Unsolicited suggestion for bodybuilders

[drcampbell]

I needed to get a car out of a high-rise condo building's underground parking garage this week.

The tool for the job was a standard short wheelbase 6x4 1-ton cab/chassis with an ordinary wheel-lift aftermarket body. The garage offers six feet of clearance.

There's not much a bodybuilder can do about the height of the cab, short of installing spinners & twenties, lowrider suspension or chopping & channeling the bodywork. And this bodybuilder had gone to the extra effort of installing the lightbar on a hinge, so it could be folded down for clearance and folded back up to be visible.

But the light bar bracket is two or three inches higher than the cab, and that meant we couldn't pull the car out of the garage. Due to the approach slope and breakover angles, the truck would only fit through the door if it was facing in, so we had to drop the car, back the truck out, turn the truck around, back it down to -- but not into -- the doorway, push the car up to the doorway by hand and reach the wheel lift through the doorway to complete the job.

If your customers do downtown work like this, even a few inches less height will offer them increased productivity and a competitive advantage. Think about it.

Brand names have been omitted to protect the guilty.

[Mr_Roboto]

The wrecker bodies will be built to fit the truck with the tallest cab, and the pylon still has to be higher than the can so the light bar can be seen. Some of the newer light bars are very low profile, under a couple inches tall.

Ideally a repo type pickup could be used in low clearance situations.

There is no reason why you should charge the standard rate when the owner CHOSE to park in a building that was inaccessible to a standard tow truck. I'm thinking 2 - 4 times the standard rate depending on difficulty.

I don't tow out of parking decks (only 3 in the whole county) but I do charge extra for service calls in them.

[88beast]

if a light bad is your problem they now make led ones ive seen which are about 1 in thick

[Mr_Roboto]

WTH ?! ROFLMAO.

[Dualie]

may I ask what chassis this was mounted to? 95% of the work truck bodies are designed to fit the fords the best. If this was on a Chevy than it could be the problem.


Also I seen a wrecker service use GO jacks and a ford ranger to remove a SUV from a parking garage. I talked to they guy and he said he loved these and would do them all day long for 5X the going rate for a normal tow. He had a dynamic self loader on a 550 there with a twin line and a PETE 335 roll back.

he was training the other guys how to do this when he couldn't help. The ranger was the only truck that would fit in the 6' underground. and even if the self loader would it couldn't pick the suv and get it out of the garage anyhow.

[toalpi]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: drcampbell</div><div class="ubbcode-body">I needed to get a car out of a high-rise condo building's underground parking garage this week........

The garage offered six feet clearance to the ceiling.

...................

Brand names have been omitted to protect the guilty.
</div></div> The guilty party is/was the guy that designed the building. I couldn't even walk upright in that garage. It should be declared a confined space and closed to the public. We don't need "trucks" with lower bumpers and frame heights. Trucks "need" much more ground clearance than cars. Trucks are used to build and maintain the roads. Cars can use the roads, but everything should be designed for use by trucks. The bumper sticker that I would like to see; My other car is ALSO a truck.

[AlH]

I used to have a reserved spot in a city owned garage. Several times when I asked them to tow a car parked in MY spot they never would manage to get it done. Turns out none of the tow truck companies wanted to fool with a car in a tight, vertically and horizontally, garage.....

[drcampbell]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Mr_Roboto</div><div class="ubbcode-body">The wrecker bodies will be built to fit the truck with the tallest cab, and the pylon still has to be higher than the can so the light bar can be seen. </div></div>
In this case, the light bar is more like a signboard and about 16 inches tall - plenty visible when erect. It's hinged to provide clearance, but the hinge pin is two or three inches higher the the cab roof in the folded-down position. Mounting the hinge pin lower so the highest point of the aftermarket body is lower than the cab roof in the folded-down position ain't exactly rocket science.


<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Mr_Roboto</div><div class="ubbcode-body">There is no reason why you should charge the standard rate when the owner CHOSE to park in a building that was inaccessible to a standard tow truck. I'm thinking 2 - 4 times the standard rate depending on difficulty. </div></div>
Who ever said anything about rates? I'm talking increased productivity and competitive advantage here. As it was, it took an hour and a half. With more clearance, I could do four additional jobs like it per shift and still charge extra for "confined-space work".
When a bodybuilder recognizes this and implements a smarter design, it can become a selling point.


<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: toalpi</div><div class="ubbcode-body"> The guilty party is/was the guy that designed the building. I couldn't even walk upright in that garage. It should be declared a confined space and closed to the public. We don't need "trucks" with lower bumpers and frame heights. </div></div>
Sooo ... are you Dilbert's pointy-haired boss? A program manager for one of the Big Three?

Who, exactly is "we" that you're pontificating about not needing more clearance? Different people have different needs.

I shouldn't have said "ceiling" the first time - the ceiling's plenty high enough but with occasional obstacles (light fixtures, fire-suppression piping and the entry doorway) which bring down the minimum clearance in spots. There is no problem with the building.

But whatever the exact situation, the building exists and so do thousands like it. Do the math: There are 200-plus parking spaces in this building, each of which rents for ~$100 per month and offers secure, weatherproof access. You try to persuade 200 people their garage should be closed - I'll sit by the sidelines and sell torches.

[LMJD]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">WTH ?! </div></div>
Roboto, agreed, and is there no end in sight? [img]/forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/grin.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/sick.gif[/img]

[Mr_Roboto]

I'm with Toalpi, parking garages are insane. How much more would it cost to have a building that is 5" taller on each floor??!! Although I have to admit that the newest parking deck built in this area (upscale shopping center) was tall enough for me to fit an E-350 into WITH a light bar on top. I still had a couple inches clearance. So about any light duty wrecker would have fit easily.

Even if manufacturers made a slightly shorter wrecker bed available, very few wreckers these days are built on 1 ton chassis. Most new light duty wreckers are F-450 or F-550 or equivelent and the cab tops would be taller than the "standard" parking deck.

My old wrecker I fabricated special bolts, and put wing nuts on them to mount the light bar. This way I could take the whole thing off and sit it on the bed for parking deck work. With the 20+ year sagged springs I bet it would have fit in a 6' parking deck with no issues. I still refer some parking deck work to the guy I sold the truck to.