Freddy Riggs from the Houston Miata Club joins the In Wheel Time Podcast to discuss the innovative car mover machines designed for electric vehicles. Cy Perkins explains how these machines operate, highlighting their unique ability to lift and transport heavy EVs without causing damage. The conversation dives into the challenges of towing EVs, including weight and design issues, and the evolving landscape of towing regulations. The episode also features humorous banter among the hosts and insights into automotive news and trends.
This week, we are joined in the Car Club Spotlight by Freddy Riggs of the Houston Miata Club.
The Mazda Miata has become almost cultish in the passions of owners. There are 'race' series that are solely dedicated to the Miata, and the rules are about as simple as the Miata, seeming to focus on fun!
The heart and soul of the Mazda Miata lie in its driving dynamics. With its lightweight chassis, precise steering, and well-tuned suspension, the car delivers an unparalleled connection between the driver, the road, and the car itself. Whether you're zipping through urban streets or taking on twisty mountain roads, the Miata's nimble and responsive nature makes every drive a memorable experience.
In the world of sports cars and roadsters, the 2023 Mazda MX-5 Miata Club stands as a testament to driving purity and enthusiast-focused design. It is no surprise then, that the Miata clubs are passionate about driving their vehicles at a variety of events. Freddy shares some of the events that the club has on the calendar, as well as some of the charities that the club supports.
Join us to hear more about the Houston Miata Club!
Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.
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"...e not displayed. Jeep Grand Cherokee Wagoneer and Grand Wagoneer 21 to 24 models. And that's it for that segment."
Select text to request an explanation
Welcome to another In Wheel Time Podcast, a 30 minute mini version of the In Wheel Time car show that airs live every Saturday morning 8 to 11am, central Live from Studio A and live audio and video streaming.
According to David Ainslie, it's the In Wheel Time car talk show coming up.
Cy Perkins tracked machines specifically built for EVs.
Why, how do they?
do it.
Because they can't.
Conrad's gonna have the In Wheel Time car clinic and I'll bring you this week's auto news Howdy along with Mike out of this world, mars King, conrad DeLong, we always need more.
Jeff Zeekin, I'm Don Armstrong, glad you could join us on this hot Saturday.
You know I'm really.
It's time for the big high pressure system and the heat to go away.
Sub-side.
Just get us back into the 90s.
That's all, even 99.
I'd be good with that.
Like a cool front blowing through.
Here's something funny.
The owner came up to everyone this past week and said hey, I sent everybody a link to the apparel that we use for the store.
I want everybody to pick some apparel out, and so I've got some shirts for winter and summer and all that.
I bought a three layer jacket, did you really?
I did Right.
Leave it to Jeff.
Last Wednesday I bought a three layer jacket.
This you know, for like Alaska, you know you go there Dog sled rides and all that.
Hey, I want to stay warm.
Yeah Well, you certainly don't have that problem.
Today Cy Perkins is with a company called Tract Machines.
Cy, good morning, good morning, it's great to have you with us and thanks so much for joining us today.
Thanks for having me.
You bet I know what a tract machine is Kind of like a tank in the army, right.
There are other ones, caterpillar tractors for instance.
I mean, there's all sorts of tract machines, matter of fact, snow cats.
Snow cats.
They also make conversion kits now that you can put on the back end of your car, or the front end too.
They're our truck SUV that our tracks.
They've had them for a while.
So, but Cy's got a little different thing going on here and Mars thought it would be fun for us to talk to you and, as opposed to me trying to explain to everybody what a car mover XL is, a tow track machine, explain that to us if you would please.
Absolutely Well.
We offer two machines.
One is the car mover.
It comes in two sizes in Europe, but we're only offering one size, the XL and the United States, because of the weight it handles the weight of the SUVs and the weight of the electric vehicles.
Now, the car mover is basically a modified pallet jack that extends and picks a vehicle up by all four wheels.
It's battery operated, like a pallet jack, and you can take the EVs.
The automobile dealers and auto repair facilities can easily, without any exertion, move a vehicle from inside and place it into a bay and then you have the car, the car, the tow track, which is operating on a caterpillar track system that picks up the vehicle, and we've got that in two sizes and it comes in.
You can get it into the XL, into a diesel or a Vanguard or Honda gasoline engine, and it can go on any kind of terrain.
It can go into 18 inches deep of water.
It physically picks up a vehicle, put it onto a tow truck, strap it down and then surgically place it.
You don't need keys to the automobile, you don't have to touch the automobile except the wheels.
Oh, it's a place.
A couple of straps down Italy.
It's required to be used in 14 EU countries for EVs and in England.
Now the vehicle came up, the machines came around about 2015, 2016,.
And it was the European solution because European vehicles went to an aluminum alloy or a magnesium alloy, like BMW, for the frame, and in America everybody relies on a wheel lift in Dolly.
Well, the problem is on the European cars the frame cannot take the flex of lifting up the front, it bends and shatters the windows of the cars.
Wow, and as technology comes, as automobile manufacturers are making things lighter, stronger with carbon fiber or the windows of the aluminum alloys and traction controls, everything is changing for technology and what we've been used to using is becoming obsolete.
For example, with the EVs as the word, they're throwing them out.
Nobody looked at the engineering.
The problem is the average electric vehicle is right at 7000 pounds.
Ok, that's a lot of weight.
And if you look at a escalator full size escalated you're right around the 6,000, 5,800 to 6,000.
Yeah, oh yeah, the new, the new Hummer has got a problem of registration because it's coming in at 10,400.
And people are having a hard time getting them registered because it's technically a commercial vehicle and with all the weight situation, dolly's are rated at 2,500 pounds.
The light duty tow trucks are being phased out and that includes the records and the wheel lift and dollies.
And the problem is most of the companies can't afford the upgrade and the federal motor carriers making a push to go to 33,000 GBW trucks and that's getting into your industrial flatbed carriers and the machine is the only solution because EVs have no way except for a few, teslas have no way to go into neutral.
There's no free wheeling, so you can't even push them.
Item number two is there's no connection points because of the battery packs underneath the vehicles and C is there's.
No, the winch doesn't have a connection point, it doesn't go into neutral.
So how do you load it up onto a carrier?
So, oh my God.
I had no clue, I told you.
So let me ask you this.
So I didn't realize you can't go in neutral the next time I get a fully electrical, and I'm going to test that out.
I never tried that.
But so so the the XL, yes, that is like a modified pallet jet, so does it slide up underneath the tires?
To lift it up by the?
So it goes underneath and then it's got arms that come out and grab the wheels and then lift it up.
Have you ever seen back pick up truck, mike, with a, with a repo car or something, and they slide it in and it flexes out?
Yeah, I wasn't thinking about that.
Ok, right.
We have videos on our website at track machines dot US.
Track machines dot com.
Dot com is a Talia, the main company, and then here for North American operations, where it dot dot US and you can also Google it or look for us on YouTube Under track machines.
It's one brand worldwide, so I want to open up a chop shop.
So I buy some of these and just go out, start ripping off cars and get electrocuted while you're cutting.
Not necessarily the EV.
You can't just buy it.
The products are custom made to order.
Depending on where, what area of the country you're at, what do you need?
Some companies might do repossession.
Some might be like, if you go up north, automobile repair facilities also run tow towing operations off the auto repair facility license.
And then, depending on if you're doing more recovery work, are you doing transport towing like roadside assistance?
Are you there?
We ask because when we say the machines are custom made for your operation, I give you an example Are you more on asphalt or you more on off-road?
Because the track, the caterpillar track system, the rubber tracks, you might need it more knobby or you might need it more flat.
For the asphalt you might need that comes in a couple of different size winches.
Do you need to do more winching for weight?
You understand what I mean.
It's all the engineering Right, right, right, yes, these are all custom made machines, yes, interesting.
And like I said in law enforcement worldwide 14 countries, like in England or Austria or Germany, if you have an EV, it breaks down.
Police are required to bring out the machine.
And the reason is how often does a tow provider come out in the truck and he's got the wrong equipment for the job?
Oh yeah, I've seen that many times.
So the machine takes care of that, no matter what the problem is.
The machine just picks up the EV, the truck, the truck, the truck, the machine just picks up the EV can handle the weight.
You pick it up, load it up, you're gone within five minutes.
10 minutes.
Okay, I'm broken down on the side of the road.
How do I get the machine to the side of the road, out on I-10, say the tow truck carries the machine, the tow.
you unload the machine via remote control.
The machine will pick up the vehicle and then you load it, pick up the vehicle and then carry it onto the truck and load the machine and the vehicle onto the truck and then drive off.
Oh, so it?
What is it?
Is it that small that it just kind of butts up to against the front or back bumper?
21 foot bed with the load.
Yes, the machine weighs go ahead 4,000 pounds and then you got a 7,000, you're at 11,000 and then the beds are rated for 12,000.
So you're well within your GVD, gvw standards.
Which is one of the reasons you got to go to the bigger trucks.
Because of all that, that's correct.
Conrad's got a picture from your site on here I've got your website.
What powers that?
What powers that?
What size motor is on that device?
Which machine are you looking?
at I'm looking at the XL.
The tow track XL is powered by a Hyundai three cylinder diesel.
If I'm looking at this correctly, the track system, the tracks, those are how to power, how to pull a track system, those are hydraulics, that's hydraulically driven, that's not a prop shaft driving a drive wheel.
That's correct.
That looks like it's hydraulically driven track system.
That's correct.
What's the max speed of the tracks system?
Be it comes in two speeds.
You got to flick the button.
Slow speed is 1.51
miles an hour and then the fast speed is like 2.2
miles per hour.
Now in the engineering of the machine people say it's awful slow.
Well, if you're picking up 10,000 pounds and you do the algebra, it's nothing fast.
That's correct because of the weight.
What makes it so unique is when it's loading it.
When it loads and unloads, it's autonomous computer control.
That's what makes it a robot.
Now you control frontwards and backwards, but when you are loading up the machine, the computer control does not allow the machine to shift right or left.
It picks up while walking underneath the vehicle.
Another lack of a better phrase.
Let me call it the vehicle cartridge, the device that actually picks the vehicle up.
Is it aligned with the tracking system on the tracks device or can that rotate 90 degrees to allow you to go into a parallel parked car, lift, extract the vehicle out without having to come at it from the front?
Okay, no, you've got a.
The front head system can pivot 45 degrees.
You would come out at an angle, lift it up and then bring it out.
But to load it and unload it you've got to Reposition.
It's got to get parallel.
Reposition.
But you've got to pick it up from either straight point or straight back.
But the head does shift 45 degrees even.
Si, does anybody have one of these in Houston right now?
Actually, it's funny you say that there are two companies in Houston.
Right now, as of yesterday, two different companies are looking to buy.
Oh, okay, they're looking to buy.
I like it.
Well, they've asked it, they've requested proposals or quotes and they've been in contact with financing.
Because we need it.
We got lots of people here in lots of different situations, but I can definitely tell you right now One thing I want to clarify.
Yes, this machine is been because of the EVs, handles the EV problem, but the original intention and the engineers that built this were was used to move disabled or salvaged cars in grassy areas, rocky areas, Because of the tracks.
So the whole machine is technically a yard horse.
It's got a boom, it's got a winch.
It can pick up vehicles perpendicular from the side and move them.
It can pick up an engine block and move it with the boom.
It's got a 7,500 pound winch so it can do some recoveries.
The technology on it is just insane.
The XL machine that you were talking about can lift a 5,500 rollback truck.
The problem is the rollback.
The 5,500s are being phased out by the insurance industry because the, if you're not familiar with it, there was a big problem two years ago where, involving a Ford Mach-E and the Mach-E, they contacted Ford Roadside, which is operated by a Jero.
A Jero sent out a tow provider to go do it.
He didn't know what to do.
He hooked up a mini J to the battery rail, caused $28,000 of damage to a brand new $80,000 Ford Mach-E and no insurance tow companies.
Insurance wouldn't cover the claim, the dealership wouldn't cover it and the automobile owner wouldn't cover it.
So $28,000 was conducted through Roadside Assistance and when they got the and nobody was held accountable.
Motor carrier involved, everybody involved.
They said it's an illegal act and all bets were off.
There was no insurance coverage.
If Mike wanted to buy one of these, how much would Mike have to pay for it?
Anywhere from 125 to 135,000 for the regular size depending on the configuration.
And then you got to buy the truck that hauls it around.
Well, a lot of people have medium duty trucks like an international Ford 650 or a Hino or a Freightliner.
Those will cover it.
Yeah, generally they're already going to have the truck because they're kind of in that business in some form or fashion.
That's correct.
You know like where I found you through the website?
The guys up in New York.
They were working out of their auto repair shop, but this is something else they did.
Well, that's kind of misleading.
They tow for it.
It looks like an auto repair shop, but they have six locations they do everything for at JFK airport.
They have six locations.
They tow for the NYPD and New Jersey, New York Port Authority.
So they're a lot bigger than what they seem.
But they're in the business.
So if they go out and spend 125 to $150,000 on one of these machines, it's going to fit right in with their business model.
You know where this would be good Parking wars, parking wars.
You ever watch that show?
Yes, I have.
Well, this would be perfect on parking wars, could be?
You just smiled and it would be free advertising.
Or lizard lick towing.
Or a lizard lick, can you see?
pony tail drive.
Well, a lizard lick up in North Carolina.
They turn and burn, and what they're doing isn't as complicated as it is in the metro areas that have parking, garage or other areas Combined spaces.
Oh well yeah, this would be a perfect device inside of a parking garage, because you wouldn't be able to get it.
Parking garages or swampy rough terrain or if you've got a mixture of both.
We've got a couple of machines in North Carolina, Got a couple.
We've got 28 machines in Canada right now I think.
We got 21 machines in the United States and there's a big push under the national incident management, which used to be the traffic incident management, which is like a clear but keep the highways clear, yeah.
I see.
And there's a big push to make this mandatory.
We were at Grand Rapids at the National Sheriff's Association and towing is going to change probably 200% in the next 24 months because the insurance, the commercial transportation insurance community community is starting to train law enforcement of the do's and don'ts and what tow providers can do.
And it used to be if it fits it ships to get her done.
Well, now that's changing.
Law enforcement through the insurance carriers are making 100% accountability.
And there's another issue that's in the background that they just found out the whole roadside assistance program is has not changed and most of the operations are in violation of law.
Oh my, God.
And what's happening is, if you transport let's say you transport freight you got to get a bill of lading.
Well, the recent court case and it relates to the Ford Maquis that same bill of lading has to be given in the position of towing, and nobody's been that getting that kind of accountability.
You've got to have documentation.
You got to have a state issued ID this is required under the Homeland Security Act and all of a sudden it's opened up a can of worms and what's caused this to this point is all the damage claims for these new vehicles being made to the insurance carriers by the tow providers.
So now the commercial insurance carriers are trying to find ways not to cover the claims and or not, ensure the vehicle.
Yeah, the next yeah.
I give you an example.
Look at the EVs.
The average cost, repair cost of an EV is insane.
The the tow it, the insurance.
A regular towing company can't tow an EV.
He's got to have an insurance that didn't them.
That allows for the EVs.
Evs are regulated by the US Department of Energy.
It's not a vehicle.
People might tell you that, but it's regulated by the Department of Energy.
So your weight statistics on the side of the stickers on the car, all the information doesn't have to be correct.
And then you bring in the hazardous material aspect for a thermal runaway fire that's going to last 36 hours and burn it 3000 degrees.
Oh, that's not yeah.
Oops, so how do you handle that problem, right?
So, it gets pretty, pretty complicated.
Quick, you know we need to talk to you some more.
We run out of time here, but we're good we we available anytime you need.
Well, we got your phone number and you may be getting calls from a television station you never know.
But science, great to talk to you, great information, absolutely Tracked machines Wow, who would have thought how cool?
Yeah, so we're going to.
We're going to delve into this some more soon and we really appreciate you taking the time to explain all this to us.
Thank you, thank you for having me.
Gentlemen, you got it.
Oh my God.
Talk about a kid of worms.
Oh my gosh.
You need to hook him up with Buzz.
No, yeah, exactly.
We'll just get some popcorn and we'll watch.
There you go.
All right Time now for Conrad's car clinic, I think that you have something on that, do you not?
Yes, I do.
I like that because I think we're talking to air filters today, correct.
Okay, you know, and air filtration is pretty important part of the car because you want to keep all that particulate matter out of the combustion chamber that's going to scratch the cylinder walls and damage the piston rings.
That is on your, on your ice engine.
Right.
So you want to make sure that you're keeping all of that particulate matter out of the inside of the engine.
So through the years manufacturers have played around with different air filtration systems, this one being basically an oil bath air filter out of a tri-five Chevrolet, very typical of that generation that they were.
Actually, the filtration media was bathed in oil and then the air would pass through it.
And you know a lot of this all depends on the.
You know how much.
What's called media, how much surface can you get the air to pass through, is how much air you can get to rush in, because if you restrict the amount of air going in, the power of the engine puts out to reduce.
So then they moved to a more of a round pleated filter, which is pretty common.
Everybody sees that.
You know that was kind of what was on top of your quadrajet or such, and I was.
You know you've heard Jeff and I talk about turn the air filter upside down and listen to the roar Very, very common for a pleated filter.
And the reason?
The reason they pleated is it creates more surface for the air to pass through.
So what the filter does is it traps the particulate matter as the air passes through.
So you know one side of the filter is going to collect dirt.
The other side of the filter should be clean.
Now just taking it out on the ground and banging it to get all the dirt out of it's probably not the best thing to do because that can affect the size, the micron size of the media itself.
So now, if you look at how big the micron size is of the media, a human hair is going to be 35 to 200 microns.
I think 35 is a blonde, 200 is a redhead.
Polyne size is somewhere between 10 and 100 microns, you know.
So you want, you know that can be abrasive in there as well.
This 10 to 35 microns, bacteria 3 to 35.3
to 35 microns and the typical air filter is going to be somewhere in the 7 to 10 micron filtration area.
So they're trying to catch a lot of stuff.
So you need to make sure you're replacing your air filter frequently enough to get all that stuff out.
So you know, lung damaging dust is about 0.5
to 5 microns and smoke is generally 100 to 1 micron, you know.
And then the next generation of filtration, that's out.
There again, there's still vehicles that use the round pleated filter and then they've gone to the cartridge filter, which is the short, stocky one.
But to find a lot of cars today are going to have the square box pleated filter, which is extremely common.
So how do you get more air through one without allowing more debris or contaminants to pass through it?
And that's where you get these, the K&N filters.
So what they've kind of done is they've looked back in past and added an oil coating to these filters so, as the material the air passes through, the oil is trying to collect like a glue to stick the contaminants to the filtration device itself.
So if you've got a K&N, you want to make sure you keep it clean, clean it with soap and water, and then you want to rebase it with the oil itself.
They actually have some cleaning spray that you put in there.
Let it soak and then you wash it out and then re-oil.
Again, it's still there's maintenance required, even if you have the K&N.
But the K&N is going to be a 20 to 25 micron opening, so it's going to let a lot more air through.
No, they're not cheap, but it lets a lot more air flow through, and that's where the power increase has come from.
I got some recalls real quickly before we have to take a break.
Obstructed center high mount brake light on the Chrysler product.
Jeep Wrangler 2023.
Toyota Tundra and Tundra hybrid fuel leak from a damaged fuel tube.
22 to 23 models.
Chevy Bolt 22 to 23.
Front passenger airbag may deploy improperly.
So it's a Ford F250, 350 and 450.
Incorrect rear view camera image.
Every Mercedes well, not every, but 2023 model years of Mercedes.
You're going to have to look that up because there's too many to tell you.
Jeep Compass 22 to 23.
Instrument panel light not adjustable.
Rear view camera image not displayed.
Jeep Grand Cherokee Wagoneer and Grand Wagoneer 21 to 24 models.
And that's it for that segment.
We got more news coming up in our next hour, so we invite you to stay tuned for that.
Well, that's it for this hour of the In-Wheel Time Car Talk Show.
We've got more coming up right after this quick break.
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