The Pettibone Super 8 is an all-terrain forklift sold under the Land Crab name. It was built by Pettibone, an American manufacturer of cranes and material handling equipment that began trading in Chicago in 1881 as Pettibone Mulliken.
Pettibone Super 8 at a glance
| Maker | Pettibone, United States |
|---|---|
| Type | all-terrain forklift |
| Model | Super 8 |
| Trade name | Land Crab |
| Founded | 1881, Chicago, Illinois, as Pettibone Mulliken |
| First president | Alfred H. Mulliken |
| Company today | Baraga, Michigan |
| Main products | cranes and other material handling equipment |
| Best-known cranes | Speed Swing line |
| Railroad work | lifting rails and moving ties |
Based on the manufacturer’s page on English Wikipedia only; no published specification for the Super 8 was available, so this page describes the machine and its maker rather than quoting figures.
History of the Pettibone Super 8
From switches to cranes
Pettibone Mulliken was founded in 1881 in Chicago, Illinois, with Alfred H. Mulliken as president. The company’s first big product was railway track and switch equipment, and by 1929 its Chicago manufacturing facilities occupied 32 acres.
The war years and after
Although primarily a maker of cranes and other material handling equipment, the company received a $3,817,844 contract for artillery material from the United States Department of War in 1940, just before American entry into the Second World War, and continued to manufacture artillery for the armed forces during the war. Today the firm is known simply as Pettibone, is based in Baraga, Michigan, and still builds cranes and material handlers, some of them sold specifically for railway use. Its best-known cranes, the Speed Swing line, are used by railroads for lifting rails and moving ties.
A forklift from a crane maker
The Super 8 sits on the material handling side of that business rather than the crane side: an all-terrain forklift of the kind sold for work away from paved yards, where a conventional warehouse forklift is out of its element. The Land Crab name is the trade name under which the model was offered.
Design and features
- All-terrain forklift: a handling machine meant for ground beyond a paved yard, where an ordinary forklift cannot go.
- Land Crab name: the trade name under which the model was sold.
- Made by a lifting specialist: Pettibone’s product range is cranes and material handling equipment, not general road vehicles.
- Railway heritage: the same maker’s cranes are used by railroads for lifting rails and moving ties.
Pettibone Super 8 versions
- Super 8: the all-terrain forklift covered on this page.
- Speed Swing: Pettibone’s best-known line of cranes, used by railroads.
- Extendo 10056: a telescopic-boom telehandler from the same maker.
- 30 Multikrane: a rough-terrain crane from the same maker.
The other Pettibone machines on this site are the Extendo 10056 telehandler and the 30 Multikrane. All of them are listed in the Pettibone collection.
Video: Pettibone Super 8 all-terrain forklift demonstration
Video by SpaceSpots on YouTube.
Sources
- Pettibone (company), English Wikipedia: history, founder, headquarters, products
