There is a category of vehicle where the owner will notice things nobody else would. A scuff on a lower valance. A strap mark on a polished sill. A ratchet tightened onto a control arm that should not have taken load. These are cars people have spent years and real money on, and moving one carelessly is not a small mistake.
It applies to more than the obvious. A restoration project sitting on flat tyres in a barn is worth just as much care as a car worth six figures, because it is often irreplaceable in a way a new car is not. Try sourcing a fender for a 1954 Ford and you will understand why the loading matters.
We move both kinds, and the approach is the same. Slower. More straps. More thinking before the winch goes on.
Older cars often have no manufacturer tie-down points at all, and modern cars have them in places that are not intuitive. Strapping to a suspension arm, a subframe or an exhaust because it was convenient is how a car arrives with a bent component. We use wheel straps over the tyres wherever possible, which puts the load through the wheel and nothing else.
Classic and antique cars, running or not. Restoration projects moving between a garage, a shop and a storage unit. Vehicles going to or coming from an auction. Show cars going to an event. Low clearance sports cars. Luxury saloons and modern performance cars where the owner wants a flatbed rather than whatever the roadside package sends. Estate vehicles that have not been started in years. Cars bought online sight unseen and needing collection.
We also move ATVs and similar small equipment on the same basis, which sits oddly alongside a Porsche but comes up more often than you would think around here.
One limit worth repeating. We do not tow motorcycles. A bike needs different equipment and a different technique, and there is no good version of learning that on somebody’s Bonneville.
There is a real classic and enthusiast community across this part of Michigan, and it produces a steady stream of this work. Cars moving to and from restoration shops, vehicles going to shows and cruise events through the summer, and the annual pattern of project cars coming out of storage in spring and going back in October.
Ann Arbor, Saline, Chelsea and Dexter generate a lot of it. So do the newer developments around Novi, Northville and Plymouth, where the cars tend to be modern and low rather than old and immobile. Both ends of the same problem.
Yes, and it is a large part of this work. A flatbed does not need the car to start, steer or have a key. We winch it on, and if the wheels will not turn we use skates. Tell us the condition on the call so the driver arrives with the right equipment.
We carry ramps and approach at an angle rather than straight on, and we drop the deck fully so the incline is as shallow as possible. On the lowest cars it becomes a slow, careful process rather than a quick load, which is exactly how it should be.
Over the tyres, using wheel straps, wherever the vehicle allows it. That puts the load through the wheel rather than through suspension components, subframes or the exhaust. We do not run straps or chains over paintwork.
No. We transport on open flatbeds. For most local moves between a garage, a shop or a storage unit that is exactly right. If you need enclosed transport for a long distance move we will say so rather than take the job.
No. Motorcycles need different equipment and a different loading technique, so we do not take them.
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