MEWP weight and floor loading guide

Total weight tells you less than it seems to

A published machine weight is essential for transport planning, trailer ratings and basic access checks, but on its own it says nothing about how that weight actually reaches the ground. The same total weight spread across four wheels, two tracks or four outriggers puts very different loads through very different contact areas, and it's that local load, not the total, that a floor or a patch of ground actually has to resist.

The spread is bigger than most people expect: our catalogue runs from compact push-around units light enough to wheel by hand up to truck-mounted platforms in the region of 60 tonnes, which is closer to a laden articulated lorry than anything most sites are used to weighing up.

When you need more than the headline figure

A proper structural or ground assessment needs individual wheel loads, outrigger reactions and the contact area each one bears on, and those figures should come from the current manufacturer manual or engineering data for the exact model and configuration, not estimated by dividing total weight by the number of contact points. Spider lifts in particular concentrate weight through a small number of stabiliser point loads, which is exactly the scenario a rough estimate gets wrong.

Configuration changes the number more than people expect

Chassis options, battery packs, generators, basket extensions and other optional equipment can shift total weight meaningfully between two machines that otherwise look identical on a spec sheet. Check whether a source is quoting a minimum, maximum or approximate weight, and confirm the specific configuration before relying on the number, ideally against the source document itself rather than a summarised figure.