The Stovebolt Site Forums The Parking Lot Big Bolts Identify the manufacturer of this wrecker setup?

I would definitely say that the cable should not rub on anything. Even more so the boom would keep the cable from evenly spooling on the drum.

It looks like the end of the boom may be upside down as well. From the last picture it looks like the cable rubs along the bolt at the top.

In one of the first pictures there is a pin with a cotter clip on it on running vertically on the center square boom. It's hard to tell but it looks like this may be what holds the boom in place when it is extended. It probably has to be manually pulled out and pinned in place.

The cab end of the center boom is grossly under supported...as I'm sure you've seen as well. There wouldn't be much load when the boom is all the way in because of the long lever arm, but as the boom is extended it would become very weak very quickly. I would guess the welds broke when the boom was extended and they dropped it back in (too far in so it interferes with the main cable) and it never got fixed.

Just think of the bragging rights you will have with your custom wrecker set up where you can show off what you designed to fix what the other guys did poorly