moving a car without keys

[sean]

I am at a place where I am doing some repo work for now. I have a double axle trailer thats heavy duty. I am putting a winch on it so if I dont have keys to the car I can drag it up on the trailer. Does anyone know of some sort of wheel device out there that will allow me to jack up the car and set it down on some small wheels so i can put the car on the trailer without dragging it?

[bobtsgt]

they sell wheel jacks. some have a hydro lift system on them. puts the wheels on 4 casters a piece

[sean]

Are the wheels on them able to get up the lip on the ramp. Its about an inch high then its a mesh metel ride to the wood floor. Where do they sell these wheel jacks? Harbor freight?

[BlazinEagle]

they are called go jacks! nice setup

[sean]

The go jacks are a bit pricey for now. Is there anything cheaper? I saw a tow truck towing a 4x4 and had the rear on the ground with little separate wheel dollies on each back tire.

[BlazinEagle]

http://www.slgtools.com/hydraulic-vehicle-dolly-p-258.html?zenid=1e4778e7f1dbd5573d6b9afdb9195036
Cheap...may work?

[Xowner]

dont know where to get them but they have plastic wedges that go under the tires and they slide pretty good seen them used on the repo and tow truck driver shows on tv and once when they towed my buddys wrecked car.

[sean]

I am going to columbus monday. If I cant get the wheel things do you think a winch connected to the trailer would drag a car onto it. what do you think the min lbs winch I would need would be?

[chadomac]

REPOMAN

[Kevin1989]

what ever happened to a good ole screw driver? hot wire the bitch!

[jack90gt]

what ever happened to a good ole screw driver? hot wire the bitch!

Haha hell yeah. Steal it don't repo it...lmao

[RACEME]

can't you just take the steering apart at the rag joint?

[DeckerEnt]

Just get a winch that will drag the car sideways if you have to. Deal with it once it is away from the owner's place.

[juiced]

seems like that will take a little bit of time hope all goes well

[sean]

I am not worried. Once I have it connected to the winch the guy wont be going any where. I had to go about 5 hours away on wed to get a tracker. I did have keys for that one.. lol
I think if the guy doesnt give up the keys I am going to have to drag it on to the trailer. I just dont know if a winch will be able to do that. Well see.

[black90lx]

if you can get in the car and pop the hood on front wheel drive cars you can pop the shifter linkage of the tranny and put it in neutral by hand. you can take the drive shaft(s) too.

[thrillrr]

Here is Harbor freight's GO JAK copy .not as good as the real thing but not to bad.
http://www.harborfreight.com/1250-lb-capacity-mechanical-wheel-dolly-67287.html
http://www.harborfreight.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/370x/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/i/m/image_2045.jpg

[dsmawd350]

I have an 8000lb winch on the front of my steel deck open trailer. You could definately tell that the winch was feeling the load on a 2 door 4x4 explorer when it was pulling it up the ramps. If it was in gear I dont see it happening.

My best advice would be to ditch any kind of ramps with bars or mesh on them. A ramp with a smooth 1/4'' steel plate as the whole surface as well as maybe smooth steel paths on the trailer itself sprayed with soapy water or something would be a better way to pull the car up in gear or even a smooth surface for the go jacks would be better

[thecollector]

What kind of car are you getting? Some cars have an overide to shift them into Neutral.

Hydraulic winches will generally pull anything up on a flatbed, a 2ton steel decked roll back is nothing but a frame rack on wheels. The electric winches don't generally have the guts to do the same thing as their hydraulic counterparts especially with long pulls. A set of these skis may help ya but you'll still play hell getting it loaded assuming your winch has the guts to pull it.

http://www.awdirect.com/wreckmaster-skates-black-wm1/gojaks-and-carrier-load-acc/

Go jacks are cool for manuvering cars around on smooth even ground but most trailer ramps are not wide enough to get them up, let alone navigate a car onto. Break over angle on a Go Jack may not be enough even with a dove tail trailer, the go jacks can bottom out. Take a helper regardless. Repo guys carry go jacks to manuever cars out of spots that have been pulled forward into.

The dollies you see under the rear of a car being towed by a roll back or conventional wrecker are also available from the website above however they are a substantial investment. Go to tow dollies and accessories category.

It's an investment for sure. Be carefull w/ anything from harborfreight(jacks, chains, recovery straps), im sure you already know you get what you don't pay for.

If your serious about the business get a 20 yr old conventional wrecker with a hydraulic wheel lift, you can ussually pick them up reasonably (<6k) and most are taken care of. SBZ could use a resident hook and you could probably pick up a lot of business from the site. Short of that you could go cab and Chassis with a hodges wedge bed. Downside of the business is the High insurance the state makes you cary on any wreckers or roll backs. You are also a red flag for DOT enforcement. While being a diesel guy myself in this capacity I would go Gas powered with a stealthy muffler so you can maximize the use of your investment (less conflicts=more cars=cash)

Good luck. Hope its an easy hook and book.

[sean]

Will be picking up a roll back soon. I am just doing this until we get another lot open then I will be running the lot. I am getting an 04 altima.

[thecollector]

Sorry Im not sure off the top of my head on that one. My tow bible is in my truck (I think) so I can't look it up. They are a pretty good investment (AAA manuals). They let you know what cars can be neutral towed and which ones you'll be yanking Dshafts on. They also have lock out specifics as well as a ton of other info. Worth $10 even if your not in the business FT.

[sean]

I believe this one has the slot by the shifter that will release the shifter.
I can say every car will have at the very least a key that will allow me entry to the car and
Be able to get it in neutral and turn the wheel. May not be chipped to start the car but it
Will get me in.

[Black92LX]

Sean check your PMs I may have something for you.

[glassman]

Dynamic wheel lifts are the way to go. The wheel dollies are for 4 wheel & all wheel drive cars. Go jacks are the shit for moving a car that you don't have keys for but they are ment to put under the drive tires & say move a car out of a parking spot then hook the car w/ the truck. If you have keys for the car then you are ahead of the game most of the time. The repos we did we never had keys for. With that rack I could hook a car & drive away w/ it in a few seconds get down the street & strap it to the wheel lift.
I drove for 6 mo. and was gonna start my own co. a few years back and looked @ and tried a few different types of equiptment. By far they had some of the best @ the time. If you are really looking 2 do this you need 2 have the right equiptment, insurance (and plenty of it). The right equiptment will pay for itself in the long run.

[sean]

Its not what I will do forever. Just what I am doing now. I will be running the lot eventually.