Fuel for Thought

Untethered - The Sequel

About one year ago, I purchased and installed a wireless receiver for my liftgate. This has been one of the best accessories I have added to my equipment. Since I use my liftgate almost daily, and many times a day on those days. If you consider the number of liftgate cycles needed to just unload one pallet, you can really start to see how handy this little wireless remote has become. 

Just to unload one pallet from the truck, you will cycle a flip style/tuck-away liftgate six times. 

One - lower it to open platform

Two - raise to truck bed level

Three - move pallet onto platform, lower the load

Four - raise to load pallet jack back into truck

Five - lower platform to close/ stow

Six - raise to storage position

This is six cycles for one pallet, if you have more than one pallet at a delivery, you can add two more cycles per pallet. 

As you can see, any remote will get a lot of use. A wireless remote will need battery replacement often depending on usage. The original battery in the remotes were just the cheap ones that come in most devices these days. They only lasted me about a month or so. Once I replaced them with some energizer batteries, they lasted much longer. 

Now, it has been about a year since I installed this wireless receiver for my liftgate. After a very busy year, and excessive liftgate use, my remotes (both of them) have begun to have buttons that stick. It is not a good feeling to have a liftgate continue to move even after you release the button. As it turned out, those new batteries actually outlasted the remotes. 

If you read the original article about this wireless remote last year, you may remember that it was about a $20 item. Not bad for $20. Only lasted one year, but cycled more than 600 pallets. That is roughly 3400 cycles. 3400 button presses for $20.00 . This has been a very busy past twelve months, this is way more use than a "normal" year's worth of use. My best estimate for a  normal year of use would be around 500 - 900 cycles. 

I have purchased another wireless receiver to replace the current one. I will be installing it this weekend. I expect it to last for as many cycles as the current one. Under normal use, it should last several years. 

If you use your liftgate less often, this wireless receiver should serve you well for many years, but even if it needs replacing yearly, for $20, it is definitely worth it to not be tethered to the truck just to run the liftgate. It improves your efficiency. I believe it makes you safer as well. You do not need to be in a certain position on the liftgate, you can stand where you want or need to stand to safely move the freight. 

If you are interested in adding a wireless remote to your equipment, I found these, and many others on Amazon. Just search for a wireless winch remote. Instead of the two buttons being marked as UP and DOWN, a winch remote will have the buttons marked as IN and OUT. For ease of use and remembering, I used IN for UP and OUT for DOWN. It didn’t take long to get in the habit of which button is which without even looking at it. 

See you down the road,

Greg