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The Perfect Union
WHEN CARRIER MEETS WRECKER
By Randy Olson, Vice President of Marketing
You may remember from the last issue of ON CALL 24/7, John
Hawkins discussed the side pulling capabilities of the SP-850 XP
on heavy-duty units. He walked us down memory lane comparing the
SP-850 XP to the capabilities of the old split boom mechanical
wreckers Holmes manufactured decades ago. Our industry has
indeed changed quite a bit over the past years, with one of the
most dramatic changes being the use of car carriers.
Several decades ago, a fleet may have consisted of six to ten
wreckers and one carrier. In many instances today, that number
is reversed. A carrier provides the ability to haul a wide
variety of loads, eliminates the need for dollies with crashed,
4-wheel or all-wheel drive vehicles, and has the ability to
transport more then one vehicle at a time. The carrier’s one
downside is the lack of true recovery capabilities. Although
some towers may use it as a recovery tool, most carrier
manufacturers don’t condone nor recommend it for recovery and
many law enforcement agencies will not allow it in place of a
tow truck for contracts or rotation.
Although many of you may be quick to point out it has the same
winch as your tow truck, let’s look at how it is attached to the
vehicle. On a recovery boom, the winch is bolted into a winch
bucket that is bolted or welded securely to the boom, boom pylon
or body subframe. The body has a structural subframe designed to
have winching forces exerted on it, which is then securely
bolted to your truck chassis.
Now let’s examine a car carrier. The winch is bolted to the
carrier deck which may be constructed of steel or aluminum, and
that deck is held on by a single cylinder, pinned on each end,
that slides back and forth on a subframe which also tilts and is
attached with a single pivot pin at the rear and two lift
cylinders at the front of the unit. Since the deck needs the
ability to tilt and slide, it is not rigidly secured to your
truck chassis like a
recovery boom. And even if a winch was securely mounted on a
carrier deck, having the space to winch off the rear of a
carrier would require extra lane closures due to the length of a
car carrier compared to that of a light-duty tow truck.
Located in the small town of Mountain Home, Idaho, Chuck
Ceccarelli of Idaho Wrecker
Sales, a distributor for both Century and Chevron products,
pondered these questions as he analyzed the equipment in his own
towing fleet. Out there, it’s not uncommon to send a truck over
90 miles in this rural area only to find the vehicle or location
is not quite as described and you have the wrong equipment for
the job. Chuck’s dream was to combine the transport capability
of a car carrier with the recovery capability to handle a
vehicle down a steep embankment on a narrow mountain road.
Chuck, who has several other patents to his credit, sat down and
began to draw up plans for his first Sidepuller: A unit with a
winch rigidly mounted in a framework that bolted securely to the
truck chassis in front of the carrier deck, and featured a
removable sheave head that allowed the operator to winch off
either side of the truck using a hydraulic or manual stiff leg.
Chuck’s vision became reality and over the past several years,
the popularity of the SP8000™ Sidepuller has continued to grow,
with many customers returning for a second and even third unit.
Besides the increased versatility of being able to use a carrier
for both recovery and transport, towers expressed feelings of
added safety since they could work a recovery from the shoulder
of the road. With his years of recovery experience and his
knowledge from being a certified WreckMaster instructor, Chuck
knew the features important for rigging many recoveries, such as
plenty of tie-off points for snatch blocks and a low pull D
ring. Optional features included a wireless winch remote and an
ice grouser for extra holding power on those cold Idaho
mornings. In addition to the benefits of the SP8000™ on a
carrier, customers were now requesting it be installed on light-
and medium-duty towing and recovery units and, late last year, a
20,000-lb. version was introduced that can be mounted on a heavy
industrial carrier or on a heavy -duty tow truck for side
recoveries with minimal lane blockage.
With close to 200 units in the field and business growing faster
than his manufacturing capabilities, and the need for nationwide
distribution, Chuck sat down with his friends at Miller
Industries and reached an agreement. Miller Industries would
begin to produce the SP8000™ and SP20,000™ at their Greenville,
Tennessee, manufacturing facility and sell and service it
through their worldwide network of Century, Vulcan and Chevron
distributors. Jeff Badgley, President and Co-CEO of Miller
Industries, said, “We have been impressed with Chuck’s ideas and
designs and look forward to having him continue to work closely
with our engineers on this project along with some exciting new
concepts yet to come.
“We have always found that the best ideas - starting with Ernest
Holmes’ original twin boom wrecker - originate with an idea on
how to solve a problem or need for an operator trying to
complete a difficult task,” Badgley said. “The Sidepuller is one
of those products that could have significant impact on the
future of the towing industry in years to come.” |
Article appeared in ON CALL 24/7
Summer 2006
Volume 2, Issue 2 |
