Your top mount is a fine idea for easy access. Getting to every part of a winch really pays off in ease of maintenance and troubleshooting. I have a 440 set up similarly but with a low winch Ramsey winch for a yard crane I used to put up building panels and R&I engines, and am about to use to erect a Steelmaster building with my bro. My boom was bent so I bought a 20-foot stick of box tubing same thickness as the 440 boom. I holesawed (use a carbide hole saw) the lock pin holes and welded the old boom socket into the end of the stick. What I did that's different is I didn't cut the stick down. I slid it in as far as it would go and clear everything on the deck. That leaves me with the same retracted stickout as a fully extended boom. That setup is obviously not for towing but works a treat for lifting. I can always slice off the inboard section with a recip saw to shorten the stick or just buy a second stick and cut that to stock length. Worth noting if ya can score one cheap is worm drive winches like the classic commercial Ramseys use the same parts between hydraulic, electric and PTO for most of the winch. That besides their extremely tough construction and plentiful parts makes them worth collecting. I have three whose owners fried the stock electric motors (UNDERVOLTAGE KILLS WINCHES!) I bought dirt cheap then installed replacement motors. Your local industrial electric shop can make it easy but so will a little reading. When I replace electric winch solenoids I move them off the winch for much easier access and troubleshooting (which often means smacking old stuck solenoids). I use ammo cans and mount the solenoids to a vertical hunk of stock bolted to the lid so the whole assembly pulls out of the ammo box which is bolted to the wrecker. This works insanely well and I can swap controls between wreckers if needed. I put drain holes in the bottom to prevent condensation.
I like these wrecker videos. Looking at different wrecker builds on youtube is how i stumbled across your channel. Can't wait to see the new wrecker project finished.
awesome video. I just picked up an 81 f350 wrecker and can't wait to tow some stuff. I just need to find out how to get a wrecker truck on the road as a personal use only wrecker for hauling my new buys or projects.
i dont know where your at but here in oklahoma all you have to do is put not for hire on the truck with i think 2 inch letters or bigger i might be wrong on the exact size of the letters
i thought about it at first but the reason i didnt is because i wouldnt of been able to use the level wind and th roller fairlead and it works so much better and smoother the way i mounted it i have a video on this when i replaced the first electric winch scroll thru my videos and youl find it
