Ante, upped: JLG unveils 1850 SJ, world’s tallest telescopic boom topping out at 185+ feet

Telescopic boom lifts are reaching heights not imagined 10 years ago, when 135 feet of maximum height was pushing the envelope.

Last month, Genie unveiled its 180-foot SX-180 to U.S. audiences, a machine it announced at the Bauma trade show in Germany last April.

And now JLG has upped the ante by more than 5 feet with its 185-foot-7-inch-platform-height 1850 SJ boom, offering nearly 19 stories of working height and almost 3 million cubic feet of reachable space.

The boom will be on display at the firm’s ConExpo booth, Gold Lot 1037.

“Part of the design challenge on this was maintaining boom rigidity while meeting transportability,” says Rob Messina, JLG vice president of global engineering and program management. “It was important for it to be transported on standard-size trailers.” Using model simulation, JLG engineers optimized the structural efficiency of the boom, Messina says.

Jeff Ford, JLG global product director for aerial work platforms, puts this new height in context. “When we launched our 150-foot 1500 model at the 2011 ConExpo, the demand exceeded our expectations. Job requirements today—including petrochemical plants and large stadiums—require higher working heights. And it’s not just how high you can go, but how much workable reach.” The 1850 SJ has a maximum horizontal reach of 80 feet.