Though you may not have heard of Cratos, the company based in Florida has been designing and selling battery-powered equipment long before it was cool.

Over the past 10 years, it has launched electric mini skid steers, compact excavators and site dumpers. And at the World of Concrete in January, the company unveiled its newest product, an electric stand-on mini track loader called the THR2000.

The company’s growth over the years is evident in the evolution of its booth space at the show, of moving out of the corner in the back to a large open space in Central Hall. CEO and founder Alex Berg says most of the company’s growth has been through word of mouth.

Its first product, the Sherpa 100ECO mini skid steer, has been a popular niche loader for the indoor demolition industry. The new THR2000 CTL is a response to growing customer demand for more power, lifting capacity and maneuverability.

The THR2000 has a lifting capacity of 1,050 pounds. It runs on a 48-volt lithium-ion battery system that gets 9 hours of runtime on a charge. Charging takes less that 15 hours, the company says. It is 32 inches wide for fitting in doors and elevators. It weighs 2,058 pounds. It can also work in the dirt.

It is designed for such interior and exterior demolition projects as hospitals, schools, warehouses, offices – anywhere noise and emissions can be a problem. It also helps reduce labor and increase safety.

As a demolition contractor himself in Baltimore and Florida, he saw a need for equipment that could be run indoors, especially due to the labor shortage. He couldn’t find reliable workers to show up on the job.

Cratos designs its machines, and then a third party performs the manufacturing.
“We're focused on designing products that customers are asking for,” he says.

The company’s focus has been two-fold: helping the construction industry become more sustainable and bringing machines indoors where combustion engines won’t work.

“It's an extremely quiet machine,” Berg says. He notes at the World of Concrete booth that the CTL is on, but there is no sound. It also does not release fumes.

“There's really no harm to the operator or anybody else that's in the area,” he says. “So you're reducing the cost of ventilation, negative air.”

Cratos has equipped the THR2000 with features designed to make life easier for owners and operators.

The touchscreen shows actual time to charge and time to discharge, rather than just the hour or percentage of battery power. “We're able to tell the customer this is how much time you physically have to use machine,” Berg says. “This is how much time you have to have in order for it to be a complete recharge.”

It has also added some technology to save battery runtime. The CTL can operate at normal speed but can be boosted to high speed when extra power is needed. After the extra power is needed, the operator can return to lower speed, which is the CTL’s default speed.

As for runtime, Berg says, the THR2000’s battery will run 6 hours straight at full capacity. “That's an unrealistic use case,” he adds, noting that tasks rarely require full-bore operation all the time. “Your normal operation is going to give you about 9 hours of physical runtime.”

The THR2000 comes with an onboard charger that plugs into a 110-volt source overnight, such as a typical wall socket.

The CTL can run a variety of attachments, including a hydraulic breaker, pallet forks, grapple bucket, regular bucket, vacuum kit, floor scraper. You could also run a trencher or an auger.
“If it's a hydraulic attachment, it can be run on this machine,” he says. “You have up to 10 gallons a minute (of hydraulic flow). So you have a relatively high-flow, hydraulic auxiliary for a machine this size.”

You can run other brands of attachments on the THR2000, but Cratos recommends its own, primarily because they are designed to accommodate the CTL’s 32-inch width.
Delivery of the THR2000 has begun to customers. Cratos products are offered at its dealership network and rental stores.

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