Stubborn66

Aside from the bars that will direct traffic, does anyone use the different patterns? I have a bunch of patterns on mine but I have selected what I see as the most random and I haven't changed it.

I have not had a car I could not load. The tires are outside of the casualty and the cross bars rest on the ground until you ratchet them up. I bought the larger tires because of all the reasons you listed

Wow, I must be living right. Customer just said to mail them to him, he has extra keys!!

So, I read this the other day and questioned myself about my habit of putting the keys in my pocket. I put the keys in my pocket so I don't get locked out of a vehicle on the bed, never had an issue. TODAY, busy day, finally forgot to leave the keys with a car at a local repair shop UUGH. Now, I get to take a trip in the morning to deliver keys LOL. Maybe I can talk the wife into it????

I still think I would try a cheap 30 foot strap and use it like a cruise loop and go around the outside of the back window and down under the front, even if you have to dig out to get it under just the control arms. That would spread out the stress as it lifts under the control arms when you are winching to get it up and out of the mire.

Damn, I dont have any money rocks around here. Need to get a few LOL

Can you run a strap around the back window, down under and out through the front, might spread the force out enough to keep them together? I think you are going to bend your self loader arms with the extensions, 1200# multiplied by the extensions it going to put a lot of force on those arms

Like Grumps said, charge for the skates, skates work well. I am not sure the clubs pay for skates though either For me, my bed on my roll back is steel and the angle at the bottom is not good. I have to double the skates to get the tire over the lip. If a club calls me with a stuck in park, I take the wrecker and get paid for the dollies.

Welcome Ed, Your right, there is a lot of knowledge on these pages and everyone is helpful. I am in North eastern Pa. I cant wait to get up north on Tug Hill on the snowmobiles!! I am one of those nuts that loves the snow, even when I have to drive in it LOL Tracy

PA, they should not be on. Brian is well versed in the law and sent me the information below. I had also run the wrecker with the amber lights on and no tow lights if my upper wrecker lights were visible. Now I just put the tow lights on everything and leave the amber light off. In Pennsylvania it is unlawful to run your amber lights unless you are stationary and/or a hazard to traffic. The reason is that Pennsylvania requires tow lights to be displayed at the rearmost possible location on a vehicle in tow and otherwise only permits the display of flashing amber lights by tow trucks in tow if the load is unsafe or the stop/tail/turn lights are obstructed. To get to the definitive answer you need to follow a few different sections of our Vehicle Code and other Statutes. First you need to read; § 4572.1. Flashing or revolving yellow and white lights. (a) General rule.--Tow trucks may be equipped with one or more flashing or revolving yellow lights and one or more flashing or revolving white lights. The manner in which the light or lights shall be displayed shall be determined by regulation of the department. (b) Limitations.--The flashing or revolving yellow and white lights on tow trucks shall be activated only when the vehicle is actively performing the type of work which is the basis of the designation of the vehicle as an authorized vehicle or is within the vicinity of an emergency response area. Tow trucks shall not operate with activated flashing or revolving yellow and white lights when: (1) Not engaged in the act of towing a vehicle. (2) Brake lights, turn signals and operating lights are visible from the rear and not obstructed. (3) The vehicle being towed does not trail behind the tow truck and is securely positioned on the flatbed of the tow truck with no parts of the towed vehicle overhanging. (c) Penalty.--Unauthorized use of the lights specified in this subsection shall be a summary offense punishable by a fine of $50. (Oct. 19, 2018, P.L.547, No.83, eff. 60 days) 2018 Amendment. Act 83 added section 4572.1. Then you apply the section of Code you already have found which in effect nullifies the most common reason cited for displaying amber lights while in tow, obstructed stop/tail/turn lights. Also note (b) (3) above which prohibits the display of amber flashing lights when using a flatbed. For a more detailed explanation of emergency lighting rules nationwide see the May 2019 edition of American Towman Magazine where I have published a fairly detailed and mostly current (a few states have change slightly since publication) article on this subject.

That should make you a good truck. Looks like your truck has the 8 foot bed, many of the crew cabs have the shorter beds so you could probably get them on but you will run into some that wont fit.

I played around with the caliper on a jeep the other day, as I thought, a stepper motor and you reverse the polarity. There is no easy way to do it along side the road. I have been telling the clubs I need to use dollies to prevent damage and they have not give me an issue

That is a great looking truck, ready to make money for many more years

Grumps, I get a nephew making $15.00 an hour at Mickey D's. I dont know if this guy is still around in our area, been about a year or so since I fixed that car. He had knocked the chrome caps off two of the lugs as I recall and proceeded to make a mess of what was left.

We have a guy running around here doing road service in a car and apparently has a Google ad to get business. He has a magnetic light on his car and carries tools in his trunk, cash only. I found this out when he stripped the lugs off a car and I ended up towing it back to the shop to fix it. I looked for the Google ad and could not find it. We also had a customer at the shop who locked their keys in their car and they called AAA to get it unlocked ( I wont do lock outs) and the AAA guy showed up in his personal car without any markings on it. I have a pick up that I use for road service to save running the bigger trucks but I don't think it's very professional to use a car, especially if it is not well marked and has proper lighting. As far as the picture, if it didn't have the proper handicap placard displayed, then it should be a candidate to be towed in my opinion. I don't do that kind of tow so I am not well versed in the laws

Still here living the dream

Thanks, I wanted a little more detail of the expenses but I basically came up with the same number. My challenge is that the trucks have been mostly used to bring work back to the shop so the shop carried them. I am getting into more and more outside work and looking to hire a driver/ mechanic so I wanted to make sure I am covering all the costs. Below is my calcs, did I miss anything? The big surprise for me was the cost of insurance. I broke out only the truck insurance to get to this number, my general shop liability is not included. I need to add the driver salary and a profit for the company to those calcs, but where is stands, it cost .89 per mile to run the trucks and I am basing that on 25MPH. Fuel $0.25 Tags $0.18 Insurance $0.30 Depreciation/ maintenance $0.16 0.89 salary driver Profit company

I have done my cost per mile to operate the trucks a couple different ways. I am wondering how you guys calculate your insurance cost per mile. I ended up using my insurance cost per year and divided that by the number of miles I run the trucks on an assumption. I would be interested in how you may calculate yours thanks Tracy

Well, I got bored over the weekend and was looking at some posts and came across this. I had to email them and they got back to me. Hi, Tracy, Thanks for reaching out about this article. We apologize for publishing erroneous information, and the article in question has been removed. I definitely realize the importance of accurate information, especially when it comes to something like towing safety. We do strive to check our sources thoroughly, but this article slipped through the cracks. We'll do a better job moving forward of fact checking thoroughly during the editing process to avoid repeating this mistake again. Thanks again, and happy holidays! -- Cat Hiles Managing Editor TheNewsWheel.com 937-485-0663

Guys, If you have dual side controls use them. As someone who does not have dual side controls that is the one thing that the next rollback will have, thankfully the wrecker does and I use them. I had my first close call a week ago, and with all of the discussion about lighting, moth to a flame effect, etc. I can tell you that none of that made any difference in my situation. The issue was the "me first and to hell with everyone else" attitude that is the world we live in today. Night time, rain, long straight away, rural road with a posted 55mph speed limit. I was forced to take a lane to get a breakdown up on the bed. I had not seen another car while I got the driver up in my cab and hooked up, then. Three cars coming in my lane, one coming in the opposing lane. The first of the three cars was bound and determined to beat the car coming in the opposing lane and not have to stop and wait for that car to pass. I actually heard her engine when she stepped on the gas to gain speed, at that point I left the controls and hopped over the bed and watched. It was a younger girl and she beat the other car past my truck but only because the opposing car slammed on his brakes when he realized what she was up to. The other three cars in my lane had immediately started to slow down and let the opposing car pass before going around me. The mindset of that first driver was the difference and we have no control over that. That was too close for comfort. Stay Safe

I remember the flat bed, I dont remember the wrecker. that was one hell of a hit, I hope he survived

Most. if not all of these systems use an electric motor on the back of the rear calipers to apply the brakes. They also have a feature that applies the parking brake if the car door is opened so you cant get in, release the brake, open the door to get back out and have the brake stay released. I have had them that would let me release the brake with the door open, when I got out and shut the door and started to winch, the brakes had re-applied themselves. I found that I have to lean in the open window and get the brake released without opening the door after or the brakes would re-apply. To do that, I found that I need a rod to push on the brake pedal with the key on while I release the brake. I have not verified yet, but these electric motors would need to be reversible to apply and release the brake caliper piston. Applying voltage in the right polarity at the rear caliper would bypass the system. The challenge in the field would be to get to the rear calipers, unhook the factory plug, install a jumper in the right polarity to release the brakes. I would imagine that there are many different plug configurations. If the plug configurations were standard a set of jumpers could be made, but would that be easier than skates, or dollies? Skates, dollies and get paid for it.

i dont work for 10 of them but here is what I do 1 NSD 2 Geico 3 All State 4 Road side assist 5 Agero 6 Pinnacle

Congratulations to Howard. I have been around auto repair and towing most of my life and could always find a way to get the job done, but I took my first WreckMaster courses this year. I am glad I did and I will follow up with more classes next year.

I cant imagine the driver didn't know it was there. Then again, they now issue Automatic Only CDL's.