Car hauling with flatbed wrecker?

@KANSAS TRANSIT once posted a nice custom build for that idea.

 

I'm not much of a businessman but I can probably come up with a few tips on the actual operation of that type of rig.

In my previous gig I drove a rollback wrecker for a small "mom & pop" operation. We weren't getting as much business as we'd have liked by just towing, so we hooked up with a salvage auto exporter hauling cars to the local terminals for export. I will say there is one advantage to using this style of setup: you aren't just limited to one type of business. If we weren't hauling cars to the port, I would often find myself doing transports for auctions like Manheim, IAA or Copart. If that was slow, we could always fall back to doing traditional tow truck operations. I guess that was the main advantage: running a flatbed wrecker gives you a great deal of flexibility so that you're not locked into just one type of business. Another cool thing about it was, operating on the waterfront, these auto storage/exporters are a dime a dozen, but most of them are doing the dualie and 2 or 3 car wedge thing. Their jobs suddenly get a lot more difficult when the autos they're being paid to haul are non-runners. We were probably the only people in that business (in our area) who could pick up and transport even the most stubborn, "immovable" non-runners without even batting an eye, so even our competition sometimes had to pay us to haul some of their cars.

Too bad my former boss was too cheap to properly maintain the equipment and preferred to jury-rig everything. He doesn't even seem to realize that, if done right, a rollback (or even the class 7 setup you're talking about) can be a flexible cash cow. Pretty much 80% of the reason I left.

 

What you are describing is called a 4 car carrier, they have been around for decades, and they are good, but not a perfect solution. First, our 4 car carrier gets worse fuel mileage than our dually and 3 car wedge trailer ever did. Second they are still a cdl truck, you need a cdl b at minimum to operate it, cdl a if you are towing a F-350 or something similar on the wheel lift (anything over 10,001 gvwr). Third, depending on the state you plan on operating in you may be limited to 40 foot total length, inclusive of load (with the exception of the towed vehicle). NY just recently changed their length law, allowing 40 foot of truck bumper to bumper and 3 foot of overhang to the rear of the bed, but even this is not enough to fit two average vehicles on the deck without fear of rubbing the bumpers together. This setup is best reserved for transporting salvage vehicles or vehicles that do not run, no keys, etc. We have one in our fleet currently, I used to work for a company with a dozen of them, good trucks for the right transport work but not a solution to it all. Lastly, a small dually/wedge trailer can be registered right at 26,000 pounds, eliminating the need for IFTA and IRP (apportioned) plates whereas a 4 car carrier is a 33,000 gvwr chassis so you will need apportioned plates and a fuel tax account to cross state lines. Also, with the popularity of all wheel drive and sport utility vehicles today, we are finding it more difficult to build a full 4 car load that will both fit height and length wise, as well as having something towable without removing the driveline or using a trailer, all of which adds to the operating cost of the truck. Just my two cents from someone who has been in the transport and towing industry for close to 25 years now.

 

X2 to everything Brian said and also most of those rigs are medium duty which are underpowered, rough riding expensive to operate pieces of crap. They cost more per mile to operate than a class 8 truck or a dually.

 

Lol no. I ran an 08 dodge for 200k miles pulling an infinity 4 car and my average was 10. It also would pull almost every hill in the eastern US at 65.

You are correct on air brakes. They cost less and last way longer. I liked my dodge but I'll never give up air ride/air brake that's for sure.