Vehicle recovery can be simply described as recovery of a vehicle to a safe place with a special lift, tow truck or a recovery vehicle. This service can be used for all kinds of roadway incidents such as load shift (cargo on roadway), run off the road (single vehicle crashes), vehicle breakdowns or vehicle collisions with pedestrians, animals, fixed objects or other vehicles. Recovery of your vehicle can be a legal or a constitutional recovery, which would be at the demand of the police, using the authority vested on them by the city of Jacksonville or an all-purpose recovery, normally of broken down vehicles.
Here are some vehicle recovery methods to rescue your vehicle from a roadway incident.
1. Total Lift or Transportation Total lift or transportation recovery method of tow is a preferred way to travel any distance. The vehicles used are purpose-built, small loading transporters. There are a number of transporters that are wholly enclosed and can be used to recover vehicles that are involved in a crime and are going for forensic analysis. In addition, there are prestige transport vehicles with stylish designs and special low loading angle ramps, this particular vehicle is very useful for sports cars with low ground clearance. Another transport vehicle that is frequently used is called a city loader, which is a kind of transporter that has a built-in cradle to hang a vehicle for quick loading on-site, they are commonly used to tow illegally parked vehicles.
2. Suspend Tow Crane or Lift Tow This recovery method is infrequently used these days, but it was the only way to tow disabled vehicles without making use of a trailer or low loader, for many years. Chains were attached in the region of the disabled vehicle’s suspension, while some form of packing was put between the vehicle and the lifting frame.
3. Soft Recovery The soft recovery technique is used for short distances where a length of webbing, chain or rope is attached to the disabled vehicle, which must have a working braking system because it will be used to reduce the speed of the two vehicles. However, this towing system can be dangerous, unless the two drivers are experienced with this technique.
4. Bar or Rigid Vehicle Recovery Bar or rigid vehicle recovery is used for very short distances where a solid metal bar is fixed to the disabled vehicle. It is often used with commercial vehicles that come with towing eye in their front bumper. The tow truck can safely use their brakes when towing light vans or cars, if the bar is kept straight. On the other hand, it is common to connect an air feed to the disabled vehicle or with commercial vehicles, this is to allow the brake of the tow vehicle to operate the brakes of the disabled vehicle as well.
5. Lift Tow This is the latest common vehicle recovery method for short distance transportation. It works by winching the disabled vehicle onto a lifting grid and then it is lifted by raising the grid, and the vehicle tires are strapped to the grid.