Mark,
I'll try to address some of your questions about this.
First, the lift height of medium wreckers....
The boom length extended is 18 feet, we can consider this the hypotenuse of a
right triangle....I don't have a calculator with me (& don't know how to use
one on a computer), but that should give a side of the triangle of about 13
1/4 feet. The pivot point of my M62 boom is (educated guessing) 8 feet above
ground. Again, I don't have a manual with me, and I'm not sure that
dimension is even listed...if not its about the same height as the windshield.
So that should give a boom height of about 21 feet extended. The block,
etc., will eat up at least two feet this, leaving us with a usable lift off
around 19 feet. The height of the van is about 10' 11." The greater the
distance between hook and corners of the van body, the lower the force trying
to collapse the body will be.
All this being said, we also need to look at the weight of the body Vs
maximum lifting load at full boom extension...this is a real concern.
Bottom line, maybe, but I bet it is marginal.
I suspect the tractor/wrecker (M246 variant) will be the same, again limited
by maximum lift at full boom extension. By the way, the full boom extension
is not power operated on these....the furthest out is pushed out by the
"middle" section then locked in place. The boom then extends/retracts in the
middle...that is one doesn't handily go from full boom extension to full boom
retraction.
I don't see how you could pull a normal van trailer with one of these, but
you could PROBABLY pull a military M447 type van trailer with one since the
447 has a flat "porch" over the king pin...I THINK they are made for just
this.
The boom on the M246 won't turn out over the cab...there are stops to prevent
it from doing that.
Hope this helps,
David Doyle
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