As a repo agent, recovery truck driver or tow truck business owner, you’ll want to maximize your wheel lift’s uptime to keep your business moving forward. Preventive maintenance helps prolong your wheel lift’s lifespan and minimize the need for repairs. From a safety perspective, wheel lift inspection and maintenance are also crucial to ensure you can complete a job efficiently without incidents. Use these maintenance tips to keep your wheel lift on the road.
Wheel Lift Maintenance Tips
Regular maintenance of your wheel lift is straightforward and can save you time and money. Setting a regular schedule to test and inspect various aspects of your wheel lift ensures it works efficiently. You can catch and remedy issues before they become a trip to the repair shop, allowing you to focus on hitting your tasks. Here are some top maintenance tips:
1. Make an Inspection List
Investing your time in daily or weekly inspections is vital for maintaining your wheel lift. Put together a list of inspection points you can quickly carry out before the start of a shift. This will ensure that you’ve checked the most important parts, giving you the peace of mind to put in a full day’s work knowing that your wheel lift is in tip-top shape.
2. Grease Regularly
Grease your wheel lift every week. This ensures that all the moving parts, like the arms and boom, perform as they should and helps protect your frame from corrosion.
The best practices for greasing are as follows:
- Start with the boom fully extended and with the arms closed.
- Check your model to find the relevant grease points.
- Apply the grease with a gun until you see grease coming out of both sides of the pin.
- Start under the boom, then work your way from the top of the boom toward the arms.
- Grease points on the arms.
- Open arms to access the other grease points.
- Use a brush and some grease to cover the boom’s top, sides and bottom. Make sure it’s smoothed in well.
Watch an expert from Lift and Tow grease their innovative Z Series hidden wheel lift.
3. Check Hydraulics and Equipment
The hydraulic system is the crucial component that does all the heavy lifting for you. Perform these checks at least monthly.
Make sure your wheel lift is operating properly when you use the controls. Also, check that any power cables are properly connected so your pumps can power your hydraulics. Ensure that the cabling is not rubbing against other pieces to preserve them. Here, you can also check for any cracks or leaks in the connections.
4. Tighten Any Loose Parts
Consult your wheel lift’s manual to check for the correct torque of any bolts or fixtures. Under load, parts that are too loose could get damaged or simply not perform efficiently. Check every part, including these areas, for tightness monthly:
- L-arms and receivers
- Main pin bolts
- Boom pins
- Hex pins
5. Maintain Consistent Cleaning Schedules
Cleaning your tow truck and wheel lift daily or weekly helps expel dirt and grime from sitting on moving parts. A pressure washer can help you clear any blockages and keep your wheel lift looking the part, too.
6. Prepare Your Wheel Lift for Winter
This step is important to protect components from extreme cold and wear. Here are some key winter maintenance tips for wheel lifts:
- Check your battery health levels before winter sets in. The cold can affect the performance of your battery, which can, in turn, affect the type of wheel lift you have.
- Hydraulics are exposed to higher levels of contamination and corrosion in the winter months due to freezing condensation. To prevent condensation buildup, change the fluid twice a year.
- Fill your clutch pump (if present) with a lightweight hydraulic fluid with low viscosity. This helps your hydraulic system run smoothly even in cold conditions because the fluid is thinner and flows more easily.
- When possible, keep your wheel lift out of the elements. This reduces your equipment’s exposure to snow and ice, which need to be cleared before you can operate it.
- Consider using a winter lubricant that helps your parts stay greased and operate well even in sub-zero conditions.
7. Perform Preventive Wheel Lift Repairs
Quality wheel lifts can withstand heavy-duty use, but over time, you may need to carry out preventive repairs to swap out worn parts, such as:
- Mounting pads.
- Hydraulic system components.
- Boom and cylinder parts.
- Bolts and hardware.
- Pump parts.
For this kind of maintenance, opting for the best-quality parts saves you from changing them again too often. Go back to your original manufacturer and get replacement parts from the source to ensure the right fit and performance.
Should you ever need some technical support with repairs, work with an experienced company that has the in-house expertise to help you.
Tow Truck Maintenance Tips
Preventive maintenance for tow trucks is just as important as for wheel lifts. Here’s how you can give the same care and attention to your truck:
- Capacity: Always double-check the weight of the vehicle you’re towing against your tow truck’s capabilities. This, along with other towing capacity factors, will prevent you from getting caught out on a job or being unable to help customers on the road.
- Tires: Keep a good set of tires and spares so your truck can grip the road better, especially when towing another vehicle. Ensuring the optimal tire depth, tread and pressure also improves safety and fuel efficiency.
- Servicing: Tune your tow truck regularly so that it runs as efficiently as possible, and so you can carry out any preventive repairs to keep you on the road.
- Lights: Check that your lights are working, as these are pivotal to your safety and that of other road users. Change headlights in pairs to reduce your vehicle’s downtime. You can always keep a working, used bulb as an emergency spare to keep you moving.
- Loading: Ensure you load your tow truck carefully, securing loads before moving off. This preserves your tow truck and the vehicle you’re towing.
Browse Quality Wheel Lifts You Can Depend on at Lift and Tow
There are many cost-effective methods for maintaining your tow truck and wheel lift, ensuring you can perform your job as efficiently and safely as possible. Looking after your wheel lift reduces downtime and extends its service life.
At Lift and Tow, we have over 25 years of experience in designing, manufacturing and installing wheel lifts. As the original inventors of the truly hidden wheel lift, we constantly improve and develop products to suit your business’s needs. You can rely on our quality parts as we manufacture everything in-house. Find the right wheel lift for your ¾-ton or larger pickup truck today. For more information, call us at 717-496-0839.
