S-Type Crane Scale Kit Buyer’s Guide

An S-type crane kit is a load cell in the hoist line, a cable, two eye bolts, and a readout on the wall or the table. That is the whole product. It is not an MSI wireless crane scale, and it is not a legal-for-trade hanging scale unless the listing is actually NTEP as a system — these kits are not.

All Scales USA ships the kits from Cypress, TX. Recyclers, fab shops, seafood houses, and riggers buy them because a $400–$800 kit weighs scrap, plate, and totes well enough for the yard. If you need MSI-class wireless, NTEP overhead, or a sealed integrated hook scale, say so when you call. We will not sell you the kit as that.

Primary CTA: Call (832) 766-5410 or open the capacity that matches the job:

• 5,000 lb × 1 lb S-type kit

• 10,000 lb × 2 lb MS70-10k-tc

• 15,000 lb × 1 lb S-type kit

• 20,000 lb × 1 lb S-type kit, stainless Brecknell indicator

Also: (281) 656-2666 · (832) 290-3120. Email pete@allscales.com.

Kit vs integrated crane scale

S-type kit (what this page is about). Alloy-steel S-cell in tension between the hoist and the load. Cable runs to a separate indicator. You mount the readout where you can see it. You supply rated rigging. You live with the cable. That is why it costs a fraction of an MSI.

Integrated crane scale. Display lives in the housing that hangs on the hook. Often a remote, often a sealed case, often more money. Hang it, zero it, lift. Better when the operator cannot babysit a wall indicator or a 20-foot cable. We stock hanging scales when that is the right tool. Do not force an S-kit into that job.

MSI (and similar). Wireless, industrial, often NTEP, priced like it. If your customer is paying by the pound off the hook, or you are under a bridge crane all day, that is the conversation. If you are weighing a scrap bucket, a fab lift, or a seafood tote for process weight, the kit is the honest buy.

Do not mix the two in your head. A kit is a sensor plus a readout. An integrated scale is a tool you hang. Both can be wrong for the job.

What is actually in an S-type kit

Live listings vary, and some Wix titles are truncated. Confirm the cart page before you pay. Across the MNM / Optima / Brecknell S-kits we sell, you should expect:

• One S-type (S-beam) load cell, tension/compression style

• A digital indicator (plastic LED/LCD on the house kits; stainless Brecknell on the 20k kit)

• Two eye bolts on the cell

• Cable (length is listing-specific — do not assume 20 ft unless that page says so)

• Power: AC adapter and, on many kits, battery. Check the page.

Original listing copy on the 5k and 15k kits also called out peak / auto-hold, lb/kg, RS-232, and a plastic enclosure with a mounting bracket. The Optima ST kits pair an OP-902 indicator and state non-NTEP in the original package text.

If a page does not list eye bolts, cable length, or battery, call (832) 766-5410 before you order. Do not guess from a sister-site photo.

Live kits on allscalesusa.com (capacities we actually found)

These URLs were live when this page was written. Capacities and divisions are taken from the product page. Where a page does not print a division, we do not invent one.

5,000 lb

• MNM S-type kit — 5,000 lb × 1 lb, S-type tension/compression, $449. Open 5k kit

Use this for lighter scrap, plate, and totes if 5,000 lb covers the gross lift with margin. Original listing copy on this URL also described a calibrated kit with indicator, two eye bolts, and peak hold. The live page does not claim NTEP. Treat it as process weighing.

10,000 lb

Three live 10k S-type listings. They are not the same division.

• MNM MS70-10k-tc — 10,000 lb × 2 lb, S-type, $499. Open MS70-10k-tc

• MNM 10,000 lb tension/compression — 10,000 lb S-type. Live page does not print a division. SKU on the page is Crane-10k-0.5. Confirm the increment before you buy. $349. Open 10k tension/compression

• MNM calibrated hanging crane — Live page states 10,000 lb × 0.2 lb, $386. Open 10k × 0.2 lb listing

0.2 lb at 10,000 lb is an aggressive division. If that is what you actually need, say so and we will confirm the indicator and cal before it ships. Do not order the $349 kit assuming it is 0.2 lb — that page does not say so.

15,000 lb

• MNM S-type kit — 15,000 lb × 1 lb, $559. Open 15k × 1 lb

• MNM MS720-15K — 15,000 lb × 1 lb, S-type, $435. Open MS720-15K

• MNM MS720-15k — 15,000 lb × 2 lb, S-type, $489. Open MS720-15k

• MNM calibrated 15k — 15,000 lb × 2 lb (SKU on page MS720-15k), $499. Open 15k × 2 lb calibrated

MS720-15k / MS720-15K on this site are 15,000 lb S-type crane/tension kits. They are not livestock indicators. If you need a chute or platform kit, that is a different page.

Four 15k URLs is a catalog mess, not four magic products. If you do not care which increment you get, call and we will put you on the kit we actually have on the shelf.

20,000 lb

• S-type kit, stainless Brecknell indicator, 2 eye bolts — 20,000 lb × 1 lb. Live H1 currently reads “Brecknell Scale-20.” The URL and original listing are an S-type cell + stainless indicator + two eye bolts — a kit, not an integrated hook scale. $799. Open 20k S-type kit

The live 20k page does not currently claim NTEP. Do not buy it as legal-for-trade. Original listing copy on that URL described an alloy-steel S-cell and a stainless Brecknell indicator with battery and AC adapter. Confirm what is in the box when you order.

Related, not a kit: a 2,500 lb alloy-steel S-type load cell listed as NTEP configuration. That is a cell, $96. It does not make a 5k–20k kit legal for trade.

Smaller Optima ST kits (not 5k–20k, but live)

If the lift is a few thousand pounds, these Optima ST packages are on the site. Original package text on the 2k listing called the OP-902 a non-NTEP indicator with peak hold.

• Optima ST-2K, 2,000 lb × 0.5 lb — $399

• Optima ST-3K, 3,000 lb × 0.2 lb — $298

We did not find a live allscalesusa.com product page for an Optima OP-926-5K kit. If you want that model, call — do not order a different SKU and hope.

How to pick capacity (without guessing)

Pick the kit by gross load, not by the number on the forklift ticket you wish you had.

1. Weigh the heaviest thing you actually lift, plus rigging, plus the tote / magnet / chain.

2. Add shock. A scrap bucket that hits the end of the sling is not a static 4,800 lb. If you live near the rating, go up a size.

3. Stay at or under the printed capacity. Safe-overload numbers on a cell datasheet are damage limits, not a working rating. We are not printing a 120% or 150% working load on these kits.

4. If the job is seafood totes one week and a 12,000 lb fab lift the next, buy the 15k. Do not “make the 5k work.”

We did not invent a 25k or 30k kit. If you are over 20,000 lb, call. That is a different conversation.

Tension vs compression

An S-cell can be used in tension (hanging) or compression (press / fixture), but the hardware is not interchangeable in your head.

Tension (crane, hoist, hanging tote). Load through the eye bolts, in line with the cell. The cell hangs in the hoist line. This is the recycler / rigger / seafood-tote job.

Compression (press, tank leg, coil-spring tester). The cell sits under a fixture. You do not hang a load from a compression setup, and you do not use a press fixture as a crane scale.

If the listing says tension/compression, that means the cell style can do both with the right hardware — not that one pair of eye bolts is correct for a press. Tell us which way the load runs when you order.

Eye bolts, rigging, and overload — read this

This kit is a scale in the load path. It is not a hoist. The crane, hoist, sling, and shackles have to be rated for the lift without counting on the load cell as a lifting device.

• Use rated eye bolts or shackles that match the cell threads and the load. Hardware-store eye bolts are not crane hardware.

• Thread them fully. Shoulder against the cell. No half-engagement.

• Load in line. Side load, shock from a swinging bucket, and twisting will wreck an S-cell and can drop the load.

• Do not wrap chain through the cell body. Do not use the cell as a master link.

• Do not stand under the load. Do not use the kit to weigh a person.

• Overload: if the lift might exceed the printed capacity — magnet pick, jammed tote, two-to-one snatch — you bought the wrong kit. Stop and size up.

• Shock load is real in a scrap yard. A 4,000 lb bucket that falls six inches into the sling is not a 4,000 lb static weighment.

If the cell is bent, the threads are pulled, or the zero will not hold, take it out of the hoist line. Call us. Do not “calibrate around” a damaged cell.

We will not publish a fake working-load multiplier. Stay inside the capacity on the product page.

Not legal for trade

Unless a listing is actually NTEP as a system and you have it placed in service, these kits are process scales.

• Weighing scrap for your own inventory: kit is appropriate.

• Weighing a tote so you know what went on the truck for your numbers: kit is appropriate.

• Selling by the pound off the hook, billing a customer from this readout, or using it as a commercial hanging scale: not these kits.

NTEP on a load cell (see the 2,500 lb S-type cell) is not NTEP on the hanging system. A plastic house indicator is not a legal-for-trade crane scale. We do not claim ISO 17025 on these kits.

If you need legal-for-trade hanging weight, call (832) 766-5410 and say so. We will not pretend the $449 5k kit is that.

Plain-English terms: NTEP vs legal for trade.

Recyclers, fabricators, seafood totes, riggers

Scrap / recycling. Hang the cell in the hoist line, indicator on the wall, peak/hold if the listing includes it. Size for the heaviest bucket plus shock. Cable is the weak point in a dirty yard — keep it off the floor and off the magnet.

Fab shop. Plate, weldments, and tank shells. A 5k or 10k kit is typical if the crane is already there. Do not use the scale to proof a hoist.

Seafood totes. Tension kit on a hoist over a tote. Washdown is not automatic — these house kits are not listed as IP-rated washdown crane scales on the live pages. If you hose the indicator, you own the failure. Ask for stainless readout if that is the environment (the 20k kit is the stainless-indicator option we found live).

Rigging. The kit tells you what you picked. It does not replace a dynamometer program, a load-test procedure, or rated gear. If you are load-testing a crane, that is a different instrument.

Cables and indicators

• 15' replacement cable for Optima OP-902 / LP7515 — $69

• Brecknell SBI-505 indicator — $399, if you are repairing or matching a Brecknell readout. Confirm connector (the shop also lists 5-pin SBI-505 cables). Do not assume SBI-505 is what ships in every 20k kit.

If the cable is cut, do not twist-nut it back together and call it calibrated. Order the cable that matches the indicator connector.

Order from Cypress

All Scales USA 21249 FM 529 Rd, Cypress, TX 77433

Call (832) 766-5410. Also: (281) 656-2666 · (832) 290-3120. Email pete@allscales.com.

Tell us: capacity, tension or compression, indoor or yard, and whether anyone is getting paid by this weight. We will put you on a live SKU, not a wish-list model.

The same team also runs MNM Scales and ek1200i.com; buy the kit on allscalesusa.com unless we send you a specific link.

Shop the collections: S-Type Crane Kits, Crane Scales, Hanging Scales, Load Cells, and NTEP Legal for Trade (these S-type kits are process weighing unless a listing says otherwise).

FAQ

Are these NTEP or legal for trade?

No — not as hanging kits. The live 5k, 10k, 15k, and 20k kit pages do not claim a legal-for-trade system. Do not sell by weight from them. If you need NTEP hanging, call and we will talk about a system that actually is.

Is an S-type kit as good as an MSI crane scale?

For process weight on a hoist, it does the job at a fraction of the price. It is not wireless MSI, not a sealed integrated hook, and not a substitute for rated lifting gear. If you need MSI, say MSI.

Tension or compression — which do I order?

Hanging a tote, magnet, or sling = tension, eye bolts in line. Press or fixture = compression, different mounting. Say which one when you call.

What size for a scrap yard?

Most yards that will not pay MSI money land on 10k or 15k so a heavy bucket plus shock does not pin the 5k. We do not have a live kit above 20,000 lb × 1 lb on allscalesusa.com. Over that, call.

Do I get a calibration certificate?

Several original kit listings said calibrated / ready to use. The live rewritten pages do not all repeat that. Ask when you order. We do not claim ISO 17025.

Can I use hardware-store eye bolts?

No. Use rated hardware that matches the cell. Side load and cheap eye bolts are how these fail.

MS720-15k — is that a livestock scale?

No. On this site MS720-15k and MS720-15K are 15,000 lb S-type crane/tension kits. Livestock platform kits are a different product.

You have four 15k links. Which one do I buy?

Call (832) 766-5410. Pick 1 lb vs 2 lb if you care; otherwise we will ship what is on the shelf and matches the capacity.