The American love affair with trucks continues, with sales of pickups outpacing declining car sales month after month. Through August 2016, sales of light-duty trucks are up 8 percent year-over-year, versus car sales that are down 8 percent. Shops that want to be able to properly repair collision damage on these popular vehicles need the right equipment.
Structural frame damage to these larger body-on-frame vehicles, including diamond and twist, impacts the entire truck. This kind of damage can exaggerate any damage on the ends, so the center section must be returned to square before trying to repair damage elsewhere. A square center section provides a properly aligned structure for any sectioning or cutting work on the ends to be done correctly.
Center section repairs on trucks are best performed using a frame rack rather than a bench. For pickups, vans and SUVs, frame machines offer these advantages over benches:
- Provide a bigger working surface for larger vehicles
- Can be set up to anchor one rail tightly, while allowing the damaged rail to be pulled back to square in the center section
- May allow multiple simultaneous pulls to be made with equalized pressure, preventing ripping, tearing, bending or rolling of the steel
- Provide the greater pulling power needed to straighten advanced steels
- Easily hold the vehicle in multiple places, providing more working surface for making repairs on the ends of the vehicle
The widest frame rack on the market, Goliath is made for larger vehicles. At 92 inches wide and 22 feet long, it provides technicians with the room to work on even the largest dually trucks without having to remove the wheels. Variable deck heights from 19 to 40 inches lets technicians put the truck at just the right working height.
The Chief Goliath pulling system provides 360-degree pulling anywhere around the deck perimeter, allowing for ganging of towers and simultaneous multiple pulls. It is the only collision rack on the market with full cross bars, which easily allows one frame rail to be held tight and the other rail loose enough to be pulled back into place.
Goliath features an electric-over-hydraulic pulling system to equalize pressure to all towers in use. It provides 10 tons of pulling power at the hook, an important benefit since advanced steels are making it necessary for shops to use more pressure than ever before.
Goliath is compatible with Chief’s LaserLock Live Mapping measuring system that can measure up to 45 individual points on a vehicle simultaneously in real time, so technicians can monitor dimensional changes as they occur during pulling, reducing the risk of putting additional damage into the vehicle.
To learn more about the Chief Goliath frame rack, visit www.chiefautomotive.com/frame-machines/goliath/, contact your local Chief distributor or call (800) 445-9262.
