How to find a tow truck inexpensively. Shipping passenger cars by tow trucks

A tow truck is a specialized cargo vehicle designed to transport wheeled vehicles on its platform.

When to use a tow truck

There can be several reasons for transporting a vehicle on another vehicle:

• Vehicle breakdown.
• Traffic accident.
• Evacuation of vehicles parked in violation of regulations.
• Prohibition on the movement of wheeled vehicles on public roads due to their dimensions exceeding established limits.
• Infeasibility of moving the vehicle under its own power. This applies to special equipment and expensive new cars. Special construction, road, and agricultural machinery is often slow-moving. Fuel consumption for moving it over long distances under its own power is high. It is more convenient and cheaper to use a tow truck. Expensive new cars are transported on tow trucks because of the high risk of damage when moving under their own power. Additionally, a self-moving vehicle "accumulates" mileage. Some models of new cars have ignition locks blocked to prevent dealers from driving them under their own power.

Types of modern tow trucks

Tow trucks can be divided into the following types:

1. Equipped with a winch. Such a tow truck consists of a platform with ramps — special retractable rails on which the vehicle rolls onto the platform. If the towed vehicle is not operational, it is pulled onto the platform by the winch. This type of tow truck cannot be used if the vehicle is equipped with an automatic transmission or if the vehicle's wheels are locked. This type of tow truck is the most common.
2. Equipped with a manipulator. Such tow trucks are a combination of a tow truck and a crane. The hydraulic manipulator allows lifting vehicles and loading them onto the tow truck's platform. These tow trucks can load cars with automatic transmissions. They are indispensable for loading vehicles with faulty steering, locked wheels, and cars that need to be extracted from a ditch.
3. Equipped with a shifting platform. The platform of such tow trucks shifts at an angle to the ground, and the towed vehicle is pulled onto it by a winch, after which the platform returns to its place. This type of tow truck can load any vehicle.
4. Tow trucks with partial loading of vehicles. Such tow trucks are equipped with a special device at the rear that secures and lifts the front or rear axle of the vehicle. The second axle remains on the road, and the vehicle is transported like a cargo cart. This type of transportation is most commonly used in tow trucks for cargo vehicles, but there are also models designed for light vehicles.

Sometimes tow trucks transport not only wheeled vehicles but also other cargo. Such transport is impractical, as there is a specific type of transport for them — cargo platforms, also called low loaders and trailers.