Look...we get it. Downtime sucks. However, if you're reading this, there is a good chance you already have a Wrecker Central wheel lift. This in turn means your odds of having any downtime are already significantly decreased over our competitors. With that said, we wanted to give you 7 tips to make sure that your wheel lift never gives you any surprise headaches or heartaches.

1: Keep that thing greased up!

This is the #1 problem we see with wheel lift owners/operators. Their wheel lift is malfunctioning and when they roll into our shop for us to take a look, that thing is drier than a popcorn fart. We make sure to tell every customer that leaves our shop to make sure they are hitting each of those grease fittings (a.k.a. zerk fittings) with grease AT LEAST once a week. Here in our shop, we actually use this grease during our installation process, and no, we don't get paid if you click that link and buy it.

2: Keep it tight, keep it right.

Make sure you're taking time periodically to give your wheel lift an in-depth "once-over". You have to be sure you're checking to make sure things like your hex pins, flipper arms, and main pin bolts are tightened. By not checking these things, you are allowing your lift to loosen over time which causes unneeded and unwanted stress on different parts of the lift that will inevitably lead to a break or a malfunction. At the end of the day, it doesn't matter who built your wheel lift, if you neglect it, it WILL fail you. It's not a matter of "if", its a matter of "when." Spend 10 to 15 minutes every once in a while to ensure everything that should be tightened is tightened.

3: Check yourself before you wreck yourself.

One of the easiest ways to ensure a long life of your wheel is to do a pre-trip inspection of your lift. Make yourself a checklist that you work through every single time you get in your truck for your shift. Sure, our materials are strong and built to last, but we get pictures and videos all the time of people lifting things they definitely shouldn't be. Making sure to check things like your flipper arms, crossbar, frame, and tubes for stress fractures or cracks alongside watching the wear points on your lift to make sure the steel doesn't get worn out over time is hugely important. The last thing you want to do is be out on a call and drop a vehicle while transporting because you didn't notice the hairline fracture you got when you picked up your buddy's school bus restoration project. Spending 5 to 10 minutes before each shift to make sure everything is in working order could save you 10's thousands of dollars down the road in repairs or even lawsuits from customers or banks from damaged vehicles.

4: Out with the old and in with the new.

This one is actually pretty easy. In our pumps, we don't actually use hydraulic fluid. The manufacturer recommended to us to advise everyone to use Automatic Transmission Fluid (ATF, but not those pesky folks that hate it when we have cool guns.) Make sure that at least once a year you drain all of the fluid out and replace it with fresh and new ATF.

5: Make it shine so bright that the haters see you coming.

Just like the last one, a few bucks and a little bit of time can make a big difference. If you go out and spend $7 on a can of Krylon spray paint, you can keep your wheel lift looking brand new at all times. Sure, you can bring it to us and have us powder coat it for you, but with a little bit of spray paint, you can keep surface rust and pitting from showing up on your lift in between trips to the powder coating oven. Surface rust leads to deeper rust and then structural integrity issues that can lead to failures of your equipment. If you could spend a few bucks to protect your investment and stay on the road, wouldn't it be wise to do it?

6: People will be shocked when they find out you aren't a good electrician.

It doesn't take an electrical engineering degree to figure out how our pumps and remotes are wired together. In fact, in our customer portal, we offer the wiring diagram for free. We get calls on a somewhat frequent basis from customers that have moved their pump or disconnected something and now their wheel lift doesn't work. This is why we recommend at least once a week to go over your electrical system to make sure that all of your wires have a solid connection, including but not limited to connectors still attached to the wire with a strong crimp combined with electrical tape and/or heat shrink. Make sure your grounds are all connected properly to avoid causing fires or failure of equipment. You're also going to want to check for things like frayed wires from friction points, especially if you store things like dollies in the bed of your truck. For those that live a little further away from civilization, we have also had customers tell us about field mice, cats, and raccoons chewing on wiring that is exposed. Making sure your electrical system is up to date and connected properly will ensure that the lift moves every single time you toggle that switch on your remote.

7: Our lame attempt to make you like us. We highly advise anyone reading this to like our Facebook page and subscribe to our YouTube channel. Sure, we like the clout and it makes us feel good that people want to interact with us while it also strokes our ego, but there is honestly a lot of very useful information on both of those channels of communication. Any time we come out with a brand new product or upgrade an older product, we ALWAYS announce it on all of our social media. This will ensure that you are up to date with what we have going on at our HQ and inside of our workshop along with making sure you can take advantage of any and all promotions we have going on at the time.

In conclusion; we hope that you take this list to heart. We don't think that anything we have listed here is too outrageous of a task to do to make sure the money you earn with your lift gets to stay in your or your company's pocket. We learned that according to a recent study, the more money you have, the more successful your business is. With that said, let us know in the comments what you think of our list or even something you think we may have forgotten!