Rollback or Truck & trailer? hauling etc - Page 2

Originally Posted by justaguy

yeah i like the sounds of that, cause i can take the trailer off right.. edit:: a few months ago we let go this huge dodge camper van just a big old thing, guy came obviously with a rollback, but would that be to crazy to strap down one of those to a trailer , just curious might sound stupid , meh...

Depends on the trailer.

I hauled one of these:



With one of these:



Towing it with one of these:



Was picking up 2 step vans at the time. One ran, other didn't. Didn't have a winch, so I put 3 chains together, positioned dead van at trailer ramps, then used other step van parallel to trailer to pull dead van onto trailer. Hope that makes sense. I suck at explanations sometimes.

I haul LOTS of cars and am still a newbie, we use mainly an 18ft dovetail with an 8000 winch, we have an old tow truck you can find on here that's super sweet that we plan on using for picking up at auctions. Don't go in debt for starters, if you already have a truck or even an SUV you can use just a 16footer and a come along and get most of the cars you will be picking up, slower sure but it will let you know if you even want in this business, after a few you will make enough money for better equipment. Go with the trailer regardless of your skill, once you figure it out you can line up with anything and get to places a tow truck won't get to. Both our 3/4tons are diesel better mileage and power, but if you go gas you can use the g as out of the cars you haul, depends mainly on your preference. Loading and hauling is very important in scrapping cars, but so is buying, breakdown, and finding other outlets for your material, lots more but it's all here an plenty of opinions and there's something to be learned from everyone

if your not doing a few tons a day i wouldn't do it .but a trailer holds the value so much your better .if you still go other way go with hook dumpster so much faster and easier .i run rollback can be pain hook so much quicker

What about a regular car trailer with a full width ramp (drag up with flats/no wheels) VS tilt bed?

I'm having a hard time finding a tilt bed locally or at a reasonable price.

You would be surprised what you can do with a simple car dolly. Perfect for starting out, minimal investment.
The best 400$ I ever spent.

Beleive it or not tater I had a '99 Dodge Ram on it the other day. Only a few mm.'s of clearance on both sides. That was pushing it.

So you guys using trailers...what length deck works the best and what axles?

I came across a trailer with a deck that is 17' + 4' dove (think it's a Kaufman). Don't know what the axles are, will find out in the morning. I'm pretty much holding out for 5K axles. It also has a winch and tool box on it. Don't know yet what the winch is rated at.

So my plan would be to take a piece of metal the length of the ramps and width of trailer and make a way to attach it to the ramps. So it would kind of be an extension of the dove tail. Then it would be easier to drag stuff up it. Entire set up would be well under $2K

I'd rather hold out for a tilt bed, but I have only came across 2 locally and both were only like a year old and asking $5k OBO. I offered one guy $3K, but I doubt it will happen. I've seen some manufactures that have tilt beds with 5K axles for like $3400, but the shipping would blow the price up.

Thoughts / Suggestions?

Ive had good luck with 99 izuzu npr with chevy 5.7. Very reliable. But id try to find a roll off box one where u could have someonebweld up a attatchment tovhaul cars with. The bad surbans or pickups may bevheavy for it

Originally Posted by Ptscrapper

Heres what i currently have I can haul 2 full size vehicles or 3 small cars. It is 40ft long. Plus it works excellent for cutting off cats.

Is that what you use to pick up all your vehicles with?
Do you frequently pick up more than one?
Do most of the vehicles you pick up run and drive?
Do you pick up cars with no wheels or have flats that won't pump up?

Seems like it would be a pain always using a 40 ft trailer, especially if don't run/drive, no wheels, etc...

Originally Posted by Libertytow

fwiw if you use a tilt trailer alot for scrapping cars eventually you will load one off center and **** up the pins i did and i"ll never own another one

MAN, I just found a reasonably priced tilt bed. Was seriously considering going and buying it tomorrow. Now you have me concerned.

So if you could have any trailer / truck combo, what would you get?