Amarillo Crane Rental Co.
(806) 855-8168Crane and heavy-equipment rental quotes for Amarillo and the Texas Panhandle.
Amarillo's wind averages 13.6 mph over the year in the National Weather Service's 1991-2020 normals, prevailing from the southwest, and from the south May through September. We plan each lift day around the forecast.
Crane rental in Amarillo comes two ways, and the job picks the one that fits. Operated rental means the crane arrives with the person who runs it and is billed by the hour against a minimum; bare rental means you take the machine alone and supply an operator who meets OSHA's rules. The crane menu runs from hydraulic truck cranes through all-terrain, rough-terrain and crawler cranes to boom trucks and carry deck cranes, backed by lift planning and heavy haul. Our equipment rental menu puts excavators from mini to full size, skid steers and track loaders, telehandlers, boom and scissor lifts, forklifts, backhoes, wheel loaders and dozers on the job, rented daily, weekly or monthly. Before any of it, you get a quote on paper that costs nothing, and the published crane and equipment rates give national figures to hold it against.
What decides a crane job here is the load chart, the maker's printed list of what the crane may hold at each boom length and radius. Radius is how far out, measured flat, the hook hangs from the crane's turning center, and the makers' charts show capacity dropping as it grows, so a rooftop unit set well back from the roof edge can call for more crane than its weight suggests. Next is the ground under the outriggers, the beams that reach out from the carrier and jack it level on pads; soft or wet clay may need cribbing, stacked timbers or mats that widen each pad's footprint. Then come the wind, any power line near the swing, the airport's notice zone and the City street the crane may stand in.
These pages are written for contractors setting steel, trusses and rooftop units, plant and facility managers moving equipment, farms and feedyards, and homeowners with a single heavy lift such as a hot tub over the house. We quote work in Amarillo and in Canyon, Hereford, Dumas, Borger, Pampa, Panhandle, Dalhart and Tulia. The rules a lift answers to, from OSHA's power line distances to the FAA's notice criteria and TxDMV's oversize permits, are collected in one rules guide for street permits, overhead lines and airport notice, and the wind, rain and soil numbers behind a lift day sit on the Amarillo wind, weather and ground data page.
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Eight crane services sit below, from a boom truck that sets a rooftop unit to a crawler crane for long, heavy work. Choose by the load chart first, since the weight and the radius fix the class and the size. Then choose by the ground and the road: truck and all-terrain cranes for paved or firm set-ups, rough-terrain cranes for unimproved sites, carry decks inside plants and shops. Each crane goes out operated, billed hourly with a minimum, or bare with your operator, and rigging and lift planning covers the written plan for a complex pick.
Hydraulic truck cranes for Amarillo lifts: published Grove and Link-Belt specs, national hourly ranges with their dates, OSHA's operator and power-line rules, the TxDMV annual crane permit and the City right-of-way permit, operated or bare, quoted in writing at no charge.
Published price: $300 to $700 per hour, average mobile crane, nationwide (equipment-rental marketplace guide of April 27, 2026)
All-terrain cranes for heavy Panhandle lifts: Tadano, Grove, Liebherr and Link-Belt specs, national large-crane rates with dates, counterweight trucks and TxDMV escort rules, and FAA notice for tall booms near the Amarillo airport.
Published price: $500 to $1,500 an hour for large cranes, national figures from a rental marketplace's April 27, 2026 guide
Rough-terrain cranes drive and lift from a single cab, and all-wheel drive and steering carry them across uneven, unpaved ground. Here are published RT specs, national day rates, OSHA's ground rule, the Panhandle's clay and playas, and what we need to quote your pick.
Published price: $300 to $600 per day for most rough-terrain cranes; national figure from a rental marketplace's April 27, 2026 cost guide
Crawlers travel on tracks, and lattice-boom models arrive as several truckloads assembled on site under OSHA's rules. For a long Panhandle job with heavy picks, our written quote lists transport, assembly and mats line by line, and near an airport we check the boom height against FAA notice rules.
Published price: $300 to $1,500 an hour for crawlers, or upwards of $2,000 a day for larger units; national, rental marketplace guide of April 27, 2026
A truck-mounted hydraulic crane that drives to the job and sets up on outriggers, with makers' examples rated from 10 tons (National Crane 400B) to 65 US tons (Manitex TC65159) at short radius. We quote rooftop unit, truss, sign and farm lifts around Amarillo in writing, operated or bare.
Published price: $100 to $300 an hour, national (ThePricer crane rental cost guide, updated November 12, 2025)
A compact industrial crane that picks a load, carries it on the hook or its deck, and sets it in tight plant quarters. Broderson's IC-80 lists 18,000 lbs. on outriggers and up to 11,400 lbs. in pick and carry. We quote plant and shop lifts around Amarillo, operated or bare.
Published price: $200 to $500 an hour for a small crane (national average, rental marketplace guide of April 27, 2026)
A pick near power lines, over people or out of the operator's sight brings OSHA duties a written plan should cover: load and rigging weight, radius, signals, barricades and a wind limit. The free written quote names the rigging and every charge.
Published price: $400 to $750 an hour, mid-sized crane with operator, national (rental marketplace guide, April 27, 2026)
Past 80,000 pounds gross, 14 feet high or 8 feet 6 inches wide, a machine leaving Amarillo needs a TxDMV permit, and bigger loads add escorts, red flags and daylight-only hours. Here are the limits, the permits and fees, the Panhandle routes and published hauling rates.
Published price: $2 to $4 per mile on most Amarillo heavy equipment jobs (national freight marketplace's Amarillo page, no date shown)
Eight equipment classes follow, for digging, grading, loading, lifting and reaching. Pick by the work and the ground before the period: a mini excavator suits a tight dig inside a fence while a full-size one suits pads and long trenches, tracks spread a loader's weight over more ground than tires, a boom lift reaches up and out while a scissor lift only rises, and a telehandler carries a load forward as well as up. Then settle on a day, a week or a month; national rates for each class are on the cost page.
Mini, full-size and large excavators for Amarillo trenches, footings, pads and ponds, with Caterpillar's published dig depths, national day, week and month rates, the delivery and fuel extras, and the OSHA trench rules and Texas 811 call that come with every dig.
Published price: $150 to $350 a day for a mini excavator, national (Angi, updated July 2026)
Wheeled skid steers and compact track loaders for Amarillo grading, backfill, snow and farm work, with ASV's published capacities and ground pressures, national rates for tires and tracks, and the OSHA rollover and seat belt rules a renter should know.
Published price: $200 to $600 a day for a skid-steer loader, national (Angi, updated July 2026)
Reach forklifts for Amarillo trusses, steel, pallets and post frame buildings, sized from JLG's published capacity at full height and full reach, with national day, week and month rates, OSHA's training and three-year evaluation rule, and the line where forks give way to a crane.
Published price: $665 a day, $1,644 a week, $3,592 a month: national averages (rental marketplace guide, March 19, 2026)
Articulating and telescopic man lifts for Amarillo building, plant and sign work, with Skyjack's published height, reach and platform capacity, national rates by height class, OSHA's aerial lift rule and fall protection, ANSI/SAIA training, and the wind and power line limits that apply here.
Published price: $350 to $700 a day for a 40-60 ft machine, national (rental marketplace guide, March 19, 2026)
Slab electric and rough-terrain scissor platforms for Amarillo warehouses, hangars, campuses and building shells, with Skyjack's published heights, widths and capacities, national rates by height, OSHA's scaffold rules and guardrails, and OSHA's guidance that outdoor models are generally limited to wind below 28 miles per hour.
Published price: $200 to $300 a day for a 32 ft electric model, national (rental marketplace guide, March 2026)
Cushion-tire and pneumatic lift trucks for Amarillo warehouses, plants, feed yards and grain sites, with Toyota's and Hyster's published capacities, Toyota's mast heights, national day, week and month rates, rough-terrain trucks as OSHA classes them, and the operator training and evaluation OSHA requires.
Published price: $150 to $250 a day for a 5,000 lb truck, national (rental marketplace guide, March 19, 2026)
Dig-and-load machines for trenches that have to be dug and backfilled, and wheel loaders for stockpiles and truck loading around Amarillo, with CASE dig depths, Volvo bucket sizes, national rates, delivery by mileage, the 811 law and Hereford's trench permit.
Published price: $200 to $450 a day, $800 to $1,100 a week for a backhoe, national (HomeGuide, January 2026)
Crawler tractors with blades for clearing, stripping and grading ground around Amarillo, from CASE's 15,997 lb 650M to the 45,651 lb 2050M, with a single-source national rate guide, lowboy delivery terms, OSHA's rollover rules and the 811 call before a deep cut.
Published price: $500 to $800 a day for a small dozer, national (single marketplace guide, March 2026)
For a crane, send the load's weight and both ends of its trip, the pick point and the set point, since together they fix the radius and the height; then the surface under the crane, the route onto the site, any power or phone lines above it, the job address and your target dates. For equipment, name the machine, the job it does, the ground and the rental length.
The quote arrives in writing, at no cost, before anything is scheduled. Each line covers one thing: the crane's type and capacity or the machine, with or without an operator, the billed minimum or the rental term, getting it there and back, then any permits, escorts, mats and rigging the job needs, with tax shown where it applies.
On a bare rental, tell us who will be in the seat, because OSHA section 1926.1427 applies to that operator. Where the work breaks ground, you or we contact Texas 811 two business days or more before digging, as Texas law requires. For each City, TxDMV or FAA item the quote lists, we say who arranges it before the date is held.
Rental machines arrive with the maker's operating information. Before a forklift, telehandler or aerial lift goes out, we ask whether its operator has the training called for by OSHA's rules and, on an aerial lift, by ANSI/SAIA A92.24. Crane work follows the quoted plan: class, radius, pads, mats or cribbing, and the clearances checked on site. A lift held by wind moves to the next workable day.
Crane rental cost in Amarillo depends on four things: the crane class and size your radius demands, whether an operator comes with it, the hours billed against the minimum, and what the site and the road add in permits, escorts and mats. None of the cost guides we found gives an Amarillo or Texas crane rate, so the table below lists national figures, each with its source and date, for crane classes by tonnage and type, the operator add-on and minimum call, and equipment by the day, week and month, plus the State of Texas's TxDMV permit fees. They are yardsticks for checking a quote; none of them is our price. A written quote for your job lists each of those charges on its own line, with any tax. To match the machine to the work first, start with mobile crane rental for truck cranes.
| What is priced | Published price or fee |
|---|---|
| Small crane: average per hour, and crane only per day (national equipment-rental marketplace's crane cost guide, April 27, 2026) | $200 to $500 an hour; $300 to $600 a day, crane only |
| Mobile crane, average per hour (national equipment-rental marketplace's crane cost guide, April 27, 2026) | $300 to $700 an hour |
| Large crane: average per hour, and crane only per day (national equipment-rental marketplace's crane cost guide, April 27, 2026) | $500 to $1,500 an hour; upwards of $2,000 a day, crane only |
| 50-ton crane, per hour and per day (national equipment-rental marketplace's crane cost guide, April 27, 2026) | $150 to $300 an hour; $800 to $3,500 a day |
An Amarillo lift plan starts with the wind. The National Weather Service's Amarillo records and normals give a 1991-2020 average of 13.6 mph, with March at 15.5 mph and April at 15.4 mph the windiest months and August, at 12.0 mph, the calmest; the office's 22-year study adds, "But it's windy in Amarillo all year." The extremes run far past the averages: 84 mph on May 15, 1949; 83 mph at the airport's weather station on March 14, 2025. OSHA section 1926.1417(n) puts wind on the competent person, who "must adjust the equipment and/or operations to address the effect of wind, ice, and snow," so a spring lift with a tall boom or a broad load is worth a second date held in reserve.
The ground is the second test, because the outrigger pads carry the crane and its load. The USDA's Pullman series description, for a soil of large extent on the Southern High Plains, puts its subsoil clay at 35 to 50 percent and its permeability slow, and Pullman clay loam is the dominant soil on the USDA's research farm at Bushland. Texas Parks and Wildlife counts about 19,300 playas in the Texas High Plains, "shallow, circular-shaped wetlands that are primarily filled by rainfall," and the USDA says the Randall soils on playa floors are "frequently ponded for very long periods in most years" and crack wide when dry. OSHA section 1926.1402 keeps a crane off any set-up where the ground is not "firm, drained, and graded to a sufficient extent" for the maker's support and level specifications. Unimproved or wet sites are where rough-terrain cranes and crane mats come in.
Rick Husband Amarillo International Airport, six miles east of downtown, has the 7th longest civilian runway in the U.S. at 13,502 feet, the City of Amarillo says, plus a secondary 7,901-foot runway. Runway length matters to a crane because the FAA's notice rule, 14 CFR 77.9, scales with it: for an airport "with its longest runway more than 3,200 ft. in actual length," notice is owed for anything that would break a 100-to-1 surface stretching 20,000 feet from the nearest runway, and anywhere for construction "more than 200 ft. AGL at its site." The FAA's Part 77 page lists cranes and boom trucks among its examples of temporary construction, and Form 7460-1 goes in at least 45 days before work starts. Tradewind Airport, also listed under Amarillo, adds runways to measure from.
Overhead lines are a hazard a crane can reach without moving its wheels. OSHA section 1926.1408 has the employer check whether "any part of the equipment, load line or load (including rigging and lifting accessories)" could come inside 20 feet of a line. For lines up to 350 kV, the choices are a line the utility has deenergized and grounded, a crane held to that 20 feet, or a known voltage and its Table A distance, which begins at 10 feet for 50 kV and below. Every line is treated as live unless the utility confirms otherwise. Texas draws its own line at six feet in Health and Safety Code chapter 752: work inside it waits until the line's operator has been told "at least 48 hours before the work begins" and a clearance deal is in place, and the operator "may require payment in advance."
Interstate 40 and Interstate 27 both reach Amarillo, and US 60, 87 and 287 merged here, the Handbook of Texas notes, so a crane or lowboy headed for a job rides on them. Several are in TxDOT's plans. TxDOT's Amarillo District lists a planned $312 million project to widen I-27 to six lanes from US 87 to Loop 335, and its Loop 335 program aims to make the whole loop a controlled-access roadway; frontage roads between SW 9th Avenue and Western Street are under construction, with completion expected in 2026. A crane or machine bigger than the State's legal size, or heavier than TxDMV's "Gross - 80,000 pounds maximum," travels on a TxDMV permit, and TxDMV's crane permit page tells the mover, "You are responsible for routing and obtaining current restrictions prior to movement," so those work zones belong in the route plan for heavy haul and machinery moving.
The largest jobsites around Amarillo set the top of the crane menu. The Pantex Plant, the National Nuclear Security Administration site in Carson County, conducts its operations primarily on 2,000 acres of an 18,000-acre site. Fermi America says its Project Matador, next to the Pantex DOE complex, "will be a 17GW private power and AI campus," and on September 18, 2026 it reported its first gas turbines on site, each weighing "more than 480,000 pounds" and moved by permitted heavy haul in escorted convoys. North of the city, Phillips 66 describes its Borger Refinery on about 6,000 acres and Valero its McKee Refinery on 5,000 acres. Loads of that size point to all-terrain cranes or crawlers, a written lift plan and a permitted move, while plant maintenance is a job Grove names for its carry deck cranes: "Compact industrial cranes are used for plant maintenance and material handling jobs."
Before a lift, we check where the crane, its load line and the load could swing against the overhead lines on and beside the site, using OSHA's clearance distances and the Texas six-foot law with its 48-hour notice to the line operator. If a line is close, we tell you what must be arranged, such as de-energizing it or a mechanical barrier, and who arranges it.
For a lift near Rick Husband Amarillo International, Tradewind or another airport, we compare the boom's planned height and spot with 14 CFR 77.9, the FAA's test for when notice is owed. If your lift meets it, we tell you so, and that Form 7460-1 must be submitted "at least 45 days before the start date," so the lift date is set with that lead time in it.
If the crane or its outriggers will stand on a City of Amarillo street, sidewalk, alley or easement, we tell you which right-of-way permit and traffic control plan the job needs before the date is fixed. The City takes right-of-way applications through e-Builder, and its Traffic Engineering Department must accept the traffic control plan before anything is set up.
We follow the forecast and the wind for every lift day. OSHA's 29 CFR 1926.1418 gives the operator "the authority to stop and refuse to handle loads" over a safety concern, section 1926.1417 has the competent person adjust for wind, and Liebherr's wind guide halts operation once the wind passes the chart's permissible speed. A wind delay moves to the next workable day, with standby billed as the quote states.
Published national rates put a small crane at $200 to $500 an hour, an average mobile crane at $300 to $700 and a large crane at $500 to $1,500, with $50 to $150 an hour added for an operator, in a national equipment-rental marketplace's crane cost guide dated April 27, 2026; none of the guides we found gives an Amarillo rate. HomeGuide's tree-moving cost guide (December 22, 2025) writes, "Crane rentals with operators cost $350 to $1,500 minimum for 4 to 6 hours." Your own price turns on the crane size your radius needs, the hours, travel, permits and mats, and our written quote prices each one.
Either one. Operated means the crane comes with the person at the controls; bare means you rent only the machine and put your own operator in the seat. OSHA section 1926.1427 reads, "The employer must ensure that each operator is trained, certified/licensed, and evaluated," so on a bare rental that duty is yours, and we ask who will operate. The April 27, 2026 marketplace guide lists a mid-sized mobile crane at $250 to $600 an hour bare and $400 to $750 operated, national figures, and the Texas Comptroller's Rule 3.294 taxes the two arrangements differently.
Read the crane's load chart at your radius: that, with the load's weight, sets the size, and the tonnage on the carrier describes only the shortest reach. Manitowoc says maximum capacity "is obtained at minimum radius with basic minimum boom length of a crane," and crane maker SANY's chart guide puts it plainly: "the larger the lifting radius, the lower the maximum lifting capacity." The hook block and rigging count against the chart too, so a light load set far from the crane can still need a big machine. Send the load's weight from its manufacturer, the pick and set points and where the crane can stand, and we size it from the chart.
Twenty feet is OSHA's default for lines up to 350 kV, and the distance shrinks only when the line's voltage is known and its Table A clearance is kept, 10 feet for 50 kV and below, or when the utility deenergizes the line and visibly grounds it at the site. Texas adds a six-foot limit of its own in Health and Safety Code chapter 752: no tool, machine or load comes that close to a high-voltage line before its operator is told "at least 48 hours before the work begins" and the de-energizing, relocation or barrier is agreed; the operator may require payment in advance. We check both rules before the lift.
You do when the crane meets the FAA's notice criteria in 14 CFR 77.9. Rick Husband Amarillo International's longest runway, at 13,502 feet, is more than 3,200 feet long, so the slope that applies is "100 to 1 for a horizontal distance of 20,000 ft. from the nearest point of the nearest runway," while anything standing more than 200 feet above the ground beneath it needs notice wherever it is. The FAA's Part 77 page lists cranes and boom trucks as temporary construction. The filing, Form 7460-1, is due "at least 45 days before the start date," and the FAA replies with a determination that may carry marking and lighting recommendations. We run the check for any lift near an airport.
The crane's own load chart sets the limit, and work stops when the wind passes it. Liebherr's wind guide says, "If the current wind speed exceeds the permissible wind speed from the load chart then the crane operation must be halted," and its customer magazine says load tables generally apply in gusts of up to 20 mph, lower for loads with more surface area per tonne. OSHA adds a fixed check for lifting people: above 20 mph at the personnel platform, a qualified person must decide whether that lift can go on (29 CFR 1926.1431). Amarillo's wind normals peak in March and April, so we plan around the forecast.
Yes: excavators, skid steers, track loaders and the rest of the equipment menu rent on daily, weekly or monthly terms. A national rental marketplace's March 2026 averages put an excavator of any size at $719 a day, $2,021 a week or $5,108 a month, and Angi's July 2026 excavator rental guide prices a skid steer at $200 to $600 per day; both are national figures. Any delivery, fuel or damage waiver charge is a separate line on our quote, and the Texas Comptroller's Rule 3.294 taxes a rental without an operator.
The person doing the digging, the excavator in the law's terms, makes the call: Texas811 says "Texas law requires excavators to contact 811 at least two business days before excavating," weekends and holidays excluded, and that getting the lines marked is a free service. The Texas Utilities Code counts mechanized digging that disturbs soil "to a depth of 16 or more inches" as excavating, and utilities then have 48 hours, holidays aside, to mark their lines. When a homeowner hires a contractor, the contractor calls; on our jobs, we or you place the call as the law sets out.
We quote crane and equipment jobs in Amarillo and eight Panhandle towns: Canyon, which West Texas A&M University places 15 miles south; Hereford, 48 miles southwest by the City of Hereford's figure; Dumas, which its city puts 45 miles north; Borger, where Phillips 66 places its refinery approximately 50 miles north; Pampa, approximately 55 miles northeast per the Pampa EDC; Panhandle, the Carson County seat on US 60; Dalhart, where three U.S. highways meet; and Tulia, forty-nine miles south on US 87 by the Handbook of Texas. Travel is a line on the quote.
Send the load weight, pick and set points, ground and overhead lines, or the machine and rental period, plus the address and dates.
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