If you run a service garage, you understand the hassle that’s presented when you need to move a vehicle across a lot — especially if they’re damaged or don’t run. Calling a tow truck or wrecker can result in long wait times and high operating costs. Is there a better solution?

YES. It’s called a forklift wrecker.

What is a forklift wrecker?

A forklift wrecker is kind of self-explanatory: it is a wrecker attachment for a forklift. It’s an auto-loading wheel lift that attaches directly to the forks of a forklift. To use a forklift wrecker, the forklift operator simply drives up to a vehicle, pushes the wheel lift attachment underneath the vehicle, and lifts and secures the wheels. Then the forklift can move the vehicle anywhere it needs to go.

What are the benefits of a forklift wrecker for service garages?

Maneuvering Tight Spaces

Real estate is expensive, and your garage—like most—is probably tight on parking space, especially when you’re busy. A tow truck, wrecker, or flatbed isn’t going to cut it for moving cars around your lot if you don’t have the space to back it up, line it up, and turn. A bulky tow truck is going to be hard to maneuver into tight spaces, and it presents a serious liability if it were to hit or damage any of the other cars parked on your lot.

A forklift wrecker, however, is significantly more maneuverable. After all, a forklift is significantly narrower and shorter than a wrecker or tow truck, giving it more space to move around in and the ability to fit into smaller spaces, like packed parking lots. 

Moving Inoperable Vehicles

As a service garage, there are plenty of times when you can just start up a car in your lot and drive it into the service bay. But there are just as many times when a vehicle can’t or shouldn’t be driven—it’s just totally inoperable. Maybe the battery is dead, maybe it’s mechanically unsound, or maybe you just can’t find the keys. But you don’t need to be able to start a vehicle to use a forklift wrecker attachment, making it easy to move such vehicles.

Not only does using a forklift wrecker in this instance save you the cost and hassle of calling a wrecker, but it can also mean that you don’t have to have your employees pushing cars across the lot. 

Pushing cars by hand or using a car dolly is a huge injury risk to your employees. It’s also incredibly difficult to control a vehicle when it’s being pushed, which can result in damage to the vehicle in question or others on the lot. Plus, you need several people to push a vehicle, but only one to operate a forklift with a wrecker attachment.

Reducing Costs

Hiring a tow truck is expensive, and buying your own is cost-prohibitive, too. But more than likely, your garage already has a forklift, and a wrecker attachment for it comes in in the low quadruple digits, not the high five or six figures like purchasing your own wrecker would be. 

Additionally, another way a forklift wrecker saves you money is by decreasing the likelihood of damage—both to the vehicle you’re moving and other vehicles on your lot—which comes out of your budget. Since it also reduces the likelihood of injury to employees pushing vehicles, that also reduces your risk of worker’s compensation claims, which are no joke in terms of cost.

Saving Time

Unless you have your own vehicle moving equipment on site, a lot of time is being wasted just waiting on a wrecker to show up. And if the on-site solution you have for moving vehicles is a car dolly or just good old manpower, those take a lot of time too, and several employees. 

Even looking around for keys for every car you need to move is a waste of time that could be better used on actually servicing vehicles. If your employees spend more time doing work that pays and less time moving cars around or waiting on a tow truck, that’s more revenue for the garage.

A forklift wrecker can save you that time since you can move vehicles without starting them and it’s equipment that you can actually afford to keep on-site. A forklift wrecker attachment is easy to use and auto-loads, and learning and becoming certified to operate a forklift is easier and quicker than getting a CDL to operate a wrecker.

Looking to make your service garage operations more safe, efficient, and cost-effective? Look no further than the Forklift Wrecker Attachment! This tool makes auto towing jobs easy and eliminates the need to ever wait on a tow truck or wrecker again. Contact our team to learn more about how the Forklift Wrecker Attachment could benefit your application.

The material and information contained on this website is for general information purposes only. You should not rely upon the material or information on the website as a basis for making business, legal or other decisions.