Bought a rollback. No idea what I'm doing. Pls send help.

That's supposed to say: "no idea what I'm doing" ... Not going, though I haven't a clue where I'm going either to be fair.

Ha. So here's what happens when you decide you need a tow truck. I've got a 1994 Ford f350 super duty 7.3 Turbo, 5 speed rollback jerr-dan bed. And I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing. Everything seems to work reasonably well.

How can I find the right parts for maintaining the bed? It has a clunk and I think needs it's wear pads replaced? The pads on it right now are wooden.... 

The cylinder around the wheel lift seems to have a leak. I can rebuild it? How do I learn what's safe to do with the wheel lift and what's not?

Don't laugh, but is there an instruction manual I can read? I literally have no idea what I'm doing and this is the coolest thing I've ever owned.

I've tried googling about and it seems like the towing community isn't big into the internet, because I'm drawing blanks...

Call the local jerrdan dealer for all your needs.

The clunk might be a bad pin joint. Leaky cylinder is normal oring replacement.

Owners manual? Just use the damn thing. Typically always tilt before forward unless it's right at the deck weight limit.

In reply to Ranger50 :

Consider the damn thing used! The bed is straight forward, what I don't get is the wheel lift? It has a spot where a pin could lock it in, but do you not lock it normally? Like... Can the cylinder fail and drop the car?

In reply to Ranger50 :

"Typically always tilt before forward unless it's right at the deck weight limit."

I'm not sure I follow what you mean here, so maybe I'm not doing the bed thing right...

The Hydraulic cylinder shouldn't be to hard to rebuild if you can get the gland nut off and get the correct seals. There should be a number stamped in the body of the cylinder. A reputable hydraulic shop should be able to get the correct seal kit with that number. If you do it yourself, lay each seal out in order and the direction they came out in or it will push fluid out instead of sealing it. Maybe less of a hassle to pay a shop to do it if you haven't done it before. It's a lot like rebuilding a brake caliper. Just bigger and more seals and rings.  

Cool truck. My big motor home has a wheel lift, and a friend in VA has a bigger roll back with the exact same lift as mine. His shop in VA (17 Machine in Gloucester) helped me take mine all the way apart, fix some leaks and some loose pins, rewire the solenoids and put it back in. But mine is electric over hyd., and is a 8" x 8" square tube 7 1/2' long, so at a glance yours may be different. I did find a manual on line for mine, but it took a lot of looking. Mine also had no info. on it, but I found one for sale online that did.

I would not recommend the average homeowner try it on my style; don't know about yours. The all hyd. lifts (I've heard) are stronger, and I assume your bed is all hyd. and is powered from a pto driven pump, and not electric motor powered pump. So your lift may be all hyd. as well. May be easier to get the cylinders off.

My guy in VA would do you right, if you are ever out that way, and would let you help, to learn it. Same for the guy in TN. Either would do just the cylinders if you got them off yourself, and just sent them in. The guy in VA would be the better shop to call and spec out the seals wipers and o-rings from micrometer measurements if you disassemble yourself. He'd prolly get ya a better price on just the parts than most anybody, but there would be more down time. I can e-mail ya both guys numbers, or post the business contacts on here if that's allowed.

  There is manuals on line. For parts you want the part of town where the truck, engine, and equipment dealers are. I don’t know Nashville but most cities have an area where all these outfits congregate.

Rons is partially correct. I'm sure there is is a manual on the inter webs... somewhere. I notice he was not helpful in actually answering your question of helping to find one. The jerr-dan bed is prolly easy, but the lift is prolly not made by the same folks. That will require digging into a bit deeper than that.

There should be a pin if there's a hole for one.  Never trust hydraulics to hold a load.

As for leaks, I was under the assumption that it was state law that all tow trucks leak hydraulic fluid.  I was constantly wiping up tow truck drool from the parking lot before we got a minion to do that stuff for me.

This a business venture of just a tow vehicle?

I would totally drive for Uber in that thing, just for the look on people's faces.

Lol, good to hear mine being leaky isn't new! 

03Panther: I was going to give your Linden, TN diesel guy a ring to see what he had to say.... I figured I'd need to call around to find parts/take it in for cleanup.

I got the rollback to help remove and recover some personal vehicles and to move my race cars around! Overkill is the best kill?? It's super fun to drive, the wife named it the BFF. The Big F***** Ferdi. Lol.

I am of no assistance, but that's a sweet rig!

So the Excursion was too big, huh?

https://easternwrecker.com/jerr-dan-parts-manuals-operation-manuals

The above site should have the info you need.

Meanwhile, you should thoroughly read the operator's manual before you use that tow rig. That rig is not something you'll want 'figure out' by trail and error.

Great score!  For years I wanted to get one of these to go to cars shows in case someone there needed a tow home....  lol

pinchvalve (Forum Supporter) said:

I would totally drive for Uber in that thing, just for the look on people's faces.

Probably a pretty good business model -- customers wake up the next morning safe, if a little hungover, and their car is in the driveway instead of.....wait, where did I leave the car again?

Jerr-Dan has some operation and maintenance manuals available on their website, take a look to see if yours is covered.  https://www.jerrdan.com/customer-support-team/technical-publications

accordionfolder said:

In reply to Ranger50 :

Consider the damn thing used! The bed is straight forward, what I don't get is the wheel lift? It has a spot where a pin could lock it in, but do you not lock it normally? Like... Can the cylinder fail and drop the car?

Hydraulic creep is a thing.  Seals in the valve and cylinder let it slowly leak down.  Ever park a plow truck or a front end loader with the blade or bucket not on the ground?  The next day, it's on the ground.

The point is to not suspend the weight for travel on the hydraulics.  The bouncing weight on the cylinder causes spikes in pressure and can blow an o-ring causing pretty instant and catastrophic things to happen.  With hydraulic implements, the SOP is to use the hydraulics to get the cargo to it's final position, but then use mechanical means to hold things in place.  So, yes.  Wheel lift with the hydraulics, stick the pin in, release pressure on the hydraulics so it rests on the pin.

Today I Learned that I want a Rollback Truck... 

Cool score!  I'm of absolutely no use to this thread beyond encouragement though... 

Rebuilding cylinders is messy, but easy.  Hydraulic cylinders (for the most part) are pretty universal.  They are sorta like bearings in that they all have different sizes: piston, shaft, cylinder, etc.  Rebuilding them just requires knowing which size seals to get.  Disassemble, replace, reassemble, done.  I did a couple on the farm for things like Dad's brush hog and backhoe.  The thing you'll have trouble with is that the cylinders on that rollback are probably about 400 lbs each.  I think JerrDann probably knew that and made some sort of service provision for doing it with the cylinders still partially installed.  I know some of them you can do something like take the top pin out, pivot the cylinder out, and build it without taking it to a bench.

I will say that, in my prior machine tool shop experience, just taking a leaky cylinder to a local hydraulic shop to professionally repair was significantly cheaper than I'd have expected.  It's almost not worth the hassle to mess with it yourself if you can find a reputable local shop.  Wear parts are basically o-rings and glide seals, so nearly negligible cost. 

In reply to golfduke :

I agree.  Same goes for hydraulic lines.  Stock hose from a roll, one of about 6 weatherhead fittings, and they have a special press to put them on.    I can ususally get new hoses fabbed for the tractors in an afternoon for $20-60.

From someone that drove a rollback for 8 years.....Don't lower the bed onto the truck with the bed fully extended. Hard on the hydraulics Usually there is a mark on the bed where you slide to before lowering. 
 

I always use chains to secure a load on the stinger in case the cylinder let's go. However a few times I had cylinders go bad they simply slowly went down never had one completely fail and drop.

most of it's just common sense think safety

Strap everything down good

In reply to rustybugkiller :

Yeah - it does seem MOSTLY straight forward. I did manage to get the car loaded, drove it 2.5 hours through the mountains and get it unloaded without major incident. I would like to understand "best practices" because things like, how you position the line and how you stand while you do things - in my experience - are a "standard" because someone got hurt not doing it the right way. I've been watching a bunch of youtube videos so I'm getting more comfortable with what I should be aiming for - all common sense stuff, but good to remind yourself. 

The guy I bought it from was kinda .... loose and fast type - nice dude, but I don't think he's probably by the books. 

Which brings me to yet another question - he said he uses "only Automatic Trans fluid in the hyrdraulics" - is that a common practice? Has he fubar'd anything by doing so? Do I need to drain/swap refill them all? 

 

Also thanks for all the other advice 'erybody - I'm figuring it out slowly. Never owned a diesel, a giant hydraulic monster, or a tow truck so this is all new stuff to me.