Boom Trucks: Innovations, Market Trends and Outlook for 2025

There are several reasons to like boom trucks featuring cranes on commercial chassis, noted Randy Robertson, director of sales at Manitex, Inc. “They offer ease of service compared to other equipment,” he said. “In addition, commercial chassis are highly maneuverable and provide operators with more space in the cab and creature comforts to reduce fatigue.”

Bob Ritter, product engineering manager for National Crane at Manitowoc, related why he thinks boom trucks have become increasingly popular among fleets doing taxi crane work. “With their ability to travel at highway speeds, boom trucks make it possible to do even more jobs in a day,” he said. “Furthermore, getting truck chassis service can be done at a greater number of locations compared to traditional truck cranes.”

Manufacturers also point to the value for operators of having boom trucks that are designed and specified by truck chassis and body, and crane manufacturers.

“Having an excellent relationship with the chassis manufacturers means we get the latest information necessary to configure our equipment,” said John Lukow, senior vice president at Load King, part of the Custom Truck One Source family of brands. “We also have direct lines of communication with engineering and service people at OEMs [Original Equipment Manufacturers] to help our customers.”

Customers utilizing boom trucks can benefit from relationships between equipment and chassis manufactures in multiple ways, noted Ryan McGiboney, cranes market manager at Altec. “Working closely with chassis OEMs helps us understand and prepare for regulatory updates that can have an impact on the performance and/or cost of a unit,” he related. “Customers can also benefit from the ability it gives us to develop chassis specs tailored to their needs.”

“A good relationship means good communication and less downtime when a boom truck needs service,” said George Schalk, vice president of sales at Smiley Lifting Solutions. “It also helps facilitate scheduling new truck orders.”

For Michael Henderly, general manager at QMC Cranes, there is also a financial benefit. “For fleets,” he stated, “being able to buy multiple cabs and chassis helps you use your buying power to get a lower cost per truck.”

Latest Technologies

That value, Henderly went on to add, has QMC Cranes focusing on offering four standard models, as well as custom boom truck models for 2025.

At Load King, noted Lukow, plans call for introducing a new boom truck in the next six months. “Boom trucks are used across more industries than can be named,” he said. “We already serve power generation and transmission, infrastructure, refuse, telecom and oil and gas operations, and our new offering will be ideal for small government, municipality and investor-owned utility fleets.”

National Crane, related Ritter, has focused on providing ergonomic features in boom trucks that improve the operator’s experience. “Jobsite visibility is another area of focus,” he added, “which we’ve addressed by providing multiple cameras, and wireless rigging remotes for crane set up and tear down so the operator can walk around the entire machine with controls at their fingertips.”

Robertson pointed to the manufacturer’s recent introduction of self-leveling outriggers on select larger boom truck models. “That capability has been well received by owners and operators for reducing set up time and increasing productivity,” he said.

“Our cranes are equipped with full LMI systems,” said Schalk. “Those solutions enable an operator to see and program parameters for safe operation on a jobsite.”

Altec, according to McGiboney, has fitted their boom trucks with several features. For example, there’s the company’s Smart-Zone Rating outrigger system that uses outrigger positions to determine where the machine has capacity for the load on hook.

“This system provides an extra layer of safety to help prevent instability during asymmetric outrigger setups,” McGiboney explained. “We also have a Platform Lanyard Detection system that prevents the operator from running the unit before appropriately attaching their harness to tie-off points.”

Other offerings from Altec include an insulating personnel jib for use on select dual-rated products that allows crane operators to perform barehand work on energized lines. The jib features a 500kV dielectric rating and has an in-cab current leakage monitor with an audible alert. The company also has a 32- to 50-foot articulating telescopic hydraulic jib on one of its boom truck models that simplifies setup relative to manually offsettable jibs and improves up-and-over capabilities for platform and crane operations.

Market Outlook

Load King, Lukow related, believes the market will increase from 3%-5% in 2025, driven by infrastructure construction and maintenance needs.

“Higher capacity boom trucks with long reach that are equipped for utility transmission line infrastructure upgrades are in high demand,” said Robertson. “Applications for boom trucks also encompass many applications in taxi crane operations, where moving from one job to the next quickly and smoothly makes them the right choice for fleets.”

“Now that truck production is reaching normal levels and has increased,” said Schalk, “we can start producing more boom truck cranes for customers in crane service, HVAC, construction, roofing, sign and arborist operations.”

“We’re hoping to see an increase in demand for boom trucks [in] 2025,” said Henderly, “mainly in the precast concrete and electric utility industries for the ability to deliver products right where they’re needed on the jobsite.”

“Boom trucks are incredibly diverse products that lend themselves well in a variety of applications, so we continue to see strong demand going into 2025,” said Ritter. “Aside from typical chassis mounted applications, we also know of many products that are mounted on dock pedestals, barges and tracked vehicles. However, the effects of higher interest rates on purchasing activity bears watching.”

The overall outlook for the market across the main industries that utilize boom trucks is positive, McGiboney noted. “Electrical infrastructure market signals point to a dramatic increase in development of the electrical grid in 2025 and beyond, specifically within the transmission space,” he said.

“Phase handling as a transmission work practice is also continuing to gain momentum and transmission structures are getting bigger and heavier due to grid resiliency efforts so all OEMs are producing their largest boom trucks to date,” McGiboney added. “Following a trend as well, utilities and contractors are doing more traditional crane work with boom trucks in lieu of renting truck or crawler cranes.”