over and over we see hiab and lorry loader cranes advertised by ignorant vendors who give totally innacurate information about a cranes lifting abilty.Most of them seem to get their information from from the manufacturers rating plate fastened to the crane and I can see why this information is misleading. The common mistake made is the idea that a crane will lift what the manufacturer rates the maximum safe working load to be (SWL). In practice the rated SWL in rarely acheived and is depends upon the PTO pump pressure and how the pressure relief is set up.Hence the claims made by people selling Hiabs are innaccurate because what they are quoting is the rated maximum lifting weight not the actual weight it will lift........so if it says on the plate it'll lift 4,000kg at 2 metres don't go booking jobs in before you've checked your crane out properly because when you get there it just wont lift it..............take it from an old hand the general rule of thumb with hiab lifting is lift half of what the crane is rated at and you'll be somewhere near......i've seen some shockingly bad cranes advertised on here so take care