I just delivered the biggest project I expect to have for my small shop and it was a massive success! Moparts members helped make it happen by offering ideas and suggestions in some of my posts.
It did try to kill me a few times but more on that in another thread.

A luxury car dealership has a very hilly lot where all the driving lanes are either going up or down and all of them are off camber. They maximized the property by benching as much of the property as possible but the service department is still split into four terraced mini-departments. To get to the body shop you have to drive into the lowest service department and make a hard right turn to go down a 13 degree ramp and through an 8'8" high opening.

Tow trucks can get around the property okay but they can't get down into the body shop with anything larger than a mid size car. To assist with moving cars, the store bought an 8,000 lb forklift and a wheel lift to go with it. That kinda works but the off camber bits have lead to the destruction of several GoJacks when dragging AWD cars and the forklift loses traction on the ramp.

I was asked to fix the problem.

My goal was to enable any single technician to retrieve any vehicle they sell or service with or without the tires. I wanted it to be safe, easy to use, require minimal training, and be reliable.

The solution was an old United Tractors SM80F tug like you'd see at an airport. This one was a bit different than most because it had lots of flat surfaces for me to work with. It met my requirements with assisted steering, assisted brakes, four wheel brakes, and dual rear wheels for added stopping power going down a wet ramp. The fact that it was rated at 8,000 lbs draw bar effort was a bonus.

Why so big? It's pretty easy when you break it down. Weight = tractive effort. Flat and level this thing is rated to pull 350,000+ lbs at 5 mph. Introduce a 13 degree slope and that drops to around 20,000 lbs when stopping and restarting on the slope. Make the tires and ramp wet from rain and you really appreciate the safety margin. When someone is dragging a 9,000+ tow (dolled up Super Duty 4x4 truck) down a wet ramp and an employee steps out in front of them the tug better be able to stop the load.

The tug is powered by a Ford 300 inline six, C6 transmission, 6.67 rear gears, and 3.33 planetary hubs.

The first thing I did with the tug was take it to Jiffy Lube to change all the fluids and flush the cooling system. Those boys kinda freaked when that monster drove in. After that, I replaced the carb, battery, plugs, wires, cap, rotor, air filter, and fuel pump (integral filter).


I made a series of modifications to the tug to better suit the intended use:
Added 2" trailer hitch balls front and rear.
Locked the draw bar pins to prevent accidental pull out.
Added a 3/4" steel plate grille guard behind the hitch.
Added 8,000 lb lifting links front and rear to accept the hook of a tow strap.
Added a front hitch camera with weather resistant monitor.
Added BIG vertical rubber push bumpers in front.
Added seat belts for both seats.
Converted to LED lighting for better gauge visibility.
Added a high amperage battery connection to the back of the tug.
Mounted a tool box with weather seal on the right front fender.

With the prime mover straightened out and able to drag cars I had to address cars that wouldn't roll. To address this, I grabbed a Master Tow 80" wide tow dolly. The fenders, lighting, wiring, wheels, hubs, and ramps were all removed. A folding landing gear was added to the tongue. Behind that I added a 7500 lb trailer winch. When using a tow dolly sharp turns will smash the fenders into the car your towing so I machined adapters to mount forklift wheels. The fixed ramps would drag the ground and slap the car when traversing the ramp so I built a new set that could be dropped in place when needed. To store the ramps I cut a small slot in them and welded a sliding barrel bolt (think gate latch) underneath. Steps and blades were added to the tug. To put the ramps away the tech carries them to the tug, stands them vertically on the steps, pushes them forward onto the blades, and slides the barrel bolt to lock them in place. Quick, easy, and intuitive. The ramps stayed mounted nicely on the drive down there.

Backing up a car on a tow dolly is nigh on impossible. To handle tight parking maneuvers the tech can stop the tug and drop the tow dolly on the landing gear. That allows him to turn the tug around, use the camera to line up the dolly with the front hitch, and push the car back into it's spot. It will be just like pushing back airplanes. The direction you turn the wheel is the direction the back of the tow will go.

With dragging a dead car addressed I had to take it a step farther and consider AWD cars with locked transfer cases and wrecks missing all 4 wheels. For those instances, I picked up a set of In The Ditch self lifting wheel dollies like you see hanging off tow trucks. The extendable axles and their carrier mounted nicely on the back deck of the tug. One wheel set and it's stand fit behind the axles while the other set was mounted on the left front fender. They do not impinge on driver visibility and the rear stand made for a nice place to mount the high amperage connection for the winch.

The wheel dollies and tow dolly had straps to go with them so I dropped them in the fender mounted tool box along with the winch controller and a 20' tow strap. As a bit of a bonus, I picked up a pair of jumper cables, put a plug on one end to match the winch power plug, and dropped them in the tool box. That turned the tug into a 9600 lb jump box so they can power up dead cars when necessary.


When I delivered the tug the parts manager (my primary contact) drove it into the service department and we were quickly surrounded by techs and service management. I presented the features and capabilities to the group. A few questions were asked and I demonstrated the solutions. There were no concerns presented that I had not addressed in the design. The techs were satisfied with the tug and dolly. I dare say they were enthusiastic due to the number of vehicles they get with locked transfer cases. Management was happy and I could see concerns evaporate as they studied the equipment and the Q&A progressed.

In all, it was a screaming success. The client has their concerns addressed, I learned quite a bit, and a tidy profit was made.