IATOWMATER

We were called by our local sheriff to respond to a vehicle in the river. Once on scene we found this Suburban out in the river about 50 feet from shore and about 30 feet below the road. We assessed the situation and thought we could get out to the vehicle and hook it up. We tried 2 times but the current was far too strong, we used the local DNR to get out by boat to defeat the current. Once hooked up we winched it towards the shore and to the east via snatch block on huge cottonwood tree. Once it was far enough in we hooked the second winch line to the passenger side frame. We walked it up and over to get it on the bank, while trying to avoid tree roots and rocks. When we reached the shore, we disconnected the snatch line and hooked to drivers side frame. We pulled it up more till we had to re snatch it off an other tree to pull it away from next set of rocks. Once clear we removed snatch and double lined it up the hill about 35 degree angle the 30 feet to the roadway. Let the police process it then hooked it up with flatbed and returned to our shop.  All advice comments welcomed, only can get better with different views, so thanks in advance.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mooresbp  said:

Looks like a lot of work, can you get paid on the liability side or does it have full coverage? Those old cottonwoods are pretty stout, nice work

 

 

tow4fun said:

...get paid accordingly.

 

unknown member said:

What is DNR? Fire dept or something else? Thanks for the pics cool recovery.

 

n8 said:

DNR = Department of Natural Resourses.  Better known as Game Warden's in some states.

Not sure where that street tired soccer mom wagon thought it was going...?

 

Topic from June of 2009:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This was my first ever recovery of a travel trailer, so any comments would be appreciated.

We were able to flip it twice and put it back on its wheels with no additional damage.

We recovered this with our F-450 Vulcan 882

 

he trailer was on its top we hooked to the "A" frame of the hitch, and to the end of the trailer

at the "bumper area" seemed to be the strongest points, and didn't require us to strap around

side walls, didn't know the durability and strength of walls.

We winched it up with an extended boom, I then fished it by raising the boom up so it was more

of a roll then pull, and winched cables in until the center of trailer came toward truck, and then

I lowered the boom to "cradle" it down. Once on its side we re hooked the rigging with snatch

blocks to winch "down" toward bottom of truck using fishing with the boom again and then down

to set it on wheels. All tires were up no extra damage to trailer so could be hauled off to salvage yard.

 

 

Wreckerman05 said:

good recovery-looks like a total loss, hope they had insurance

 

Twotows said:

Hey Mater, Give me a shout on the pm
Bob from Iowa City (Campus Towing)

 

Iatowmater Said:

Thanks the ground was little soft from rain, so the support on the hitch Kinda of sunk into the ground, that kept us ok

and also level ground. Yes the customer had insurance, they had there house messed up too, along with the garage too.

I guess if there was a silver lining for them lots of the trees that went down were Black walnuts, and they had lots of long

thick pieces so logs to lumber might pay pretty good to off set deductible.

 

Wrecker44 said:

When it was still on it's roof, I would have laid down a few 4x4's where it was going to land to keep a gap under it,

so I could get my 24'x8" straps under it. When dealing with travel trailers, just keep in mind that it doesn't take a lot

of force to seperate the body from the frame. There isn't much holding it together, so there is a good chance it can

come apart on you when trying to upright one from the frame. I wouldn't try one that is over 20ft long by the frame.

I would get my straps under it and reverse-roll it, so my straps are supporting the body to keep it from breaking up.

Looks like it worked just fine for you this time... GOOD JOB Stay safe.....Matt