There’s five kinds of tow trucks in general usage. In this short blog post, I’ll detail the different ones, and how they operate. At Chicago Towing we focus on the 2 main types wheel-lift and flat bed towing
Flatbed Tow Trucks
Flatbed tow trucks are also known as “slides” or “rollbacks.” The entire rear area of the truck is attached with a bed that can be hydraulically inclined and shifted to a ground level, allowing the vehicle that’s getting towed to be pulled onto it easily.
Booms Tow Trucks
These tow trucks use adjustable boom winches to rescue vehicles from any area that’s hard to reach for a vehicle. Booms are used to recover vehicles from ditches, craters, or natural embankments. Some booms are fixed to the truck, while others have pivoting A-frames, or pneumatically fueled telescopic tubes.
Wheel-Lifts Tow Trucks
Otherwise known as “spectacle” lifts due to their resemblance to square eyeglasses, this method of towing involves a metal yoke that’s placed under the front or back wheels of a car to hold them, dragging an end of the car up off the ground with a pneumatic or hydraulic hoist so that it can be towed. Usually, these devices lift the drive wheels of the vehicle, only touching the tires.
Integrated / Repo Trucks
This method of towing involves a wheel-lift and a boom synthesized into a single unit. Commonly used in light duty towing in order to quickly move illegally parked, or repossessed vehicles, many of these trucks have the towing controls inside the truck’s cab, to make the pickup as easy as possible – there’s no need to even exist the vehicle. Industrial grade heavy duty trucks are made with integrated lift options. Similar to integrated trucks, some specialty flatbed units carry wheel-lifts, and some wheel-lifts offer combined booms and slings.