

Can a tower crane be erected in high wind?

No. Erecting, climbing and dismantling have their own lower wind limit because the structure is incomplete and sections are suspended. The forecast should be checked against that figure before the work is mobilised.

What does a tower crane do when it is out of service?

It is left as the manual requires, normally with the jib free to weathervane so the crane turns into the wind rather than resisting it.

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Tower crane wind limits

A tower crane does not have one wind limit. It has at least three, they are different numbers, and the one that catches people out is the lowest.

Three different questions

Working. The wind the machine may lift in, from the manual for that model.
Erecting, climbing and dismantling. A considerably lower figure, because the structure is not complete and sections are hanging in the air.
Out of service. What the crane must be left in when nobody is on it — jib free to weathervane, and the machine set up as the manual requires.

The erecting limit is the one that gets misread. People quote the working figure because it is the one they know, then plan a lift around it. On our own machines the limit for erecting, climbing and dismantling is well under the figure they work to in service, and the job sheet carries the erecting figure rather than the working one for exactly that reason.

Where the number comes from

The manufacturer's manual for that specific model. Not the standard, not a rule of thumb, and not the other crane in the yard — two machines from the same maker will not share a figure. If somebody quotes you a wind limit without naming the model, they are guessing.

What to do with the forecast

Check it against the erecting limit before anything leaves the yard, not on the morning. A lift that has to be stopped halfway because the wind came up is worse than one that was never started, and mobilising a mobile crane twice costs more than waiting a day.

Related guides

Notice of Project for a tower crane in BC — what has to exist before the first section leaves the yard.
Tower crane inspection requirements in BC — which sections of the Regulation apply, and who is allowed to do the work.
All of our tower crane guides — inspection, maintenance and paperwork in British Columbia.

We run 265 of these requirements on our own cranes

Every machine comes with its inspection and service record kept against it, and we send the certificates the day you ask. If you need a crane, or a hand with the paperwork on one you already have, get in touch.

Talk to us