Tow Professional Podcast
Tow Professional Podcast
Hydraulic Power Unleashed: CW Mill's Game-Changing Clutch Pump Technology
You've likely heard of PTO systems for hydraulic power, but have you considered what a game-changer a clutch pump could be for your operations? In this eye-opening conversation with the design team behind CW Mill Equipment Company, we uncover the surprising advantages of under-hood hydraulic systems that work whenever your engine is running.
Jason, John, and Darren Wenger bring decades of combined experience in hydraulic solutions to the table. As a third-generation family business, CW Mill has perfected the art of creating hydraulic power systems that look like they "grew there" on the engine block. Their clutch pump technology eliminates the high-RPM requirements of traditional PTOs, allowing silent operation that's particularly valuable when stealth matters – like when approaching a repo job where announcing your arrival with a revving diesel would spoil the mission.
The applications extend far beyond towing vehicles. From snow plows to salt spreaders, ambulance power systems to refrigerated delivery trucks, CW Mill's hydraulic solutions are powering critical operations across industries. Their latest designs accommodate everything from Ford F-250s through F-750s, the newest Kenworth and Peterbilt models, and specialized setups for Cummins engines. What separates their approach is the perfect balance of cutting-edge CAD design with old-school, hands-on development – often getting vehicles from manufacturers before they hit the market to ensure perfect integration.
Ready to explore how hydraulic power could transform your fleet's capabilities? Visit cwkits.com to browse their extensive catalog of mounting kits, find a distributor near you, or connect directly with their knowledgeable team at 800-743-3491. After 39 years in business, they've seen it all and can help solve your most challenging hydraulic power needs with solutions engineered for reliability and seamless integration.
Welcome one and all to the Toe Professional On the Go podcast. This is your podcast. It's for the pros that have a need to know that are on the go. This is the true voice of the towing and recovery industry. I'm DJ Harrington. Your co-host, better known as the Toe Doctor, and the real host of the program is the president and publisher of Toe Professional Magazine, a great friend of the industry and a good friend of mine, darren Weaver. Darren, how are you this beautiful day?
Speaker 2:Man, dj, I tell you I am fantastic. I probably don't need to brag on it too much because our guests are in a little cooler climate, but it is sunny and beautiful. Here it's about 75 degrees Beautiful day. Yeah, dj, this is going to be a great one Today. We've got Jason, john and Darren on. They're the product design engineers at CW Mill Kits. So let me tell you, they make some phenomenal products. But first off, let's start and hear a little bit from the guys. So we'll start out. Jason, tell us a little bit about yourself.
Speaker 3:I'm Jason. I'm 50 years old. Been here probably roughly 10 years with the company.
Speaker 2:Man, that's awesome. What about you, John?
Speaker 4:Well, I've been here a little bit longer, about 33 years. I'm kind of working on semi-retirement, but all three of us here we wear more than just one hat. We're not a big company, so we are product design engineers. We're also troubleshooting and customer relations, so man I was.
Speaker 2:I was about to say, if it's anything like my company, I, I'd say, with 33 years, you're, you're doing more than, uh, product engineering. You're also, uh, making the coffee, sweeping the floors, doing everything else around there needs to be done. That's kind of that's kind of mine. I wash the dishes, do whatever, do whatever I'm called on. And then, uh, here, here's our next team member. It's got a awesome name. Let me, uh, let me mention that to start with. What a awesome name, darren. Uh, tell us a little bit about yourself, sir.
Speaker 5:Yeah, I'm Darren Winger. I'm 29 years old uh, probably the youngest one here, but I've been full-time with the company about five years. I think I started when I was 16, though. My grandfather started the company, my father and uncle they run it. It's third generation here.
Speaker 2:Man. See, that's fantastic, because that's what I love about this industry is. You see, there's so, there's so much family when it comes to your, your owners and industry. A lot of these are family owned companies. And then, when it comes to the vendors in the in the industry, we've got a lot that are family owned, brought up and you know just like your products came through many years of of of changes and said, hey, this is a solution for the market, so this fantastic. Well, dj, this is a solution for the market, so this is fantastic. Well, dj, I'm going to turn it over to you and let you take off with the first question.
Speaker 1:CW Mills Equipment Company is a manufacturer under hoods mounting kits. Now, what are some of the kits used for other than just for tow trucks, and I know most of us know them for tow trucks. What are some of the advantages that you want to share with our? You know, and really I guess the first one I want to ask is the advantage of running a clutch pump versus a PTO.
Speaker 4:Well, for one thing, a clutch pump is live hydraulics anytime you got the engine running. Sometimes with the PTO, especially the automatics, you have to have your engine RPMs up so high to get the clutch to engage or get any hydraulic pressure Right. Pressure right in some cases that's fine. But if you're backing up to uh repo a car I've had different guys tell me the last thing you want to do is rev up a noisy diesel so you can run your hydraulics. But there's, there's numerous applications for clutch pumps that we get bell beds, salt spreaders, snow plows Anytime you need hydraulics.
Speaker 1:A clutch pump can do the job for you. I got you, and so not only are you guys doing wreckers and tow trucks, but you're in the snow plows and the other stuff that anybody needs hydraulics.
Speaker 2:Correct, gotcha. Yeah, dj. That's why I think this is absolutely fantastic, because when you look at it, what do a lot of these tow companies have, if you look at up north or out um, out towards, uh, south dakota surrounding areas, a lot of these um tow companies. They have snowplows, they have dump, they've got cranes, they've got rollbacks, they've got air compressors, they've got many different things that they have the applications for, and it's just showing them a quality product. I think once they're able to see that, then you're hooked up and running with them from then on. So let me move to this one Next question Guys, tell me, how exactly did CW Mill get into the under-the-hood kit business? How did that happen?
Speaker 4:Well, it was kind of a happy coincidence. There was a company here in town also that started building a bale handler to lift up the big round bales and they needed somebody to design the kits so they can run the hydraulics. They didn't want to do that, so they got a hold of what would be my boss or Dareth's uncle, and convinced him. It took him a little bit, but convinced him that that would be something that would be lucrative. Well, it started out a little slow but it ended up being very lucrative, and so it was mainly neighbors helping neighbors to get us going.
Speaker 2:Man, I love that and you know, when you said earlier, you know I'd never thought about it when you said in the repo, when you back up to get a car, you don't want to rev that motor up to get everything going, you want to be quiet and a little sneaky. So that makes a lot better sense. Um, for that format. Well, listeners, hang in there. We're going to come back in just a minute. We're going to take a quick commercial, hear from some of our featured sponsors and when we come back we're going to hear more great information from our friends at cw milk kits. Hang in there, we'll be right back attention.
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Speaker 1:Welcome back listeners. You know you're listening to Tow Professional on the Go podcast Every week. We do our best to bring you new informative episodes like this one with CW Mills right now. This is a good one. We're available. I want to tell all our listeners we're available on Spotify, itunes, pandora, stitcher, iheartmedia, amazon or wherever you get your podcasts. So I get the privilege of asking the next one how would someone be able to buy a CW Mill Clutch Pump Mounting Kit?
Speaker 5:So for our Clutch Pump division we sell these through a nationwide distributors. You should be able to find a local hydraulic distributor that should be able to contact us and they should be able to get a mounting kit, a pump and a clutch and spec out those things for you for your specific needs. So if you can't find a hydraulic distributor, you can go to our website at cwkitscom or you can call in and we can. We should be able to find someone locally to help you out with that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because I know, darren, when you're explaining this, I want to tell our listeners there's an 800 number 800-743-3491 or 785-284-3454. But if they go to cwkitscom they could find out a local distributor. Is that what you're telling me?
Speaker 5:find out a local distributor. Is that what you're telling me? Yeah, they should be able to find either a local distributor or email us in some information they can email it in, or they can find their own kits and stuff like that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, dj, let me tell you, just like Darren said, if you go to this website cwkitscom guys, this is very informative you can go to it. I've got an introduction to the company you can find, you can take a look at the new kits that they offer for the latest, the latest manufacturers out there, and then you can look at find your kit. There's kits for clutch pumps, ac kits, alternator kits, even installation instructions, and you can look on there to find a distributor. If there's not a distributor near you, just like Darren said, you click right on the contact us and they will put you right to it. But let me tell you they have done a phenomenal job on the website, so it's got a lot of information. Guys, check that out. Next let me ask you this and this is anybody that wants to take it Besides clutch pump kits, what other applications does CWML build kits for?
Speaker 3:Well, like you said, darren, it's on our website. We do alternator kits, ac kits AC kits are for refrigerated delivery truck Alternators and generator kits are usually used for ambulances, rvs, vans and trucks man, that's, that's phenomenal.
Speaker 2:And, like I said, you've got everything from the installation instructions to uh to the, where they can go right to their distributor, so it makes it very, very simple to walk through. Now, if you don't mind me asking, let me ask you this what are some of the new kits you guys have for 25?
Speaker 5:So we're working on most of the Fords, like the 6.7 power strokes and stuff like that, anywhere from a 2500 through a F, f250 to F750. We also do Chevy, dodge, ram, those particular trucks medium duties and light duties. Okay, vans Also go up to international freight liner freight liner safety spins about anything you do work uh, work with with a, with a vehicle. Um, we should have a kit available for you.
Speaker 2:So yeah, because what? When I looked on there it just kind of blew me away. I saw the new kits that you guys had for the uh 24 to 25 kentworths, that the t180s, the 280s, the uh the peterbilt's 24 and 25s, the 535s, 36s and 37s um, and then the uh mv607 kits for the 6.7 liter commons um. I mean you guys are hitting every motor that they're using in this market. I mean it couldn't be more in the sweet spot, because those are what we see out there. So congrats on that. Well, let's do this, let's take one more quick break, then we'll come back and talk about some more innovation, how they're able to create these kits for the new vehicles and what's coming in the future for CW Mill. Hold on just one minute, listeners, listen to some of our great sponsors and we'll be right back.
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Speaker 1:For more information. Go to copart W Mills, by all means. All you got to do is dial the hotline number expert on the podcast so we can ask them the questions. So now that we're talking about asking questions, let me ask this one how are you able to create kits for the new vehicles?
Speaker 4:Well, I'm old school I graduated high school in the 70s, so I'm hands-on and I've been doing this probably the longest. So the easiest way to design a kit is to get one of the new vehicles in our shop. We've worked with Ford and GM in the past where they've actually sent us vehicles before they hit the market Right. The CAD data has gotten a lot better than it used to be, but it's such a large program if you try to put everything under the hood into one program that our computers aren't big enough to open them up. So, getting a vehicle here, seeing where you got room, see where you have places you know to mount it to, you know fastener locations, and so that's by far the primary way that we develop the kits is to get a vehicle in the shop and just tear into it. And that's where it's good with Jason. He likes tearing into stuff.
Speaker 5:I'm more on the CAD side. We deal with the SOLIDWORKS system. We have great relationships with the OEMs, partners, with the NTEA and CEMA. They're really good with helping us out with either CAD data or any other questions we have. Our products aren't designed for the virtual world, so yeah, like they said, we usually like to try and get a vehicle in and test it out with our own hands and that works out best. But yeah, the SOLIDWORKS system works really well of streamlining prototyping and getting some new mock-ups and stuff like that.
Speaker 1:You know, darren, a lot of our listeners go to SEMA. So when you said SEMA, a lot of these guys their ears perked up because they go to SEMA.
Speaker 5:Sure, yeah, sema is pretty big and yeah, they're. They're a really great company and organization that that we deal with.
Speaker 2:So well, I gotcha, dj. I tell you, the biggest thing is when, when just like Darren said when he said the CAD design, it is unbelievable what they can do. Now I'm, I'm like, I'm like John, I'm old school, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm more fiddle with things and figure them out, but with the CAD design, when you see these kits, they look like they grew there. I mean, they are integrated, just like the manufacturer built them right into the vehicle and put them right out on the showroom floor. And that's the key, I think. At the end of the day, I'm a mechanic myself and it's products are great, but it's the ease of design insulation and being able to service it. And when you look at this, the CAD design, what they put into the new vehicles, assures you that when somebody pops the hood, it looks like it grew there, like it came on the engine from the get-go. So absolutely phenomenal. And let me tell you, listeners, if you've ever thought about changing to hydraulic, if you've ever even just thought about, I wonder what that would be like on the system. Or I probably could use this on my snow plow or I could use it on my dump.
Speaker 2:By all means, give them a call at CW. Either call them at 800-743-3491. You can reach them on the local number 785-284-3454. Or you can jump online. Very informative website cwkitscom will take you right to it and you can see all the different applications, all the information on it, even install instructions. So you just can't beat it. Well, guys, before we leave here again, like I said, so good having you all on today and finally getting to meet you all Put a face behind the company. And man, let me tell you, when you see employees that have been here as long as John unless they got him chained to the desk I can't tell from the computer here, but 33 years, 10 years, I mean that's phenomenal and that tells you pride in the company, passion for the products and a company that cares as much about their products as they do their employees, and that really goes a long way in this market.
Speaker 5:Well, gentlemen, anything you want to leave our listeners with before we go, If you just have any questions, just yeah, give us a call, Go to our website. You should be able to find anything you need. Yeah, we're always open and always willing to help everybody out.
Speaker 2:I'm telling you I so appreciate you all being on today. Let me tell you just at this table I'm going to that's. I'm so appreciate y'all being on today. Let me tell you just at this table I'm gonna go ahead and say there is um buckets and buckets of knowledge here. So if you've got a problem you can't figure out, give give the. Give the guys a call at CW Mill. They will take care of you again. Cwkitscom or 800-743-3491.
Speaker 2:Again, as always, guys, take a look at the magazines We'll be hitting hands this week, so be looking for it. Our latest information on EV vehicles that we have in this episode jumpstarting your EV, charging an EV or hybrid, and a lot more great information. Also a new article from Zips on saving an EV inside a container to to keep it from thermal runaway. So they've got a fantastic products just hitting the market. But, as always, I'd like to end with a prayer.
Speaker 2:Dear Heavenly Father, I do thank you for every one of our vendors. I thank you for their commitment to industry. I ask that you continually bless their products. Help them bring quality products to the market to to help our first responders. And, dear God, protect our first responders. Put a hedge of protection around them, help them get out there to service our loved ones and back home to their family, protect them and increase them for their service. And, as always, we thank you, father, for watching over us. Amen. Thank you every one of our listeners. We'll keep bringing more episodes to you from great companies like CW Mill. If you want to take a look at it, cwkidscom, go check them out. It's a fantastic product, a great company. Thanks again and have a great week, listeners, until next week.