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Towing


Powerram

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3 hours ago, autumnwalker said:

lol - I just saw the door emblem. Clever. 

What is a "wheellift"?

This truck can take two vehicles at once, one on top, and one on the back like a wrecker tow truck, it lifts the vehicle from the wheels

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Here is a pic of a wheellift being used on a flat bed tow truck. And a pic of a wrecker truck towing a Lambo I think, Wrecker tow trucks are better than the deck trucks for many reasons  in my opinion, and can take any vehicle from jeeps to Ferrari, but decks have there place and can take two at once, also the general misinformed public thinks there suburu or jeep or AWD or 4x4 and lowered civics and Mustangs, and trans am , need to be on a flatbed, so they always request a flat bed,  but they can go on a wrecker just as easily. Not singling anyone, just stating what I see out there, Once I get the deck truck rolling, hoping to bring a wrecker on board. A deck truck can only drag things, a wrecker can pick them up.

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On 12/17/2019 at 11:08 PM, Powerram said:

also the general misinformed public thinks there suburu or jeep or AWD or 4x4 and lowered civics and Mustangs, and trans am , need to be on a flatbed, so they always request a flat bed,  but they can go on a wrecker just as easily. Not singling anyone, just stating what I see out there

Interesting ... the dealer told me to always flat deck the AWD Hummers. The user manual also states that "dolly towing" will wreck it: "Notice: Dolly towing your vehicle will damage drivetrain components. Do not dolly tow your vehicle."

That being said, with the Lambo picture above, it looks like all sets of tires are up off the ground so, technically, nothing in the Lambo's drivetrain would be moving here, correct?

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On 12/20/2019 at 2:01 PM, autumnwalker said:

Interesting ... the dealer told me to always flat deck the AWD Hummers. The user manual also states that "dolly towing" will wreck it: "Notice: Dolly towing your vehicle will damage drivetrain components. Do not dolly tow your vehicle."

That being said, with the Lambo picture above, it looks like all sets of tires are up off the ground so, technically, nothing in the Lambo's drivetrain would be moving here, correct?

Yes, you are correct, nothing moving , the car doesn't even know it's moving, or being towed, and that is an AWD Lambo . 

 But , you cannot tow it on a dolly behind a pickup truck, that's what they are referring to dolly towing, but with a wrecker tow truck , and the dollies on a wrecker tow truck, all 4 wheels are off the ground, none making road contact. 

Another benefit of a wrecker, what if your wheels didn't turn, like a transmission that won't come out of park, or something in the driveline preventing your car from rolling, or you went to the store, pulled into the parking space nose in with wheels full lock , ran in, los your keys and now need to be towed to the dealership for new keys, steering at full turn, steering wheel locked and vehicle in park, yes I can get it with the deck, but it will be ugly for you to watch, your car drug from its parking space , then drug sideways to line up with the deck and then drug up the deck, and then slid down the deck when dropped off at the dealership,  where a wrecker could back up, jackknife to the back of the car and pick up the wheels, dolly the steering wheels and just pull away, and equally as easily set it down at the destination. Now does dragging the car to the deck hurt it, the answer is no, it's just ugly to watch. Either truck can do the work, and there is positive things a deck can do too, keeps the vehicle up out of road debris and road spray, cars that run can be driven up the deck making quick loading, and most decks can take two vehicles at the same time, except the deck I use at work, can only take one car at a time as it doesn't have a wheellift. 

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  • 2 months later...

Update, My towtruck is in a shop to have the repairs done and MVI, I believe I left it with the best, I have picked up the parts needed for the MVI, nothing major, mostly little things,  it's a smaller shop iv left it with so it's not first in line, but I know they will get to it when they can. Getting pretty excited. 

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 3/12/2020 at 3:34 PM, ovrlndr said:

you much be excited to get it fixed up 🙂

Oh buddy.... Im pumped!! Shaking like going through withdrawal, can't sleep, chest tight, I'm ready for this!!

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  • 1 month later...
  • 4 weeks later...

Got the truck home, Shop did everything I asked them to, yesterday I saw that the antifriction pads were missing in the rear location of the deck. Ended up getting a sheet of UHMW ( Ultra High Molecular Weight ) polyethylene. It's a very dense very slippery surface , used between the aluminum deck and the steel subcarrier. It was a bit of a chore to cut but I got it cut and placed in the plate. I have enough uhmw to replace all the pads and the strips . Then onto wiring , the deck side marker light have been out since iv owned the truck , so now they are operational, also the upper signal lights didn't have brake lights, found the issue, made some wire swaps and now they function with brakes and signals. I put my youngest to work on polishing. And she did pretty good.  Few more minor things to do, more updates as they get done

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On 5/16/2020 at 11:58 AM, autumnwalker said:

Great progress! Wheel looks good 🙂

Thanks, more progress today, got the headache rack bolted down, it used to just sit in the stake pockets but was partially torn out , did some drilling, rerouting wires, fixed some wires going to the lights on the headache rack in the process, did some body adjustments on the fender, the pass door was binding slightly, waiting on some engine mounts and some sleeper bunk mounts and a new pair of front signal lights. After those items were finished up, I did some more polishing , here is the before and after

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On 5/19/2020 at 9:40 AM, autumnwalker said:

Need more pics of the whole rig!

Here ya go, in its current state, interior is finished up for now and back together, and body is going to have to stay faded yellow for now. It's down to the final details, a couple of mounts and some minor repairs on the deck

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8 hours ago, autumnwalker said:

Wow! That interior looks mint!

Thanks, it cleaned up pretty good, the interior was a positive point of decisions to purchase this truck, I also have some pics of this truck when it was rebuilt in the 90's. It has an interesting history with alot of sitting around.  There is a Toromont Cat reman engine in it, and I don't believe there is much for milage on it, it's showing 150,000kms on it. And I don't think it was a tow truck its entire life, but am not sure of its previous history

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23 minutes ago, autumnwalker said:

Isn't it "odd" for a tow truck to have a sleeper?

Nope, most heavy towtrucks have sleepers, but mine is kind of light being only single rear axle, I'd say the med duty trucks are not as common to have a sleeper, but most of the heavy towtrucks with tandem or tri axles have a sleeper

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