........ I'll make my decision based on what it's going to cost me. Being able to self load/unload on the road is a big plus as is the outriggers...
Yes, the outriggers are by themselves very useful. I have never carried a jack in the deuce, for example. The hydraulic outriggers will easily lift the entire vehicle and by blocking the wheels, the headroom below it can be increased by a foot or more for working.
They have extracted my truck from clay with the front axle resting in it, piled stuff under the outrigger pads, got it up a little, piled rocks, branches etc under the lifted wheels and kept doing that until I could drive back out.
The center mounting of the crane is important for this to work.
Of course, the boom itself can be manipulated to change the CG on a side slope or for traction as needed, move it forward over the cab to compensate for an extended load, which may otherwise make it impossible to steer (truck tipping up).
The outriggers have been used to tip the truck sideways to help unload firewood (my example) and using the boom to rake it off.
The pipeline bed is a perfect companion. The M756A2 should have had this crane from day one instead of the A-frame, which is impossibly impractical.
Using the block anchor points in the bed, sideways winching becomes a breeze. Forward and rear winching is also possible with the crane plus snatch blocks.
As a safety device, it functions as an ROP when folded in figure 4 position behind the cab.
Mounting the crane at the end of the bed limits its usefulness in many ways (FMTV and HEMTT for example).
Like I said, can't hardly imagine the truck without the K-boom.
Edit: added images. Sideways winching. Crane plus dump bed is possible.
