Potain Tower Crane Load Chart PDF: A 6-Step Checklist for Buyers

You've got a Potain tower crane load chart PDF open in one tab and a listing for used Potain cranes for sale in another. Both tabs are asking the same question: can this machine actually do the work you need it to do?

This checklist is for contractors, rental fleet managers, and first-time tower crane buyers who want to avoid the expensive surprise of discovering, after purchase, that the crane cannot legally lift what the listing implies. It comes from the quality side of the business, not the sales side. I work as a quality compliance lead at a specialized construction equipment dealer. I review every load chart, spec sheet, and serial plate that goes to customers—roughly 200 documents a year—and I reject around one in ten first submissions because the chart doesn't match the machine. Six steps, about twenty minutes total. Do them before you talk price, not after.

Fast disclaimer: if your background is earthmoving rather than hoisting—if your starting question is closer to "what is an excavator" than "what is a luffing jib"—the checklist still works. It only assumes you can read a radius value and a weight in metric tons. By Step 5 you'll probably have a clearer idea of what tower crane charts actually force you to think about.

Step 1: Lock down the model and serial number before opening any PDF

"Potain MCT 85" or "MDT 809" is a family name, not a specification. A 2012 MCT 85 can carry a different load chart than a 2016 MCT 85 if Potain issued a design change or a counterweight update. The serial number is the lookup key. Write it down from the counter-jib plate or the tower section before you download anything.

What I mean is: if a dealer sends you a PDF labeled "MCT 85 load chart" and you haven't checked whether the serial range printed on the chart covers your crane, you're working from a guess. The chart that matters in a lift plan is always tied to that individual machine, not to the model family. On a physical inspection, the plate is a thirty-second check. On an online listing, ask the seller for a clear photo of it before you invest time in the rest of the chart.

I don't have hard data on how many online listings get this wrong across the whole market. Based on four years of our dealer audits, my sense is roughly one in ten.

Step 2: Confirm you're holding a serial-specific chart, not a brochure chart

Potain publishes two kinds of load documents. The first is the sales chart—the one in brochures and on dealer websites—which shows the best-case configuration for the model family. The second is the serial-specific chart, typically marked with a serial number range, a revision code, and an issue date. Only the second belongs in a lift plan.

Here's something vendors won't tell you: the PDF attached to an online listing is often the brochure chart, because that's the file sitting in the marketing folder. The serial-specific chart is usually a separate document with an identifier like "Rev. 4" or "Ed. 2023-06". If you don't see one, ask for it. And if the document has been re-scanned or screenshotted, check that every page is legible and that the revision mark wasn't cropped off the corner.

Operating rules generally require the rated-load chart to be available to the operator on the crane—ASME B30.3 in North America, for example. No operator can build a lift plan from a brochure chart, and no buyer should build a purchase decision on one either. In my opinion, a load chart without a revision identifier is not a load chart.

Step 3: Verify the full configuration, not just the top capacity number

You need the full configuration list: jib length, counter-jib length, counterweight blocks, trolley and hook block, reeving. Many Potain charts cover a dozen configurations, each with its own capacity column.

The most common error we flag in document reviews is someone reading the top number—say, 8 t (illustrative numbers, not a specific model)—and assuming that's the capacity of the crane they're buying. That number only exists at minimum radius with the heaviest specified counterweight and the shortest jib. At the jib tip, the same crane might be down to 2.3 t. There's nothing wrong with that; it's how tower cranes work. But the chart has to be read against the exact configuration printed on its first page.

This "just look at the max load" habit comes from an era when tower cranes had one or two jib configurations per model. That changed decades ago, but the habit survived.

Step 4: Read the three numbers that matter

Three figures decide whether a crane fits your project:

1. Maximum load at minimum radius.
2. Maximum load at the jib tip.
3. Maximum radius for the relevant jib assembly.

And a fourth in practice: the maximum load at your required radius. Most Potain charts allow interpolation between radius points, but the chart is the legal limit, not a suggestion. If your planned lift falls between two radius columns, use the more conservative one. That's the rule we enforce on every document we release.

As of our last equipment audit in Q3 2024, the capacity-at-required-radius figure was missing from more than half of the initial lift plans we reviewed. Not wrong—just missing. Which is why the calculation goes on the document before anything else gets discussed.

Step 5: Check the radius convention and the wind limit

People often miss that some Potain chart editions measure radius from the center of crane rotation, while others start from the tower face. Mix those up and your planned radius could be off by the depth of the tower section, enough to drop the allowable load by a few hundred kilos. On a tight city-site pick, that's the difference between a safe lift and a rejected one.

Potain charts also state a maximum in-service wind speed—commonly around 20.1 m/s in the European FEM framework. I can only speak to the European documentation I audit; under a different regional standard the wind values may differ, but the principle is the same: the chart's capacities are valid only within that wind limit. If your site regularly pushes the limit, the crane may still be the right one, but your work plan will need more buffer.

(Note to self: I still need to add the wind-speed warning to our document templates. It's been on my list since the 2023 audit.)

Step 6: Cross-check the chart against the actual machine before any money moves

Compare the chart revision against the serial plate on the counter-jib, and physically count the ballast blocks on the jib. Internal consistency between documents is not enough.

In 2023, we received a batch of eight used Potain units from a seller whose paperwork was internally perfect: right model, right jib length, right chart revision. The spec was still visibly off—the chart specified roughly 34 t of counterballast, and the cranes were rigged with 28 t. The documents matched each other; they just didn't match the machines.

We rejected the batch, and the seller had to bring in the missing ballast before acceptance. Because our contract referenced the serial-specific configuration, the rework landed on them. If we hadn't verified, the cost of crane time, remounting counterweights, and downtime would have fallen to the buyer. That gap is the difference between a listing price and what a crane really costs you.

Common slips to avoid (and why price isn't the first number to compare)

Two more warnings from the quality side, then the point about price.

First, don't compare a luffing-jib chart from Potain's MR or MCR families with a flat-top trolley chart from the MDT or MCT range. The capacity curves look different, and "radius" behaves differently when the jib moves as a whole instead of a trolley running along it. The steps above are the same; your mental model shouldn't be.

Why the lowest asking price is usually the most expensive option

If you're shopping Potain cranes for sale, the total cost is not the asking price. It's the price plus the ballast you may need to source, plus the engineering review if the chart is wrong, plus the downtime while documentation gets corrected. A crane listed at a lower price but missing its correct load chart can cost more than a "more expensive" crane whose documentation and configuration are sound, because every day the paperwork is wrong is a day the crane can't be used for its rated lifts.

Nobody serious buys a balloon pump on a photo alone; you check flow rate and duty cycle. A tower crane deserves the same documentation discipline, except the cost of a mistake is orders of magnitude higher.

If you ask me, read the chart like an auditor, then negotiate like a buyer.