EMERGENCY - How to Recover a Vehicle lubricant in the top front of the drive axle will drain to the rear. This will leave the top components dry. The resulting friction may damage them. Always remove the main drive axle shafts before towing your vehicle. 1. Review and understand all the cautions and warnings of this section. 2. Install the recovery hitch. See What is a Recovery Hitch? on page 51 and How to use a Recovery Hitch on page 52. 3. Disconnect the drive axle shafts and cover the open hubs. This is necessary because if the transmission is driven by the driveshaft (rear wheels on the ground), no lubricant will reach the gears and bearings, causing damage to the transmission.
See How to Prepare the Axles for Towing on page 53. 4. Install the recovery rigging using a safety chain system, See What are the Best Practices for Recovery Rigging? on page 55. 5. Make sure the recovered vehicle's parking brakes are released. See Manually Release the Parking Brake on page 49. 6. If you desire to use the recovered vehicle’s brakes, ensure that the vehicle’s air system is connected to that of the recovery vehicle. Ensure that any air line that has been removed from a driver-controlled main differential lock is firmly capped to prevent loss of air pressure from the recovery vehicle if it is supplying air pressure.
If you don’t desire to use the recovered vehicle’s brakes, ensure that you cage the spring brakes before attempting to move the vehicle, see How to Manually Lock a Differential on page 54. 7. Follow state/provincial and local laws that apply to vehicles in tow. 8. Do not tow vehicles at speeds in excess of 55 mph (90 km/h). For additional information concerning heavy duty truck recovery, refer to the following Technology & Maintenance Council (TMC) literature.
Recommended Practice #602–A — “Front Towing Devices For Trucks and Tractors.” Recommended Practice #602–B — “Recovery Attachment Points For Trucks, Tractors, and Combination Vehicles Recommended Practice #626 — “Heavy Duty Truck Towing Procedures.” Copies of these can be obtained from the following address: Technology & Maintenance Council 950 N. Glebe Road (703) 838-1763 Arlington, VA 22203 Email: tmc@trucking.org Website: http:// tmc.truckline.com 2 Manually Release the Parking Brake Recovering a vehicle may require the parking brakes to be released.
There may be times when there is not enough air pressure, or the engine's air compressor is not able to produce enough pressure, to release the parking brakes. In such cases, Y53-6047-2HEN (03/18) 49