Austin Jacob

Yeah you gotta have synthetic to get away with it, not only did I get away with adding 50 feet but I also went from 3/8 to 7/16 rope. I’ve never looked back and have only ever broken a 7/16 rope on my sidepuller after the sheave plate popped off and the sheave went inverted getting it caught on a sharp edge in between the sheave wheel and sheave housing. That’s my only complaint about the stuff and it’s more so a complaint with the sidepuller sheave head design. No idea what causes that plate to pop off driving down the road but I’ve done it twice now and need to just stow the damn thing in the boxes from now on.

I have a 8000 on the bed and a 9000 on my sidepuller, bed was at 150 but I downgraded to 100 for cost savings, never had an issue but I also never needed both ropes to be full length, and if I do I have rigging to bridge the gap. The sidepuller still has 150. It would never work with steel, I have tried… but with rope I have had no issues.

I don’t have any problems keeping 150 foot straight on my bed or sidepuller so long as you keep tension on it and snatch block properly. As for power yes each wrap takes away winching power but I have never stalled my winch pulling something up my bed that actually belongs on it, never stalled it at pulling stuff up the bed actually but I don’t go overloading it. It’s pulled 550 dump trucks in park no problem up the bed.

What I have also found if you are overloading it whether it be on purpose or on accident, unlike steel wire rope it does not give you audible crackling and popping feedback to let you know you are probably getting into the danger zone, with rope it breaks in a much more controlled manner but it doesn’t give any real feedback that it’s going to break, it just pops out of nowhere. Learned that when a surprise stump was under a car in the woods and I didn’t catch it, figured and easy pull and it was not and it popped my first 3/8 rope, that is why I upsized so my 8,000 pound winch will stall before it ever breaks my rope in good condition.

In terms of steel you have fiber core and regular steel core, and then you have “super swagged” fiber core is loser and easier to manipulate but weaker. steel core is of course stronger but it’s harder to manipulate and has more memory to it so you need to baby it on the drum more or itll be a pain to correct later. super swagged, in my experience it’s the strongest but it’s real mean to work with, very hard to manipulate and very splintered, had it on my truck all but a week as every time I’d touch it even with gloves I’d get a nasty splinter. And then finally you have my go to, what I’ve run for the last few years, synthetic rope. it has a lot of pros and cons, Pros it floats on water, it’s light, it’s strong, requires no tensioner, doesn’t really care how it’s spooled on the drum, and real light to free spool, and easily repairable even in the field with the right tools. of course it’s rope so it’s easily manipulated, and my favorite part is you can usually upsize the rope one size and still fit it in the same hole on the winch, and you can fit more on the drum than you could steel, I run 150 feet of 7/16 where I could probably only get 100 foot of 3/8 in steel. as for the cons, doesn’t fair well with abrasives, has to be babied as any sharp edges and it’s done for, does get faded from the whether and does soak in and discolor from different fluids, and it is pricey.

Hello, I hope I am posting this in the correct place, If not I apologize. To start our company has just purchased our first heavy/medium duty wrecker, It is a single axle 25-ton Jerrdan HDL 500/280, It has a 9k front axle weight and about 17k on the rear, I am not entirely sure of the capabilities of this truck but my math on safe front axle weights brings me to about 10k I can lift with the under lift retracted which doesn't seem like a lot, being a single axle braking power comes into question as well so I figure it's a heavy medium duty as I don't know that I'd be too comfortable pulling a fully loaded tractor-trailer down the road with it, although I believe it probably could. So this leads to my problem, as we have never owned equipment with these capabilities as well as I am on the fence about what I need to advertise it towards, and I am having a tough time finding work for it. So for starts should I advertise toward tractor-trailers and filter out the ones that are too heavy or just avoid them altogether? As for finding accounts, I am starting the process of getting set for the bigger Uhauls, I have tried to reach out to NSD and Penske, but I have had no response from Penske and am not making much progress with NSD as of yet but have got an application submitted. I am finding it pretty difficult to find carriers, rental companies, etc that have a straightforward way to contact them or apply to become a provider for these bigger trucks and fleet vehicles. Who can I contact to acquire accounts for the heavy side, What companies have provider applications, for the companies that don't, which motor clubs do they have to provide their towing needs? I know there are guys with a lot of these accounts and a lot of experience handling them, To them I ask who do I need to contact and get involved with? If anyone could give some insight on what my wreckers capabilities truly are and what I should advertise for, And who I can advertise to that would be greatly appreciated. I am a young guy who has never been outside of the light-duty world, I know the light-duty side pretty well and I know the physical side of the heavies but I am not at all familiar with the business side of the heavies at all. Thanks, Austin Jacob.

Agero actually has an automated call for dispatching over the phone interestingly, So whether or not your digital you still won't get dispatched their club calls from an actual human being. Our company has actually just recently switched from traditional pen and paper methods to towbook, a few years back we were still doing post it notes and text messages, now we use towbooks digital dispatching, We are working on switching phone providers to a company which offers a push to talk feature that we will have to look into as well, but that likely wouldn't be used as a dispatching feature and would more likely be used to check up on drivers, make sure they saw the dispatched calls on their phone if they are not marked en route, etc.