On 9 Jan 2004 16:08:14 -0800, (Dave Ficken) wrote
Gary Coffman wrote in message
Jerr-Dan, the largest manufacturer of rollback wreckers, doesn't offer
a wood bed option.

The key word here is "wrecker". A "wrecker" is designed for moving
incapacitated vehicles, not machinery.

Yes, but many companies which own them will haul machinery. My
local guys, Lance Wrecker, do it routinely.

Note, I am not trying to claim that steel decks are better than wooden
ones for a machinery mover. I'm just saying that you shouldn't depend
on the friction characteristics of the deck material to hold your machine
on the truck.

Hopefully you don't think I use a wood deck in lieu of safe tie down
practices.

I don't, I was just using this as an opportunity to talk about proper
tiedown practices.

My landlord owns a towing company with several Jerr-Dan trucks. He
refuses to move forklifts and or machinery for fear of rippling the
decks.

Must be aluminum decks. They're only rated for 1,000 pound point
loads, ie 4 wheels, 4000 pound car. The biggest steel deck Jerr-Dan
units, like Lance's Tweety Bird, are rated for 6,000 pound point loads.
In other words, they'll haul large straight trucks or semi-tractors.

That's a bit of overkill for most HSM machinery moves, but the
smaller steel deck rollbacks can also handle higher point loads
than the aluminum deck models. Lance usually sends a "medium"
steel deck rollback (12,000 pound capacity) when I want a machine
moved. No sags or depressions in that deck even though I know
they've hauled forklifts and assorted reasonably heavy machinery
with it.

Gary