4 Types of Tow Trucks and Their Uses [with Pictures & Names]

Introduction

Types of Tow Trucks and Their Uses [with Pictures & Names]: – The act of dragging a vehicle behind another vehicle is known as towing. The vehicle being towed is referred to as the trailer or dinghy, and the vehicle hauling it is referred to as the tow vehicle. Dinghy towing, trailer towing, trailering, and recovery towing are a few frequent towing techniques. ( Types of Trucks )

Tow trucks exist in various designs to suit various purposes, such as moving a broken-down automobile to a junkyard or a damaged vehicle to a repair facility. For everyday operations, tow truck businesses often rely on a select group of tow trucks and wreckers. Knowing the critical distinctions between the various tow truck kinds can help you choose the one that is best for your business. ( Types of Vehicles )

A tow truck is separate from a car carrier trailer, which is used in ordinary transport operations to move many new or used automobiles at the same time. The more weight a vehicle can haul with assurance depends on its weight. Although they are lighter than they formerly were, modern SUVs and trucks can nevertheless carry huge loads. The wheelbase, which measures the distance between the front and rear axles, indicates how safe a vehicle is to tow.

Different Types of Tow Trucks

The four primary tow truck types used by towing businesses nowadays are shown below. Hook and chain tow vehicles, wheel lift tow trucks, flatbed tow trucks, and integrated tow trucks are some of these tow trucks. Knowing the many tow truck kinds can help you choose the best one for your requirements:

1. Rollback or Flatbed Tow Truck: ( Types of Tow Trucks )

Tow trucks with flatbeds or rollbacks have an empty bed with a flat top on the back that can transport automobiles on top of it. These tow trucks use hydraulics to vertically shift the flatbed up or down when they need to install a car on their bed.

When a vehicle is ready for pickup, the operator sets the flatbed on the ground and drives the vehicle on top of it. The driver will use chains and a winch to hoist the car onto the truck if it is inoperable and unable to be driven. The tow truck’s robust hydraulic mechanism raises the bed and the car into a safe position behind the cab once it has been placed on the bed.

You’ll frequently see flatbed trucks on the road hauling automobiles since they’re simple to operate. They are typically used by towing businesses to carry cars that have been in accidents or have broken down on the highway.

Additionally well-liked is flatbed trucks since they permit secure automobile transportation. You don’t drag the car on the ground or apply any potentially hazardous pressure to pulled automobiles while using this tow truck. Instead, the flatbed handles everything, keeping the car safe from dangerous elements while it is transported.

2. Integrative Tow Truck: ( Types of Tow Trucks )

One of the primary categories of heavy-duty tow vehicles is integrated tow trucks. These trucks are experts in helping to retrieve and haul large, heavy vehicles like buses and rigs.

These tow trucks are often used to move automobiles for repossession or illegal parking since they can quickly connect to vehicles.

A wheel lift and boom are typically combined into a single element on an integrated tow truck. They also include an additional axle since they are made to tow huge, heavy automobiles.

By strengthening and stabilizing the tow truck, the second axle enables it to endure the heavy strain exerted on it during transportation. Additionally, integrated tow trucks have their arms installed in the truck’s core to give them more stability.

Operators don’t need to get out of the truck while picking up a car since they can manage the wheel lift system and boom from their cab. This ability to remain within the cab is beneficial when an operator wants to move quickly to seize a vehicle.

3. Hook and Chain Trucks: ( Types of Tow Trucks )

Tow trucks with hooks and chains are used by businesses to move abandoned autos. These vehicles have a large hook and chain fastened to the back. Operators can attach the hook to a cargo item or a vehicle that must be towed and pull it behind the truck as it travels down the road. When a user fastens the hook and chain to a car, it raises one side, hanging it in the air while leaving the wheels on the other side on the ground.

These tow trucks drag the car behind them as they bring it to its destination. This mode of transportation puts the bumper and other components of the automobile in danger, resulting in scratches and more severe damage. Additionally, since the dragging tends to damage these vehicles’ drivetrains, these tow trucks are incompatible with four-wheel or all-wheel drives.

Companies often only use hook and chain trucks for destroyed autos and other merchandise that doesn’t require careful handling due to possible damage during the towing procedure. These tow truck models used to be among the most common ones. They are still helpful for particular purposes, such as towing automobiles to junkyards.

4. Wheel Lift Tow Truck: ( Types of Tow Trucks )

A wheel lift tow truck is an improved version of the hook and chain truck that raises a vehicle’s front or rear while leaving the wheels on the opposite side of the road.

As it gets to its destination, the car is pulled behind the tow truck. These tow trucks are commonly used to move broken-down vehicles to repair shops.

A wheel lift tow truck secures the car using a metal yoke, in contrast to hook and chain tow trucks that use chains. The operator places a vehicle’s front or rear wheels beneath the metal yoke.

Using a pneumatic hoist or hydraulic lift, the car is partially raised in the air behind the tow truck. The driver may then take the tow truck and the car to the desired location after positioning the vehicle in this manner.

These tow trucks don’t stress the car much since they employ metal yokes rather than chains. As a consequence, unlike hook and chain trucks, they don’t harm the automobile, and operators don’t have to worry about denting a car’s bumper.

Uses of Tow Trucks

A tow truck is used to transport disabled, incorrectly parked, impounded, or otherwise indisposed motor vehicles. It is also referred to as a wrecker, breakdown truck, recovery vehicle, or breakdown lorry. This may entail rescuing a car that has been damaged in an accident, bringing a car back to drivable condition after an accident or bad weathe,r, or towing or flat-bedding a car to a garage or other destination.

Conclusion

You may outfit your towing business with one of our concealed wheel lift devices from Lift & Tow. Our concealed wheel lift towing systems are simple to install, allowing businesses to convert pickup trucks into towing vehicles easily. We take pride in providing concealed lift types that work with most medium- and heavy-duty pickup vehicles. Our towing systems are entirely concealed while not in use since they attach to a truck’s underbody.

Your operators won’t need to get out of their trucks to pick up a car if you use our Z series towing equipment since it is self-loading and remote-controlled. The device is ideal for repossession agents who need to pick up automobiles because of its soft-loading capability rapidly. Our wheel lift types are popular among customers due to their low cost and sturdy, high-quality construction.

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