PTO & Bed Control

Every piece of equipment will be different, therefore before jumping into your truck don’t hesitate to ask your superior how to engage the PTO. Once the PTO is engaged, take a minute to familiarize yourself with the bed levers and each of their functions. 

The PTO (Power take off) can be engaged in one of three ways:

1.) In this vehicle, it’s a switch. (Aux 4 on the dash) Make sure your emergency brake is on. 

2.) On some trucks it’s a pull system. Hold the clutch in, put the truck in neutral, make sure the emergency brake is on then pop the PTO valve. 

3.) Lastly there’s an “air shift PTO.” Usually on manual transmissions and on a lot of my bigger trucks. Push the clutch in, put the truck in neutral, make sure the emergency brake is on then shift the PTO into gear. 

Once the PTO is engaged, then you can operate all of your bed controls.

Once again, whether you’re in a Jerr-Dan, KLR, Century or Champion all of the beds and their controls will be different. Take some time to understand how your truck operates. For a Jerr-Dan like the one in this video, the controls are the following. 

Control 1: Slide the bed backward and forward.
Control 2: Tilt the bed up and down.
Control 3: Winch tighten and release.
Control 4: Wheel lift, moving it up or down.
Control 5: Wheel lift, in or out.

Practice makes perfect. You need to have this memorized before being out there on the road. There may be a situation where there won’t be any room for mistakes and you will need to know your controls on the fly. Eventually you’ll know what each handle does without even looking.