ESC

In my 2011 Dodge and 2015 Dodge both 5500 4x4 we have the tunnel box and standard cab so its 84" CA. The rear springs were light. We use a company called Spring Service Station in Reading PA. They added two leafs to the main pack for me. $900-1000. The truck handles weight much better and the trucks have a much safer feel driving them now when loaded. Before just towing a minivan with them would cause them to feel overloaded. My 2015 really seemed to sag in the rear end before we added the extra springs.

I haven't personally had an issue, but I do remember a story from Ray at Sanner's Towing of Downingtown PA (now closed up). Ray always warned me about using trees. They had something big overturned on a tight road many years ago. I want to say a tractor trailer or a cement mixer maybe. They used a couple of trees in the in the heavily wooded area in the rigging to upright it. During the recovery he broke a tree or two. The property owner ended up creating a big stink over it and it cost him a few thousand dollars to keep the guy happy.

I forgot about Tesla... but they are great... they pay me very very well... but we only hear from them once a month or so recently. NSD- Patrick is their life saver... they are good to me but the volume isnt there. AAA we dumped many years ago- they were terrible but from my knowledge each region is very different and many are treated far better than the AAA Midatlantic. The one I really dont agree with is Netcost- they cheated me out of money in the past and now I refuse to do any work for them at all no matter what the pay is. They wont gt service from us ever again.

I am thankful to see this company was cited. I hope they learned a very expensive lesson on this one. I know (myself included) we have all moved something a little to heavy, etc. But this one seems ridiculous. Not only did the driver make himself look like a fool, he put himself, his truck and everyone else around at risk. The media attention is also horrible for the rest of us.

We are located in a rather high end area with alot of BMW, Mercedes, Audi, Tesla, etc. We have seen issues with lower and lower cars over the years. In 2013 we ordered a Hino 258ALP with the Jerrdan XLP deck and added the dovetail feature as well. The truck has air suspension, so with the bags dumped and the low bed angle we don't usually have any issues. I recently had a low Audi with 4 flat tires that I drove right up the bed without a worry. We don't typically charge any extra. But its all figured into our towing rates. We are not the cheap guy in town. But a good set of ramps, or nicely cut boards and a winch remote will make things super fast an easy for you.

"Professionally relocating" the vehicle was a term that I learned in my first WreckMaster class from instructor Will Cain. Its also a billable service that sounds a lot better than "dragging"

We have all been there Im sure! I know years ago I rolled up on a cavalier on its roof at 2 am in the rain. I remember thinking that it looked like an easy one. It ended upfighting me like crazy. Things go wrong. But, In this case, Id personally have had another truck respond to the crash with us for extra hands and to help protect the scene a bit better. Things would have gone much faster with an extra set of hands in this case.

That is a good idea. I asked the guy that cut the tree to do so, but he apparently forgot. Usually the chain slips around, but in this case it actually stayed put. I had it a little lower than I would have liked, expecting it to slide up some.

Mom had a cherry tree cut down last week and wanted me to remove the stump. I made my first attempt with the rigging shown below. The stump started to move just a bit but I couldn’t keep my truck sitting still. I called for one of our other wreckers to come and give me a hand. With a little more anchor we made it happen quick and easy. We used two Dodge 5500 4x4 wreckers with an MPL40. Weight of each truck is 13,000 lbs. 8000 lbs winches. The wire rope WLL is 4,150. We used one winch from each truck. 6 snatch blocks total. Below is the way I had things rigged up. What could I have done better or safer? Would love to see some calculations on the setup and all. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Youll need to check with your county/township on that one. We ran into that before with an employee... the police chief himself called us and informed us that there had been complaints of the truck in a development at night. He knew that was our on call driver that would respond to crashes for his department. He wasn't happy that he had to tell us that driver couldnt take a truck home anymore. Especially since it meant that driver would have to pass thru his township to get to our shop to get a truck only to go back .... but he couldnt get us around the laws.

In our 30 years in business, we have had someone show up for the auction a handful of times. Typically guys in the car business that know what they are looking for. We don't ever get many with any real value, as you said, the valuable cars get picked up. Once in a while we get lucky and hit a home run. I'd say maybe we have had 5-6 "valuable" cars over time that ended up left here.... and typically it was because the lien holder didn't want to pay the storage, etc. And Police making the judgement on the value of a car is a horrible decision.... As you said, many of them have no knowledge at all to what a car is worth.

I think being able to submit and track status updates online would be a great step going forward. The changes made last year helped out for sure. I know last year things seemed to move along fast, now we are back to slow response times and the whole process taking longer. The faster I can process and move these junkers along the better. So finding a way to get things rolling faster would be great. Having to wait 3-4 week just for the initial paperwork back, just to start the 30 days seems silly. Also having to pay for an advertisement in the local print paper these days seems silly. When we hold an auction, the fees for the paper make it an added hassle. Ive never once had someone see that small print add way in the back of the paper and show up to claim their car. Those ads cost us over $50 each time.

Congratulations!!! We were there too.... Eagle Service Center

Here is a picture from a few years ago on one of my trucks. We were getting prepared for what turned out to be a major ice storm. Alot of down trees and limbs, so we were carrying a chainsaw so we could cut and winch trees out of the way as needed. Anyway, many years ago I managed to get one of our 4x4 wreckers stuck bad in a deep snow on the way to a police call. That day I came back to the shop and ordered chains. I tried them all... The cheap ones worked, but they would get torn up in a hurry. After a while i found Pewag square link chains... about $300 a pair for the singles. I now have 2 full sets for each of our truck, front and rear. I just use singles on the outer rear wheels typically, but when its real bad or icy, i have a pair for the front. I usually stick a bungee cord or two on to keep them snug. I carry heavy duty zip ties in case a link breaks so i can make a temporary repair, etc. They are great. I wouldnt be without them. I have a bunch of them in our shed ready to go for winter as needed. When I have chains on, my minimum call out fee is $175, typically far more for accidents, etc. I have two wreckers that have plows to help keep our lot open, and on occasion we plow an accident scene, or have to open a roadway to get there.

Thanks for all of the info. Funny enough, Frank Dibella Vans is less than 10 miles away from us.... So that might be a very good resource. For now, I have started the title process so I can get a title in PA. Once I have that, Ill see if we can get her fired up and moving. Im at the point that if i get $1,000 or so and it goes to a good home, ill be a very happy guy.

I personally would have a very hard time seeing how anything inside the vehicle would move around more than while driving down the road under normal conditions. Typically that sort of item is already securely stored or mounted in limos. But, as we all know, once we have possession of the vehicle, we are going to get the blame for everything.

The last time I called the actual rep, it didn’t go so well. I went around her and talked to Patrick and he handled things. According to my login page it shows a new rep now for the last few months and I’ve not heard from them. Not that I’m worried, as when I have issue I talk to Patrick and he gets it handled. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Chester Springs PA. It is a 5 speed manual with a 2 speed rear. Engine, unknown so far. It does have a 2 barrel carb on it. But from what I have found it can have 2 different engines based on the model. I just havent had a chance to dig into it.

Well, that makes me feel good about it, cause you and I are in the same ball park. Id be a happy guy for 1,000 the way it sits. Once I get a title on it, I may take a bit of time and put a set of plugs and clean up the points and try to fire it up. Id love to find it a good home.

Thanks! But, we are a licensed PA Salvor, so we have already started the title process which shouldn't be any problem. Just takes a little bit of time. I am mainly looking to see if anyone has any knowledge about these trucks and the value of it. I don't want to see it go for scrap if someone may have interest in it.

We always used to have scanners in our trucks, but it was mainly to give us a little advanced warning before we would be called by the police. And many times when the police would call we would already have trucks on the way to the call. Scanners were always good for knowing more information about the job before we arrived to the scene as well. Over the last few years our area has mainly gone digital. I do have a scanner app on my iphone that I use here and there. The biggest help to me is an app called PulsePoint. I can sent it to give me notifications on accidents in our county. Its great to give us a heads up of whats coming. We have designated police departments that we tow for so if a crash happens in that township, we know the call is coming.

We just got our renewal for this year, and its up 17% above last year... still not easy to have to take that hit every year, especially with no claims

Yesterday we towed in a 1969 International Loadstar. It has been sitting for 20 years since it was parked in supposedly running condition. Long story short but we are looking to sell it once we get a title. I am not sure if we should go the salvage title route or if it is worth putting the time and money into getting a clean title. This truck seems to be in pretty solid shape considering. It looks like it could make a good start to a restoration project. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

We rarely are told much upon dispatch. Just that PD is calling us to an address for one vehicle after a crash... or something along those lines. If we get more info than that we are lucky, and if we do its usually inaccurate or not reliable. For a typical crash we roll a wrecker and a bed. Sometimes we show up for one vehicle and come home with multiple as the officers don't realize that others involved weren't driveable, etc. And plenty of times, we only need one truck, but I prefer to have the extra set of eyes on scene watching our backs. I bill for what was needed to complete the jobs, so there is plenty of times that we roll two trucks but only bill for one. If any sort of recovery work is needed, we handle it with a wrecker typically.