Dedicated push truck?

[alfredauto]

What do you guys use to push cars into the shop that are dead? Whenever possible I have the tow truck drop the car in a bay, but if it's busy that's not always an option. We currently push them in the old fashioned way - by hand or I use my truck. Risk of damage is high if I use my truck, we've been lucky so far using old tires as a cushion but there has to be a better way.

 

I was thinking about rigging up a push bar to my farm tractor bucket and using that, I tried using a garden tractor (20hp craftsman mower actually) but that didn't work out so well, it is useless on the ice.

 

Pictures would be nice, with the cold we have been pushing in 10 cars a week and it's stressful.

[John Pearson]

Pushing car's in with anything is a no no at -40. and with 1 bay we have cars coming in and out a lot!!! I will have pics in a second but infront of my tool box I have a 2in receiver mounted to the floor and a 8000lb winch in a cradle and a battery quick connect with a wireless controller. by the door are studs to put snatch blocks making 1 person able to pull a car in.

[John Pearson]

 

 

[xrac]

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[UsedTireShop]

The sell they "CarCaddy". Cost is $3,999 according the their web site.

 

 

[John Pearson]

  On 3/8/2015 at 10:23 PM, UsedTireShop said:

The sell they "CarCaddy". Cost is $3,999 according the their web site.

 

 

That looks like it would work great in the summer time, but I think that if it is -25 where the swag master is at he is going to be damaging cars and have no traction on ice and snow.

[JimO]

We rely on the "all hands on deck" routine. Everyone goes out to the vehicle and we push it into the shop. Any vehicles that get towed in are always dropped on the high end of my lot so the push isn't bad. Snow and ice complicate the matter so we try to keep the lot as clean as possible.

[KMS]

We use good ol' American muscle! I have used a car caddy before and they work great, but most of them are pretty expensive.

[Bob V.]

Hey Guys I may be able to help you out with your problems getting vehicles in your shop even in extreme cold weather.

Operating a shop in Fairbanks Alaska and temperatures down below -50 below at times.

We built a 10' push bar 2" square this bar has frame hooks on one end and a regular chain hook on the other end.

We use a 4 wheel drive to push and pull vehicles around the lot and into the bays. My service truck has a chain mounted

to the front of the frame of the truck hanging down far enough to attach the hook bolted to the bar and like I said

the other end has body hooks that attach to the under side of most vehicles with frame holes.

I will attempt to post a video showing how this works later on today. I will also attempt to post pictures.

 

Bob Violett

Alaska Chevron Service

[Gary A]

I have been hanging a couple of tires on my snow plow for the winter. Works great!

[FROGFINDER]

ALL HANDS ON DECK

or shop truck with pull strap

 

 

I love Houston Winters.

[ncautoshop]

I've hurt myself to many times to count pushing cars in with snow and ice on the ground. If it comes down to pushing by hand or waiting to work I'll be waiting. Got plenty of customers and work, only got one body.

 

Sent from my SCH-I605 using Tapatalk

[FROGFINDER]

IF you push by hand put your back to the vehicle and push with your legs.

[alfredauto]

Today I had one with a broken control arm. No amount of pushing was going to move it. I called my rollback guy in and he put it in the bay gracefully. I'll add $60 to the bill if they charge me. Only in NY, 10 year old car with the control arms rotted off.

[after6tuning@aol.com]

I saw a friend of mines shop and he has a riding lawn mower and it has a place he can put a strap. I would imagine if you run it with the blades disengaged and the transmission in low gear it should do fine. cheap used riding mowers are about $100-200 and you dont really care about the deck or blades. I have thought of the winch idea.

[PAPShop]

We have 3 options.

 

1. "All Hands on Deck" is used for collector cars (non daily drivers)

2. A 4 wheeler (ATV) with a push bar on the front or a blanket over the snow plow blade during the winter

3. Bobcat with tires attached to the front to push with. We picked it up off Craigslist for $2500 a few years ago. It isn't pretty but has a bucket and pallet forks and been worth the investment, especially when clearing the parking lot of snow.

[adamf]

We do mostly trucks, but I made a push bar that has a clevis on one end and a two inch ball coupler on the other. Hooks between the receiver hitches and with my truck can move most anything. Even moved a tour bus once [snapped the input shaft in my tfans but got it moved].