It's not a secret that when it comes to building wheel lifts, we aren't the only option in the market today. Do we believe we build the best one out? Sure. Are we confident that our team of fitters, welders, builders, and installers are the best in the business? Absolutely. However, to someone that doesn't work directly in this industry, it may not be very clear as to what the biggest differences are between us and our competition. We wanted to take an opportunity to explain what it is that we do differently from everyone else and why that should matter to you. Before delving into this list, we want to be very clear: This isn't a list to tear down our competition or talk trash on any one company in particular, but we want to let it be known why we are so confident in what it is that we do. If there are any similarities between your own experiences with any one company or anything of that nature, it is purely coincidence and not intentional. So let's jump in! 1. Customer Service
To us, customer service is king. There was a research study done that basically says a customer is 86% more likely to purchase from a company that gives them a good customer experience. We are striving to be that good customer experience. We make sure to take the time to reach out to each of our customers and talk with them before, during, and after the purchase of any of our products. In this industry, there is a lot that can go wrong in a very quick amount of time, and we aren't immune. From slow distribution lines to downed equipment at the shop (we are looking at you McDonalds ice cream machine), we, much like every other business, run the risk of getting a hiccup. This is why we created a private group on Facebook EXCLUSIVELY for our customers. This group is used to joke around, ask questions, post videos and pictures, shares memes, and get advice. Every one of our employees that work here is required to be in the group as part of their employment agreement so that we can engage in real-time with our ever-growing family. If you try to contact anyone, including the owner of the company via email, Facebook messenger, our website chat, or by phone, you can guarantee you'll get a response in a very timely manner.
2. Quality raw materials
We are proud to say that we buy ONLY USA-made steel from right in our own backyard. Being in the "rust belt" of the United States, we have access to the highest quality of raw materials that we also get to inspect before taking delivery. After spending well over a decade doing this, we have relationships with the most reputable raw material distributors, and that's something that money can't buy. Our delivery drivers even bring dog treats for our shop dog, Milo. Honestly, though, he's just a really good boy and deserves all of the treats anyways.
3. Our own engineering
We come from the towing and repo world. If you've read our About Us page, you know the story of how our first-ever lift came to be. Our current owner was an owner/operator of a handful of different tow trucks and just found that there was a huge hole in the product line available at the time, and the products that were available just weren't "up to snuff" with what could be produced. After spending some time with a welder, a grinder, a handful of 4 letter words, and some hydraulic pumps, our first-ever wheel lift was put to work. Afterword got out locally, there was a TON of local drivers that wanted one for themselves and Wrecker Central was born. Since then, we have spent COUNTLESS hours tweaking, modifying, and engineering the products that we currently have available today. We are currently the manufacturer that sets the bar that our competitors are constantly reaching for.
4. Years of towing experience
Dan started towing back in the late '80s/ early '90s. That quickly developed into a love and repo's started shortly thereafter. He started a company while still working as a Law Enforcement Officer. After both jobs got to be too much work to do simultaneously, he decided to take a step away from the law enforcement community and invest his time, money, and energy into the company that is Wrecker Central today. Every piece of any of our lifts has been designed with his past experiences combined with the experiences of those out in the field today that get brought to us daily. With all of our customer stories letting us know the realities of today's towing lift, combined with our experiences and the guys that invite us to go spend some time with them during their tows and repos, we are confident that we actually know what it is we are talking about.
5. Thicker materials
We see the products put out by our competitors. We know the dimensions and we know why they build them the way they do. Getting cheaper materials and selling them for a higher markup sounds good to any sane business owner, but I guess you can call us crazy. We know the stress that these lifts are put under and we know the amount of work that they put in. With our lifts being on the road for well over 10 years and being used day in and day out, we refuse to sacrifice the quality of our materials to ensure that you get the best product money can buy. On our heads, we use a 3/8" hex plate welded to a 1/2" head plate at the main pivot point to ensure a long last pivot with no slop that positively will not bend or break. We use a 3/8" cross tube with an 82" drawbar to make sure there is no bending when the lift is loaded with a heavier vehicle. The pin mount for the main hydraulic cylinder is mounted to our main tube with a 1/2' steel plate. Our main pin (which is the most crucial part of mounting and is where everything rotates off of) is made of 1 1/2" cold roll pin steel. Our main pivot pin that holds the drawbar is a 2 1/2" machined pin steel, 2 piece design held together with a 5-inch grade 8 nut and bolt. Show us anyone else doing that...we'll wait.
6. Comprehensive warranty
Look...we get it. As the saying goes; "Nothing lasts forever." We work day in and day out to find the secret to building something that does (If Elon Musk would ever tweet back at us). In the meantime, we offer an industry-leading comprehensive warranty. We back all of our pins in bushings with a lifetime warranty. Of course, it is on the end-user to make sure that they are greasing and lubricating all of the pivot points, but for something that takes less than 10 minutes a week to do, we feel like that is an extremely fair trade-off. At the time that this article is being written, we can confidently say that we have honestly only had either 4 or 5 customers take advantage of it. After looking at the lifts that they brought us, they had no shame in letting us know that there had been little to no maintenance done on the lift in its entire lifetime. While we can never recommend this practice, we do know that we still ended up taking care of them and getting their lifts back on the road in working order. We also offer a 2-year limited warranty on all parts of the lift itself, but we love our customers and we want to make sure they're taken care of. There have been plenty of people that have come to us after their lift was been installed on three separate trucks and they finally ran into some issues. Who would we be if we turned them away? If you're willing to work with us, we can do our best to work with you. What can we say...we're pretty cool guys.
7. Everything built in house
In our shop here in Lisbon, Ohio, we have all of the tools, machinery, and equipment to make as much of our own inventory as we possibly can. Sure, we aren't electrical engineers making computer chips for remote switches or experts in the field of hydraulics in order to make our pumps, but if it can be made from steel, we can do it. From lathes to drill presses to band saws, we have everything we need within our 4 walls and we are confident in our welders, fabricators, and installers' abilities to make each and every lift special and custom for every truck that pulls in our door. Any wheel lift manufacturer that tells you that all-wheel lifts are built the same is lying to your face. Each one of our lifts is handcrafted with our gluten-free, low sodium, lactose-free, no soy, hypoallergenic steel. OK, we are totally kidding about that, but we do know that we spend a lot of time measuring, remeasuring, cutting, welding, and grinding each piece of steel that goes into crafting a lift together.
8. Personal Touch
We not only want you to get a wheel lift from us, but we want to have a relationship with you as well (let's keep it rated PG here folks.) It's important to us that we understand what the end-user of our wheel lifts is going to be doing so that we make sure to get you into the right lift. You might need something a little heftier than what you thought or maybe what you thought you needed is too much. We take the time to discuss your wants and needs to get you into the wheel lift that's right for you. We allow all of our customers to come in and tour our installation and fabrication facilities so that you can see first hand, from start to finish, how a wheel lift is built and installed. We have the ability to customize a wheel lift to the exact perimeters that the end-user would want, to a certain extent of course.
9. Social Media
We pride ourselves on our social media presence. No, we don't have hundreds of thousands of views on YouTube and our Facebook page doesn't have 100,000+ likes on it. The reason behind this is that, unlike our competitors, we don't pay for views or likes, or followers. Everything we post is thought out, developed, and produced specifically for those that we know are actually enjoying our content or coming to learn. We love including our employees and customers in all of our videos and pictures. You can check out our YouTube playlist here that includes our interviews with our customers, or even this one that shows off the highlights of what our equipment can do. We love to do our Shop Updates multiple times a week so that you can see exactly what we have going on. This gives everyone full transparency into our lives at work. We try to post a minimum of one thing a day somewhere on the internet to give everyone an opportunity to learn what we have going on.
10. Pricing
The only thing worse than getting an expensive wheel lift is getting an expensive wheel lift that isn't built to the standards that we hold ourselves to. Our Big Chief is the most expensive and biggest lift we have available. The closest thing any of our competitors build to that will cost you almost two times as much of your hard-earned money as ours does and it STILL won't hold up as ours can. We see it day in and day out. If we can build a higher quality product and come in at roughly half of their cost, the only reason the other guys are selling them for that much is strictly corporate greed. We believe in honesty, integrity, and respect when it comes to our pricing versus our quality. On the other side of the token, we refuse to become the company that has all of its customers suffering from buyers remorse because they wanted something cheap, bought something cheap, and realized that cheaper means lesser materials, less effort put into the build, and not as big of a return on investment. Our prices don't fluctuate and they are available right on our website. We don't hide behind them and make you call us for an estimate because we are scared of what others will say. We are hoping that list will help separate us from the rest of the pack as we move forward in becoming the industry lead designers, builders, installers, and operators of hidden wheel lifts. Please comment below or send us a message if you have any questions about anything we offer and we would be more than happy to address them! Thanks for reading!
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