Today hopefully is the last frigidly cold day we will have this winter. In Iowa and Michigan we have missed a great deal of the snowy weather endured by states south and east of us.  I’m sure that although cold snowy weather is good for business that our customers will like a break from it.

It seems like this has been a very long stretch of time that we have been under the gun to build new equipment to fill custom orders. We have been working a lot of overtime.  The guys are looking forward to and will enjoy more normal hours in a week or two as we wind down the rush season and as the weather warms and daylight savings time kicks in.

Zip’s is now getting quite current with production of new build to order wreckers, car carriers and service bodies. We are beginning to produce some turnkey units so our customers will find that they can get immediate delivery on flatbeds, multi-deck car carriers, and light and heavy duty wreckers. Carriers are already showing up out front and we will be moving a few of them to Zip’s Detroit store in the next few days.

Zip’s also has available a large number of chassis and bodies that can be custom built quickly as we can move them right into a production slot. Our sales force should be happy to have equipment that they can demonstrate.

We are really excited about building the new Miller Multi-deck 4 car carriers. This is no-brainer replacement for the conventional above cab 4 car carrier. We have a Freightliner that will be done yet this week. If you are in that market of clearing out wrecks for the pools, auctions and insurance companies check them out. They are so much more safe loading and unloading as the tie-down work can be done from ground level rather than having to crawl around loading the car above the cab. The controls are simple to operate. This makes it so much easier to hire operators and should affect your workman's compensation in a positive way. I know of way too many instances where drivers slipped and fell loading vehicles on the conventional above cab deck.
Most are built with pusher axles so that the DOT is happy. The decks are 30' long for maximum loading space still staying under legal length limits in all states that I know of. Handling of this vehicle is much improved over the traditional 4 car because the weight of the top car is well back from the front of the vehicle. There is no overhang over the windshield so the driver doesn't feel like he is in a tunnel driving the unit.
The main deck is a 16 Miller 16 series 16,000# capacity which is much lighter than the traditional 20 Series deck .

I hope your looking forward to the new season and change of pace as we are.