Breakdown truck

DAF 6x4 wrecker — A modern Breakdown truck or Wrecker

Millitary recovery truck - DSCF0284 — A military recovery truck with telescopic crane - at a city centre vehicle show

A Breakdown truck or also known as Recovery trucks, Tow trucks, Breakdown cranes and (in the USA) Wreckers. The names tend to get interchanged but are all slightly different vehicles but all used to tow or recover broken down vehicles in some way.

Types[]

Saunders Recover demonstration at Belvoir 09 - IMG 9144 — A demonstration of using a Boom and twin winches to right a tanker in a controlled manner with a modern recovery wagon

Recovery by airbag of trailer demo at Belvoir 09 -IMG 9152 — A demonstration of using air bags to recover (right) a trailer

Recovery trucks[]

Usually refers to the type of vehicle that picks up light vehicles and transports then to a repair garage or Impound yard. For cars and vans usually a truck fitted with a special slide and tilt body that forms its own ramp, and then winches the vehicle on.

Tow trucks[]

These usually pick the front or rear of the vehicle up. In some cases a solid bar or A frame is used to pull the vehicle to its destination.

Wrecker or recovery crane[]

These are specialist vehicles used to lift or pull vehicles back onto the road or back up onto the wheels. They are fitted with telescopic boom lifts (a type of crane) and high powered winches.

Alternative methods[]

Rather than using a crane / winch truck modern recovery operators also use air bages to right vehicles that have over turned, as some modern vehicles are structurally weak for fixing winch cables to and so could damage the vehicle further making removal harder.