The Stovebolt Site Forums The Parking Lot Big Bolts wrecker controls

I got to use my wrecker the other day after the trusses fell off the delivery truck. I got them back up. Question, one handle controls the forward and reverse of the winch is the other for Clutch or brake or combination of the two? It's a 60's vintage body mounted on 54 chevy chassis.

What type of wrecker outfit is it. On the Holmes Wreckers I have. Each truck has 2 control levers per side. A lever for each winch. (ex.) You can stand on the left of the truck, & operate each winch, & stand on the right of the truck, & operate each winch.

It's made by weldbilt bodies. The top winch which controls the height of the booms ( they are joined ) is a hand crank.
The levers control the bottom winch that holds the cable. The lever on the inside of the body controls forward and reverse for the winch. I tryed the outside lever but it seemed to have no effect. The you can operate the controls from either side. When you engage the winch it scrapes so I was hoping that the outside lever would act as a clutch/brake too minimize the grinding of the gears when pto is kicked in. Thanks for the help.

Can't help ya with this one. I've never owned a Weldbilt Wrecker.

Some old wreckers used a 2 way power takeoff instead of a 1 way like the new style. The 1 lever that works forward and reverse, on the winch, may be shifting the takeoff. If it is, the other lever was hooked to the clutch pedal, to release the clutch while shifting the takeoff. That is the way my 59 Chev wrecker works.

This is the first wrecker of any type I've operated I had hoped the controls were generic. Never paid much attention too wrecker bodies before . Was familiar with Holmes because you see so many. I'd seen the weld bilt name before but not sure if it was for rolloff trash bodies or something else

Does the other lever put the winch in neutral so you can freewheel some cable out by hand?

Good question. I just engaged it and backed the cable off. There is a lever on the side of the winch I figured thats what it's for but its currently froze in position

Is there a single winch, or does it have two cable spools that can be operated independently? It sounds like the lever that isn't working should be attached to the clutch linkage, so you can shift the power takeoff without grinding gears. How about some pictures? Not all wrecker controls work the same way, unfortunately!
Jerry

Finally got under there and looked closer than Ihad. The cable runs PAST pto to trucks clutch instead of to the pto as I orginally thought. So while not a brake when properly adjusted grinding should disappear