About Gantry Cranes & Overhead Cranes
Essentially a hoist hanging from a girder between two strong sets of legs, a gantry crane looks very different than the average boom and jib crane. Depending on its size, a gantry crane can straddle a construction site, a warehouse floor, a road, or even a shipping canal, allowing it to pick up loads and set them down elsewhere, all without interfering with the workers and machines operating underneath it. The hoist of a gantry crane can move side to side on a trolley, while the legs can typically roll forward or backward on casters, tires, or rails, depending on the size and application.

Mi-Jack MJ100 Gantry Crane
Overhead Cranes Explained
An overhead crane, meanwhile, is another indoor variation on the gantry theme that requires some structure(s) to be added to a building. An overhead bridge crane—not to be confused with aerial platform cranes used under road bridges—is similar to a gantry crane, but has no legs. Its top girder(s) rides on rails that are built into opposite walls of a warehouse, hangar, or factory building.
Other indoor gantry cranes split the difference by having legs on one side of the girder(s) and gliding functionality along an elevated rail on the other. In an overhead monorail crane setup, meanwhile, the girder doesn’t move at all, as it is fixed in place. The hoist trolley can move back and forth along the girder, providing pickup and drop-off points anywhere along its axis, but there’s no way to move a load to either side.
Find Gantry & Overhead Cranes
You’ll find a big selection of new and used cranes for sale on CraneTrader.ca, including new and used gantry and overhead cranes for sale from leading manufacturers like Demag, Konecranes, Mi-Jack, Shuttlelift, and others.