AJ's Louisville Towing
AJ’s Towing has served the Louisville, KY, and Kentuckiana areas and nearby communities since 2013.
Not all tow trucks are created equal. There are several types of trucks available, depending on your needs or situation, it’s essential to choose one that functions correctly for your car.
When you call for or dispatch a tow truck, you might get the first available, but it pays to find out which is available for you if you want a particular type.
Flatbed Tow Truck
A flatbed tow truck will look slightly different from the standard tow trucks you may be familiar with seeing. This is because the flatbed tow truck has a large flatbed a vehicle can sit on completely.
The back of the flatbed truck allows the car to be loaded into a flatbed.
The flatbed slides out and then tilts to the ground.
After the car is in a flatbed tow truck, it can be secured using Winch, and the road will return to the correct placement.
The rear of the flatbed trucks is powered by hydraulics and will involve a load limit.
The best thing about a flatbed tow truck is making the whole car completely outside the ground.
They allow car risk damage that is much smaller than riding along the way. One reason you need a flatbed truck is if your vehicle ultimately numbers.
Sometimes there is no way to get the car to travel the road itself; therefore, it’s lifted and placed on the flatbed tow truck.
When the car can no longer drive on its own, the Winch will pull the vehicle the flatbed. The truck’s back end extends out of the back of the vehicle.
Hook and Chain Tow Truck
This type of tow truck is the most popular. This type of tow truck pulls your car with a wide hook, usually with the vehicle’s back wheels on the road. You will see a hook at the back end of the truck hook and chain to secure the hook to the axle or car bumper.
The chain will then go around the car frame. When this already exists, a boom will lift the car from the ground, and the rear wheel will remain in its place.
This truck will draw a car while the vehicle’s back end is on the ground.
Although the hook type and chain truck design started the towing industry, it is not widely used because of the damage to the car.
There is minor potential damage when all the chains are wrapped, and the car is lifted. However, truck hooks and chains are still good for cars, and you will often see them in the situation.
Wheel Lift Tow Truck
The hook and chain tow truck and the wheel lift tow truck are very similar. The good news is that there are no hooks or chains involved with the wheel lift. Instead, the wheel lift trucks will use a yoke, which is a device linked to the back of the tow truck that runs under the car’s front wheels.
It can lift and tow the car when the back wheels are still on the ground when it goes beneath the front wheels. The front bumper is less likely to be damaged because there is no chain in place. One of the best things about wheel lift tow trucks is how simple, quick, and uncomplicated they operate. It’s a great truck to consider if you need to get your car off the highway rather quickly.
If you watch a skilled tow truck driver, they can hook up and haul away with one of these kinds of trucks in a couple of minutes.
You may observe that these trucks are hauling a car on the front wheels and that the back wheels are being lifted at other times.
Most of the time, the front wheels are suspended in the air, but if the car is difficult to remove, the back wheels can also be used.
Integrated Tow Trucks
If you have a larger vehicle, an integrated tow truck, a large and powerful truck will be required. Most people don’t consider it, but trucks and buses break down frequently. A standard tow truck would struggle to pull something like this, but an integrated tow truck is designed for the job.
These tow trucks have an extra axle, which gives them a lot more power and stability. They are built for large, heavy loads and can help vehicles get out of sticky situations.
An integrated tow truck’s arm is located right at the vehicle’s center. Directly in the center of the vehicle.
This arm is extremely stable and will allow this truck to pull even more loads. However, if your RV breaks down during your next vacation, the integrated tow truck will come in handy.
Oversized Towing
Aside from the integrated tow trucks, you may encounter oversized towing vehicles. These are heavy-duty vehicles capable of towing and transporting large-scale operations. You might see these towing large boats or vehicles down the road, but they aren’t your typical tow truck.
Most small towing companies will not have these in their fleet, but they are available if you need to move some large cars or construction equipment.
Boom Tow Truck
A boom tow truck is a vehicle equipped with a hydraulic arm. The boom is the hydraulic arm on a boom truck. This boom will extend past the vehicle’s end and grab the vehicles that need to be towed. Once you’ve seen a boom truck, it will look more like an electrical work truck than a tow truck.
On the other hand, the boom is used for various purposes, one of which is to tow a vehicle. The truck’s boom remains in a fixed position, which allows it to be a very durable option for towing.
A boom truck would tow a vehicle for many years, just like the hook and chain tow trucks pull a car.
A sling or a belt is now commonly attached to boom trucks.
These slings or belts will result in less general wear and tear and will allow you to get a vehicle out of a bad situation in a short period of time.
Conclusion
Some people are taken aback by the sheer number of tow trucks on the market. But, unfortunately, this is yet another example of something that is not as simple as it appears. All drivers should have general knowledge of the various types of tow trucks because you never know when you might need one.
You’re probably going to pay for a specific type of truck, so get the one that will protect your car and safely deliver it to your destination.