As a resident of San Francisco, I can say how much I hate tow trucks since they towed my car without warning. It just happens that tow trucks “wait” around parking lots to tow cars.
Okay, that said, here’s a cool DIY air suspension system made for tow trucks, I hope it doesn’t make it to the market, I really don’t like technology improvements for tow trucks. I think people in tow trucks are one of the “lowest” grade jobs out there along with parking meter people. Don’t get me wrong, tow trucks are just really “bad” in San Francisco. If they start doing things more “legally”, I’d have to change my mind though, but that’s not going to happen in this bad economy-era.
Gadget Freak James Kinney was looking for a way to take the pressure off the back end of a tow truck when it’s carrying a heavy load. If you can equalize the pressure of the truck bed so all the weight is not on the back end, there will be less stress to the truck’s suspension system. Kinney developed the air suspension system, called the Mechatronic Microcontroller, in his mechatronics’ class at Colorado State University. The gadget uses a resistive touchscreen from an electronic Sudoku game to select the ride height of the tow truck’s bed to make it level, thus spreading the stress of the towing weight evenly across the truck’s suspension.
