What is a Recovery Vehicle?
This is not as obvious as you may think. The UK government has a dedicated section on their website that tries to clarify the situation. There are definitions according to Vehicle excise, drivers’ hours and plating and testing regulations. A truck can look like one used for recovery, but if it is actually used for moving cars between car dealerships, then it is a car transporter! Before buying a recovery truck we recommend that you read the whole of the section on the Government website to make sure you are buying the right vehicle.
Which Recovery Truck Should I Buy?
Buying a Car Recovery Truck
If you are looking for a single car recovery truck, then you will need to be aware of the payload issues. As cars are getting heavier – especially electric cars full of batteries – a 3.5 tonne van will no longer be suitable. Once the body has been added the best you would be able to recover would be a small city car.
Even a standard 7.5 tonne truck with a tilt and slide body may struggle as the large 4×4 SUVs become electrified. Consider therefore a brand of truck what is typically on the lighter side in terms on unladen weight and do not specify options that you may not need. Brands to consider are the Isuzu N75 or Mitsubishi Fuso Canter. These two ‘Japanese-style’ trucks have smaller cabs and overall footprint. An alternative may be the Iveco Daily (not Eurocargo) at 7.2 tonnes GVW. All of these have lighter cabs and smaller engines to help with payload.
Buying a truck for breakdown recovery will differ from one used to recover illegal vehicles. These may well be typically parked on the roadside with no room to park a lorry in front or behind to drag the car onto the body, as you can with a vehicle broken down on a dual carriageway or motorway, for example. So, for this type of recovery you will need a ‘Street Lifter’ or ‘Total Lift’. This works using a truck-mounted crane and a frame which fits underneath the car. This means that a locked car can be taken away quickly from the roadside without damage with the truck parked in front, behind or to the side of the target vehicle.
Buying a Heavy Recovery Truck
As far as heavy recovery trucks are concerned, the bulk of the money is tied up on the body, lift and ancillary systems rather than the purchase of the chassis. It therefore makes sense not to scrimp and save on the brand of truck if spending hundreds of thousands on the body. These trucks do not travel many kilometres per year but are expected to last a long time and must be 100% reliable. Who wants a recovery truck to have to be recovered? If you are looking for a used wrecker then you will not be inundated with a wide choice – especially of newer vehicles. If you can find one, buy it regardless of the truck brand, as buying and building a new one can set you back over £250,000.
What to Consider When Looking for a Recovery Truck
Hydraulics
There is typically a lot of hydraulics involved with a recovery body, especially the tilt and slide variety. Spec lifts too use hydraulics to deploy and lift the broken-down car. Make sure to check all the systems for operation under load, as well as visibly for any leaks. Has the area around the hydraulic pump and couplings been cleaned all too recently? This could be to disguise any leaks that exist.
Crew Cab or not?
If you are planning on carrying out roadside recovery – especially under contract from one of the breakdown companies, they you may well need a crew cab – this is a standard cab with an extra row of seats behind for the occupants of the stricken car. However, these larger cabs eat into the payload and may require a larger truck than otherwise necessary or it could restrict the types of vehicles that can be recovered.
Spec Lift
If you sometimes need to move two cars at once (this is the maximum allowed for true ‘vehicle recovery’) then a spectacle lift or ‘spec-lift’ is the most flexible option – better than having a huge load bed that would fit two cars for use in the odd occasion. If you are never likely to recover more than one vehicle at a time, then choosing a truck with a spec lift is just adding weight and complexity for the sake of it.
