ESC

Check out Viair Compressors.  They are small and work well from my experience.

Still here

On 1/17/2023 at 8:46 AM, Virgil said:

Separate topic 

Anybody know of a consolidated source that provides vehicles make, year, model  similar to “Tow Spec” but instead lists weather or not the steering wheel locks? 
Had a 97 Tacoma the other day & the steering wheel locked, front wheels were straight, didn’t have to tie it off 👍

Thought for sure it was going to be a swinger , it being an older vehicle model 

I am not saying that I always have tied them off every time.... but you absolutely SHOULD tie everyone.   Its a good use for one of the 1" motorcycle straps.

I buy good quality heavy duty 1" motorcycle tie downs.  They work great.  I keep 4 in my door panel of my truck.   I use them for dollies and also all sorts of other things.... Strapping doors or hoods shut from crashes, etc.

I love that sort of call.   I usually figure a I dont want to do it price and double that, especially for a long distance holiday tow.    Id have shot them $2,500 on that one.

They are doing you a big favor..... We parted ways with AAA many years ago and it was one of the best things we ever did.

We have a beat up old trailer that we have been experimenting with.  We do light duty only, and don't use it often, but it sure comes in handy when we need it.

 

I think you will quickly find that you'll run out of room in a hurry.   I have a trailer that is similar in size.   Id get pics, but honestly, at the moment its a mess.  I have a pallet of spill tackle stacked in there.  Two power broom and a lot of brooms and shovels of all sizes on the walls.  In the front we have 2 55 gallon disposal drums, a chainsaw, generator and a small torch.    In the near future I would like to get a bigger trailer (prolly 8.5 x 16) and get it organized better.  

 

We just added a bunch of the waste management dumpster bags.  They come in handy for a bigger cleanup to help haul away the debris.

 

In my nest trailer I would add a 12v deep cycle battery and LED lights inside, and also a milwaukee charger setup with a chop saw, sawzall and some portable lighting.  The milwaukee fluid pump also has my eye to pumping fuel tanks and such. 

9 minutes ago, darina99611 said:

that's a kinda cumbersome process 

Extremely.....    Right now I have around 20 in the salvage paperwork process and the state seems to be back to processing things extra slow once again.    We have a small yard, and it really jams us up for room not being able to move these cars along faster.   But not much we can do, as no one seems to care.

Im usually in a dodge 5500 mpl40..... I have done a little bit of everything to get the job done with a trailer.   Sort of wing it depending on the situation.   Many times on a tandem axle ill lift it, put a block between axle and frame and remove the bad wheel.  Chain and binder axles, whatever it takes.  Sometimes, ill stick it on a bed and hang over the edge.  They can be a pain, but I charge accordingly.

I always hated to spend the money on the synthetic extensions, and years ago was too cheap.  The first extension i bought was a 3/8 50" wire.  It works, but was always a pain to coil up and store.  I have an MPL40 that we went to 125' wire on the spools and i have about 10 lenghts of 20' chains in a crate on the truck.  Later on as we made a little money, I added a 100' synthetic 3/8 extension.  Its so much easier.  Over the years as we have had the cash we added a 100' synthetic extension in each of our 6 trucks.  So if i ever need it, I call for another guy to come help me and I have plenty of length.  The extensions were about $400 ish.  Every time i use one, im charging at least that.... so when you use it, add another one for a while till you have a few of them around for that just in case situation.  Make sure to charge accordingly when you have to pull them out.

We stopped doing tire changes a few years back.  We tow them to our shop or the shop of their choice.   We will have the vehicle pulled in our shop and have a mechanic repair the tire or install the spare.

 

Far too many hassles changing tires over the years.   Spare tires buried in the trunk under all sorts of crap.  Locking lugs with no removal tool.  Spare tire winch mechanisms that are jammed up, and those stupid GM safety latches that dont work.   No more for me.  Im over it.  Not to mention the safety aspect that is even far more important.

On 2/25/2022 at 11:09 PM, EdsTowing said:

We charge a 10% admin fee on EVERY incident so we send pics all the time if requested.

 For the accident/recovery, we will send basic pics as requested as well... included in our 10% admin fee.    My above reference was to insurance companies calling for vehicle photos after the crash.  They have been asking use to take photos of the vehicle in our yard so they can do photo estimates of damage rather than sending an appraiser out to us.  Those photos, we charge an extra hour for.

We have seen a lot of requests for pictures recently.  Mostly for pictures of the vehicle in our yard so they can do photo estimates rather than sending an appraiser out to us.  Once I caught on to what they were doing, I implemented a fee for our service.  1 hour at our recovery rate gets them up to 10 digital pictures emailed over to them.   They typically want all four corners, inside, and a shot of the vin tag and odometer.  Many companies will give us a hard time that I charge $175 to take some pictures, others pay it no problem.   I figure I am saving them hundreds and a lot of time with my service.

Good job in having the courage to say no.   Its a lot harder to make that judgment call than it seems.  But you put safety over profit.... impressive!

 

As far as helping in a big job like that, I have often wondered how it would work.   Seems like a lot of hands in the cookie jar and it would get very complicated, and no one seems to worry about how the tow guy gets paid.

 

The closest thing we have done like that was a local flood after heavy rain storms this past summer.  We towed over 40 cars that night.  We ended up just billing a flat rate per call.  Our emergency rate with a two hour min.   It was easiest to keep them all straight.

We dont do anything for clubs on PO anymore, except some with NSD.  But i will not do any advanced payouts without being paid up front via card.  We still have alot of yards around us that only accept cash for payouts and when they are large payout amounts alot of the typical road club towers cant afford to put that money out there.  I quote a BIIIIIGG number for the job if they want me to use my money.  I also get paid that up front and charge an added 5% to cover my credit card processing fees.   Just last week we did a $3900 cash pay out for a club.  I charged an added 5% fee plus $1500 for the job.  It was a tow from a yard near us going about 35 miles back to a rental co in Phila.   They paid it up front with no issue at all.

We stopped delivering fuel.   We tow it to a gas station.  We stopped doing clubs all together a while back, but we do get the occasional out of gas call.  The problem I have found is people sometimes just assume they are out of gas.  We get there, waste time trying to get gas in the car on the side of the road only to find other issues and the car still wont start.   I have found it much easier to just load the vehicle quick and get to a gas station.  I let them fill it up and if it starts, unload in a safe place and get them on their way.  If it doesn't, we can talk about where to tow it too in a safe place rather than mess around on the side of the dangerous roadway.  Sometimes, adding a splash of fuel would be easier, but it seems like every time i gamble on that, i lose.

1 hour ago, JEFFFERSON HUIHUI said:

Hello,

 

ive been trtying to get on board with Gerber and is asking how can I get  on board? is there a phone number or site pls

Best advice.... Dont do it.  Stay pay up front with credit card.  Dont sign a contract.

I used the Honk App for a while too... when we could set the rates on our own, we set them high enough to deal with the "typical road club bs".  They paid the same day with a card, and things were great.  I used to get $95 minimum.  Then after a while I got an email that they were changing things and you could either accept or decline their set price which was always way too low.  What I realized was that when Honk was new, they used us all to build a reputation.  They allowed us to get paid high rates in exchange for excellent service.  But what they were doing is using those service statistics for find new clients.   Showing off how they had a fast service rate and high rate of happy customers, etc.  They started to get busier and pickup bigger clients, then boom they cut the price down.  The one thing that set them apart from other clubs, and they pulled it from us.  When they pulled the plug on setting our own rates, I stopped working for them.   I now have them blocked on my cell along with allstate and agero, so they dont wake me up when the phone calls are forwarded to my cell.  However on occasion they call during normal hours and I give them a high rate with a card up front.

I logged all Agero calls for a week.  I accomplished what I wanted to accomplish.  Meanwhile tonight, I received a call that is the furthest away from my base in Massachusetts, ever.  I forget the name of the town.  But it was in Michigan.  The call was dispatched to me as being in Andover, MA.  The name of the street was Nob Hill Circle.  There is a Nob Hill Circle off of Lowell Street in Andover, MA.  There is a house on that street that I service frequently.  The woman called me to ask about the call.  Imagine my surprise when she told me that she was in Michigan.  Imagine her surprise too!  She has been sitting broken down all day, unable to get service.  Don't tell me that the company isn't broken. 

I find it funny when that happens. I was once called by Agero for a lockout in Florida. We are in Pennsylvania. After hanging up I wondered what would have happened if I gave them an hour eta and accepted the call. Then found a local guy in Florida to do the job for me for a couple bucks. That enroute mileage sure would have added up quick. But I’m sure they would t have paid it. Sure would have been a fun way to get one over on em though.


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I love that spade kit!!  I wish I had known about it when I built my MPL40's.   My next truck will have it for sure!  Thats a really sweet setup.   So far, my trucks all have the sling... and I hate them always being in the way...they rarely get used, but that one or two times i need it, i really wouldn't want to be without it.... But, I really should take it off and get it out of the way.

Eagle Service Center Inc- Chester Springs Pennsylvania.   Light Duty Wrecker or Flatbed operator... Ideal candidate would be running a twin line MPL40 Dodge 5500, but we also have a Hino Flatbed 258ALP that could be run as well.   We need someone that lives close by.  Full Time position available.  Paid Hourly- 40 hour minimum.   We are a small team, some on call hours.  No AAA/roadclubs etc.  Police and private towing mainly.

We have them.... they are a nice tool to have access too... but they arent always the way to go.  Nice to get a high end car out of a tight spot or something, but honestly we dont use them often.

I guess I should stop saying their name, they're like Beetlejuice. They called last night for a 15 mile tow and kept asking for an ETA. I told them their ETA depends entirely on how fast they can find a credit card for me to run. As soon as I told them I wasn't taking their junk P.O. number she hung up on me. Oh well, maybe next time lol.

I have their numbers all blocked so they can’t bother me at night when the phones are forwarded to my cell. Way too many wasted phone calls from them.


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3 hours ago, dperone said:

I've been reading your adventures and misfortunes with Agero since the mid 2000's and for the life of me cannot figure out why it took you this long to reach the breaking point, if you are in fact there. They started dicking us around soon after the switch from CCMC to Agero and we pretty much immediately stopped taking their PO's. We still did their calls, but with a credit card up front and a firm understanding they we don't refund for GOA's. They rarely call us now but when they do they pay dearly for the pleasure. For your own mental health put them on cc up front and stop being at their mercy.

 

I was thinking the exact same thing here.... I have always enjoyed reading thtdon, as I had gone through much of the same over the years.  My dad started here in 1989, and I am now 38 years old.  I have done all the clubs and dealt with all of their nightmares.  We were primary for Agero at one point and it worked well untill they had someone cheaper come along.  It worked out well for us, as I realized what happened and we cut things way back and no longer do clubs other than NSD here and there as it makes sense for us.   The final straw for Agero with us was when they tried to force us all to sign the new contract a few years ago....after reading the fine print, there is no way I would ever sign it.  There was alot more liability and all placed on us, and not a penny more from Agero.  They have been cut off and credit card only.  We charge a $375 minimum to service Agero now, all paid up from by card with no GOAs at all.  I have been quite successful at getting money back out of agero after they shorted us all those years.  Now, I am money ahead from them.  We also save a ton of stress and wear and tear too.  The best business move we ever made was to get rid of AAA and Agero.  Our trucks dont see the mileage they used to and we are better able to serve out good customers nearby and most importantly we stay profitable.

No issues so far..... we always have them email us the digital card though and it has all the info on it.  We dont do much for Agero anymore, as the price i give them is always super high.... but when their cheap guys screw up they give out that credit card easy.   If they start jamming us up with credit card disputes, they will really be in trouble as no one will work for them at all.