I remember years ago every float tractor, especially with a removable neck had a big winch behind the cab for lowering the deck and raising the neck and vice versa. It was also handy for dragging on dead equipment as well. It occurs to me that i haven't seen one for a while, I know the necks now are either mechanical or hydraulic but I just wondered if anyone has a winch on their tractor anymore?
Heck yeah! All mine have a winch. It looks odd pulling the belly dump, but I pull the float and low boy more often. Neither have landing legs either. One of my lowboys is a folding neck so it is essential. I have a Tulsa 80 on one, and a Tulsa 64 on the other. They are handy to have.
Nope, NONE. Haven't seen a lowbed tractor out here with a winch for the last 20 years. The only trucks that even have lowbed ramps and winches are the baker tank trucks.
Lots of oilfield trucks have winches, there also called winch trucks... http://www.truckpaper.com/listingsdetail/detail.aspx?OHID=2365285
Thats mostly why I keep them. We call them haul trucks, and the Autocars and Binders with the beds and 2 or 3 winches we call winch trucks, tandems, or gin trucks. The plain old tractors with nothing but a fifth wheel we call slickbacks. Its mostly oilfield hauling around here, so most everybodys trucks are dual purpose.
I heard that for safety reasons the oil fields were getting away from rig up trucks. Basically the only place that use them anymore, is Canada. Like i said before no one around here has a winch truck, if you want a winch you gotta call a wrecker, or a crane.
We have winch tractors (std tractor with 5th wheel and winch. twin steer double tandem bedtrucks with winches (Sow's) I almost think its weird to see a truck without a winch around the oil patch Im in the market for a Tri Drive float truck and it will be a 100 percent garentee it will have a winch on it.
We use the heck out of them in North Texas on every rig move. We are however using crawler cranes more and more on the largest rigs for the fact that some of the rigs are too tall for rig up trucks, and yes, they are somewhat safer. One trend I see is the use of hydraulic drive planetary winches instead of the worm gear type. I dont like them, but they will bypass before a "worm" hurts somebody. Tulsa has a system out for them that allows the driver to see his weight of pull also.