In this work, an adaptation-based method for deriving tuning guidelines for proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controllers that take explicitly into account the presence of nonlinear behavior is proposed. The central idea behind the proposed method is to adjust the PID controller parameters to force the nonlinear system response to follow a second order critically damped model reference (MR). The design method starts by using classical tuning guidelines (typically derived on the basis of linear approximations) to obtain reasonable bounds on the tuning parameters. A modifier technique will produce a correction signal to upgrade the PID controller signal to eliminate the relative error between the nonlinear system and the MR. The efficiency of the proposed tuning method is demonstrated through application to a hydraulic crane which is inherently nonlinear and contains components exhibiting strong friction, saturation, variable inertia mechanical loads, etc. The characteristics of these non-linear components are usually not known exactly as structure or parameters. It is found that the MR-PID control policy provided the most consistent performance in terms of rise time and settling time with set-point changes regardless of the nonlinearities characteristics.