Heavy Duty Collision Repair

How many collision shops can service a Toyota Prius? How many a can do frame pulls on a Ford F-150? We assume the answer is nearly all of them, but how many can make repairs on a school bus or a dump truck? That number drops significantly. Be one of the elite shops, and say “yes” to the heavy duty repairs. Chief Automotive has rolled out a new line of heavy-duty repair tools, which allows your shop to take on those repairs, and be one of the only shops around that can say “yes”.

Chief offers a wide range of standard and custom frame racks up to 32 feet long to accommodate even the largest trucks, trailers and buses. The Centurion frame rack is now available with either 10- or 14-foot tall hydraulic towers, each with 55 tons of pulling power. Chief heavy-duty frame racks are easy to set up: just position the vehicle on the rack, swing the towers into the desired position and start fixing the issue. No need to waste time and risk injury by hand-building a pulling system out of heavy pieces of steel every time you need to make a repair.

The new Chief heavy-duty product line includes:

• New Centurion heavy-duty frame rack.
• New Cam Scan HD™ photogrammetric measuring system.
• Chief HD self-piercing rivet gun.
• New Chief blind rivet attachment for PNP90 rivet gun.
• Rotary ^® Lift Mach Series mobile column lifts.

Many heavy-duty shops still measure vehicles using gauges, tape measures and string. While this technique can be accurate, it’s also time-consuming and doesn’t offer any documentation, which is increasing in demand by insurance companies. Chief’s new Cam Scan HD measuring system allows techs to easily measure and compare two points anywhere on a vehicle a matter of minutes. And since it uses photogrammetry, it also provides the photos of damage and repair documentation insurers are looking for.

The Chief PNP90 pneumatic-hydraulic rivet gun is a much lighter, user-friendly, flexible tool than the old air-operated tools many heavy-duty shops currently use. It eliminates the need to drill out factory rivets and can be used to insert self-piercing or flow form rivets. The new blind rivet attachment kit is designed for heavy-duty repair applications that require blind rivets, blind nuts or blind bolts. It swivels and pivots to get into hard-to-reach spaces.

Mach Series mobile column lifts from Chief’s sister company Rotary Lift give heavy-duty repair shops the ability to get vehicles in the air, making it much easier to measure the frame and reveal damage that otherwise may go unseen, resulting in more accurate repair estimates. Mach Series lifts are available in groups of four or six columns, each with a lifting capacity of 18,000 lbs. They can be used to lift vehicles weighing up to 108,000 lbs. Mach Series lifts have been third-party tested and ALI certified to meet industry safety and performance standards.

If you would like more information on Chief’s full line of heavy duty equipment, visit our HD Landing Page and sign up for more information.