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How to Install Johnny Jaws on Your Front-Load Garbage Truck
A detailed Installation overview for fleet and maintenance teams, setup for servicing metal rear-load dumpsters with your front-load truck.
Step-by-Step Johnny Jaws Installation Guide
Installing a set of Johnny Jaws on a front-load truck is a job your shop can do without sending the truck out, and this is the video your welders, mechanics, and drivers should watch before any of them start the installation process.
Joe Ruby of Circle Sanitation in North Dakota has been running Johnny Jaws on his front-load trucks for three years to service metal rear-load containers on mixed routes. In this video, he walks you through the full install from a hauler's perspective, the same way he'd hand it to a new mechanic on the shop floor.
You'll see how to:
Identify every component that ships on the pallet, including the left and right jaws, the control box, the cab electrical, the air fittings, the cheaters, the hardware, and the split loom with airlines.
Remove the existing bumper pads and prep the mounting area for welding.
Choose between the two mounting options: direct bolt-on (used on New Way trucks) or the weld-on back plate.
Mock up the jaw against the fork to make sure nothing is interfering, then square it up using a top-of-fork measurement that gets transferred to the other side.
Check clearance between the jaw, the bumper, and the headache rack before you commit to anything.
Mount the control box in a heat-safe location away from exhaust, since the housing is plastic and will melt if it's too close to the heat.
Run the 3/8 air supply line from the air tank to the control box.
Install the split loom that carries the airlines over the fork and down to the jaws.
Route the color-coded airlines to the airbag and cylinder lock, tee off the 3/8 supply to the airbag, and match every line up by color so install and future service stay easy.
Install the wiring harness to the switches, verify the switches are wired to a constant battery source, and mount the operator switches anywhere that's comfortable for the driver.
Verify proper operation before sending the truck back out on a route.
Johnny Jaws is a front-load truck attachment that lets a front-load garbage truck service metal rear-load dumpsters by gripping the trunnion bars on each side of the container. One truck on the road can run a mixed route of front and rear-load stops instead of dispatching two trucks for the same work.
Run the numbers for your own fleet at johnnyjaws.com/run-the-numbers to see what mixing front and rear-load service on a single truck could be worth in time, labor, and equipment.
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Video Transcript:
0:00 Hi, I'm Joe Ruby with Circle Sanitation in North Dakota. We've been using Johnny Jaws to service
0:06 rear-load containers for three years. Folks at Johnny Jaws asked us to make this install and
0:13 operator training video from a hauler's perspective so your welders and mechanics can see how easy
0:20 it is to install and maintain, and for your drivers to see how easy and safe it is to operate.
0:28 We're going to go through the step-by-step process of installing a set of Johnny Jaws.
0:34 When you receive your Johnny Jaws, it will arrive on a pallet containing your left and right jaws,
0:40 a control box to mount behind the cab, the electrical components for in the cab,
0:46 air fittings to plumb the entire system, a set of cheaters to weld on top of the forks,
0:53 the hardware for mounting, split loom with air hose inside that will run along your arms, and also
1:01 your wire harness. First step of installing a set of Johnny Jaws would be to remove the existing
1:08 bumper pads on the front-load truck and clean up where you're going to weld,
1:15 protect your windshield,
1:20 and you'll mock your jaw up and weld it in place.
1:27 The Johnny Jaws has two versions. To mount it on the truck, you can either weld a back plate onto
1:34 the truck under your trunnion tube, or it will be a direct bolt-on where the bumper pads are. With a
1:43 New Way truck, it is a direct bolt-on, and that's what I'm used to running. You take your
1:52 existing bumper pad off and you bolt the Johnny Jaws directly on in the four locations where the
1:58 bumper pad was. This one is a weld-on.
2:05 This has the pattern of the bolt holes in it. So the existing bumper pads are here.
2:11 You'll remove those, and there's a weld-on bracket that goes on the bottom.
2:17 You can paint them up. Johnny Jaws does not supply your color paint. Once you have it painted up,
2:23 next step of the process is to bolt the jaw onto the weld bracket and leave it loose, and shove it
2:32 over to the fork to make sure that nothing is interfering with the fork.
2:38 You want the jaw to be flush and square with the inside of the fork.
2:44 When you're mocking up the Johnny Jaws, you'll take a measurement from the top of the fork to the
2:50 bottom of the jaw, and you will transfer that to the other side to verify that your jaw is square.
2:59 Once you have both sides of the jaws attached, you will check the clearance between the bumper and
3:06 the top of the jaw to make sure there's no interference, as well as the headache rack.
3:12 You can do it now in the process or you can do it towards the end.
3:26 The next step, we're going to show you how and where to install the control box.
3:31 When mounting the control box, you want to verify and find a place that's going to be away from any
3:37 exhaust. Make it a good distance, because it is plastic, it will melt. They've elected to mount theirs
3:44 right below the power steering fluid on the chassis side instead of the body because it's so tight,
3:53 which is good, because the control box for Johnny Jaws is versatile like that. Once you've mounted
3:59 the control box, you can run the airline. You're going to take a 3/8 supply from your air tank to the
4:08 bottom of the box. The 3/8 line is this one right here with the quarter-turn valve in it.
4:16 Next we're going to show you how to install the split loom that runs over the fork and down to the
4:24 jaws. The next step is routing the airlines underneath to the airbag and to the cylinder lock.
4:34 Once the airline is routed, you will tee off. You'll route the blue and black airline through the
4:42 hole at the bottom of the jaw. You'll route the blue wire around the top and to the bottom port in
4:50 the air cylinder. And you will tee off your 3/8 line and go to the back of your airbag.
4:57 Once you've installed the airline into this air cylinder, you can attach your cylinder shield and
5:05 your bumper pad.
5:21 Run the split loom. You will come over here, you will match and connect the color-coded lines to
5:28 each other. Black to black, blue to blue. This will make it easier for you to install your Johnny Jaws.
5:34 Now let's install the switches. You'll install the black and white wiring harness that comes from
5:42 the control box to the switches, verifying that it is always wired to a constant battery source.
5:50 We've decided to mount the switches on the side control board with the buttons to operate the body.
5:58 The cool thing with the switches that operate the Johnny Jaws is you can mount them anywhere in the
6:05 truck as long as it is comfortable for the operator. Now that you've installed the Johnny Jaws,
6:11 the most important step is to check for proper operation.
6:46 Johnny Jaws invites you to do the math using your numbers with the calculator on their website, so
6:54 you can see how much time and money you can save being able to service both front and rear-load
7:00 dumpsters with a set of Johnny Jaws mounted on your front-load truck.