Used Yard Spotter Connecticut - Tow tractors are a common piece of industrial equipment used in large buildings, arenas, warehouses, airports and manufacturing plants for moving loads horizontally. They go by different names including tow tugs and towing tractors. These machines can tow numerous trailers in a train or snake-like formation. Tow tractors can move aircraft into and outside of airport locations such as terminals and hangars.
The tractive effort concept is how loads move from place to place. Tractive effort is the amount of traction a unit has on the ground. Heavier loads require more tractive effort compared to lighter loads. The tow tractor lifts a portion of the load during towing while ensuring the wheels on the load still remain on the ground. The load is partially lifted by use of the tow tractor’s hydraulic mast which is specifically designed to produce downforce on the drive wheel immediately beneath it, increasing the tractive effort. The traction created by this process enables the tow tractor to pull very large and heavy loads.
Types of Tow Tractors
Heavy-duty tow tractors and load carriers are two types of tow tractors.
Load Carriers
Industries such as e-commerce, manufacturing, and airport baggage and parcel systems must regularly move many individual and varying sized items to or from a single location. Tow tugs or load carrier tow tractors are excellent for these jobs as they can maneuver single items stacked on wheeled platforms for streamlined transport.
Load carrier tow tractor models are categorized in the material handling equipment that covers cranes, forklifts and pallet jacks. Load carrier tow tugs transport loads at ground level only, rather than lifting or lowering off the ground or from shelving or other hard to reach areas. In order to be ready for transport, items must be secured on a wheeled platform or already on wheels to use the tow tractor. The wheeled platforms are called bogies, trollies or skates. The tow tug is attached to the trolly similar to train cars being attached to a locomotive. Generally, the steel coupling on the tow tug’s male-end joins to the front trolly’s female-end. The back of the trolly has a male-end steel coupling that can then be used to attach multiple trollies onto a single tow tug, transporting all the trollies in a train-like formation.
Tow tractors with a train of trollies enable a wider range in the type of items that can be transported and in the types of conditions they can be transported. Different trolly types are on the market to facilitate better transportation customization. Many trollies can be connected since they are compatible with one another. This means several different types of trollies can be used in a single train allowing greater flexibility for operations.
Load carrier tow tractors deliver a clear view for the operator which can be better than relying on forklifts. Additionally, load carrier tow tractors move their units in a forward-only way and this drastically decreases safety concerns associated with forklifts traveling in reverse. These safety considerations are of special importance in busy areas such as manufacturing floors and airports.
Towing solutions are a good alternative to traditional forklifts to handle many single items. They are safe and easy to maneuver. One benefit of these tow tugs is that an operator usually does not require a license. Tow tractor operators do not need licenses since they don’t lift loads off of the ground.
There are three kinds of load carrier tow tractor units to choose from; pedestrian, stand-in and rider-seated.
Pedestrian Tow Tractors
Pedestrian tow tractors go by many names including electric tow tractor, electric tug, or electric tugger. These units are walk-behind models that move wheeled loads. It is compact, maneuverable and easy to use.
Stand-in Tow Tractors
Popular for industries that conduct order picking and horizontal transport for manufacturing, the stand-in tow tractors are the best design. They provide a secure platform for the driver to operate while still having a smaller footprint than that of the rider-seated tow tractors.
Rider-Seated Tow Tractors
The rider-seated tow tractors are similar to the stand-in tow tractors with the exception they provide a seated platform for the driver. These types of load carrier tow tractors are popular where loads are transported over longer distances, such as airport baggage systems where checked baggage is transported from the check-in counter at the front of an airport to the aircraft at the terminal, often a great distance from one another. Rider fatigue is decreased with sit-down units for more efficiency and productivity.
Heavy Duty Tow Tractors
The pushback concept is commonly used in aviation for cargo and large passenger planes. Pushing an aircraft back from the airport terminal without using the aircraft’s own power is the pushback concept. Pushback is achieved by employing pushback tugs or pushback tractors.
Pushback tractors are built with a low-profile to allow them to move underneath the nose of the aircraft so that it can attach. Since the aircraft weight is heavy, these units need to be heavy in order to retain adequate ground friction to move the aircraft. A typical tractor for large aircraft weighs up to 54 tons. They usually have a driver’s cab that can be raised and lowered to increase visibility when reversing.
While the vehicle is referred to as a pushback tug or pushback tow tractor, it is also used to tow aircraft in areas where taxiing the aircraft is not practical or safe, such as moving large aircraft in and out of maintenance hangars.
There are two subtypes of pushback tow tractors:
1. Conventional; and
2. Towbarless.
Conventional Pushback Tow Tractors
These units use a tow bar to attach the tug to the nose landing gear on the aircraft. The tow bar is fixed laterally at the nose landing gear, but may move slightly vertically for height adjustment. The tow bar that attaches to the tug can pivot vertically and laterally. Acting like a giant lever, the tow bar can rotate the nose landing gear. Each aircraft type has a unique tow fitting so the towbar also acts as an adapter between the standard-sized tow pin on the tug and the type-specific fitting on the aircraft's landing gear. On heavy towbars for large aircrafts, the towbar rides on its own wheels when not connected to an aircraft. The hydraulic jacking mechanism is attached to the wheels, allowing the towbar to lift to the correct height in order to mate with the tug and the aircraft. The same means are used in reverse during the pushback process to raise the towbar wheels from the ground. The towbar can be connected at the front or the rear of the tractor, depending on whether the aircraft will be pushed or pulled.
Towbarless Pushback Tow Tractors
Towbarless tractors do not use a towbar; they scoop up the nose landing gear and lift it off the ground, allowing the tug to maneuver the aircraft. This design facilitates higher speeds greater aircraft control and can eliminate the necessity of having a worker inside of the cockpit to apply the brakes. The main advantage of a towbarless tug is simplicity; there is no need to maintain multiple towbars. By connecting the tug directly to the aircraft's landing gear tug operators have better control and responsiveness when maneuvering.
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