GRUMPS The Towman

I do the same with the under-insured junkers that you do. I am willing to take the title so I can get rid of it. Every now and again, you get those people who feel like we should pay them so we can get rid of it. Like we are making anywhere near what we are owed for cleaning up and hauling the heap to begin with. I play the "cant let you get anything out of it unless" game too although, Here, it is technically Illegal. As per our contract with the county, we are supposed to release ALL posessions from within the vehicle upon vehicle owners demand. The counties thought is we have the car as collateral and thats enough. Problem is the car isnt worth anything to begin with and then we cant get rid of it without a title so its a double edged sword. Now, if the customer knows the law, or has their lawyer contact me, then they called my bluff and I have to release their posessions. Then I get stuck with their balled up junk. It has gotten to the point that if the county calls for a wreck, I ask them what type of vehicle it is. if it is an older s#!tbox, I pass on it just so I dont get stuck with it. I already have 25 vehicles abandoned in my yard as it is..

Excellent work. You went well above the call of duty to assist with getting all the packages and bone-headed driver back to the depot. Class act !!! I always find it intriguing that these people never seem to realize they are headed into someplace where they should be untill they are 3 miles into the woods, over the river and up the mountain.. Its at THAT point the light bulb goes off...

So, Ive been a regular participator on Tow Force for a couple years now. I have found it to be Informative, Educational, a good outlet to "show off" our craft , keep up with the evolution of our industry from all over the world and even catch a laugh from time to time. Most of all, I find it friendly. Theres no B.S here. No "keyboard commandos" that I have come across. I have met some that I consider good friends on here and I have never met any of them in person. Now, I understand that there is over 5,100 registered members. Then can I ask why is there only maybe 10 or 12 members who participate regularly?? So, to all the members hiding in the shadows, Come on out !!! Lets hear what you have to say, lets see some pics of your jobs, your rigs. Tell us about yourself. We dont bite...

Excellent work as always. Maybe she couldnt understand the sticker on the truck body because it is on there backwards, LMAO !! Watch, she will sue Penske and even though the common sense minded world knows the sticker is designed to be read through the mirror, she will use that excuse and win...

I had stopped up to the local shop that repairs and maintains the local LLV"s the other day, and low and behold, there on the lift was Ol' 4266. I was told there is a mighty rod knock in it so thery are waiting on a reman engine. My guess is that it probably spun a bearing during or shortly after all the escapades that particular bozo put it through. No wonder it costs so much to mail anything these days.

Beautiful tribute.

100 years and 5 generations of family involved in the business in absolutely incredible. Congrats on this wonderful milestone. I wish you all the best in the next 100 years!!!

Welcome to the forums Sir. Take a good look around on here. There is 100's of years of professional experts that have shared and will continue to share their knowledge and experiences with other professionals. New comers and veterans alike. This is THE place if your looking for towing knowledge.

I too carry extra gear for those real long pulls. On top of the 100' on the drum, I carry a 100' of 3/8" synthetic line as well as a vast assortment of slings, straps, chains etc... I have 500' of 3/8"wire rope on a big spool at the shop too that I have used on a couple of big jobs down in the gorges and cliff sides around here. It is a HUGE pain in the A$$ to deal with it so there are "special charges" for deploying it.

Nice work. Pole jobs have always given me the creeps. I wont go anywhere near it untill the utility company is on scene and verified that the power is off. I got into it once with one of those "holier than thou" types of state troopers who "demanded" I remove a car out from under a pole blocking a roadway. But I could visibly see a line arcing. at the junction. I told him if he didnt want to wait for NYSEG ( our utility co. ) then as soon as he goes over and lifts the wires off the car I would pull it out. Suddenly, he wasnt in such a rush to open the road.

It has GOT to be better than 2020...... Right??....Maybe??....😑🤔

What a Mess !!! That looked like a lot of fuel. I can see how the snow helped with the clean up, but what is the plan for the contaminated snow? I have been trying to think what I would do with it and all I can come up with is to barrel it up, allow it to melt and separate then pump off the fuel skim.

I have had my fingers crossed that we would be able to end this disaster of a year without another brother getting hit. I am praying that Operator Goode pulls through and recovers fully. His friends, family and co-workers are in my thoughts as well

In a perfect world, we could alll stay well inside the white line and perform all our functions on the curb-side of our rigs/casualties while never taking our eyes off the on coming traffic. We certainly dont live in a perfect world, so we are sometimes vexed with putting ourselves in harms way. It is the manner in which it is done that can make the difference in going home or dying in a busted up heap on the side of the road. The Operator in this video had ZERO situational awareness and was very lucky he wasnt hit. Given his predicament, it would have been a very, very avoidable accident if he was in fact hit. Not to bash on the operator in the video, But this man is in desperate need of proper training of on-highway procedures and must be more mindful of his surroundings.

Theoretically, Your new employer is correct. To try and explain my reasoning for this, lets use a standard Long shank J-hook/ tie-back chain on a solid rear axle housing as an example. Most all towing/transport rigging is designed to be pulled against in a 90 degree fashion. so our J-hook is most effective when pulled straight back on the throat of the hook. When pulling across the deck in an x fashion, the pull could be angled more to the sides of the throat instead. There is also the chance of getting the hook "pinned" against the leaf spring or bump-stop bracket for instance which would then put sideways pressure on the shank of the hook, possibly bending it or allowing it to flex as the vehicle bobbles on the deck travelling down the road. Mini-J's , T-hooks and R-hooks not pulled on directly back at 90 degrees will try to curl out, thus putting excess pressure away from the throat and more towards the finger of the device. If the tie-back slots in your deck are not generally lined up with the direction of the pull also can reduce it effectiveness. So, what I am getting at, is it is more about how the rigging device is designed to be used as opposed to the chain itself. A chain wrap / grab hook around the rear axle housing and back to a lined up slot in the deck I suppose would be technically fine. Right?🤔 Now, with all that being said, I have seen plenty of guys through the years that x their tie backs and never ever had an issue and probably never will. Where this might come into play would be in a god-forbid major wreck where an investigation or law suit would take place. If it is determined that the equipment was improperly used as per design, even if the towed vehicle stayed put and really had nothing to do with the wreck, It could be used as a tool against you and put you on the proverbial Hook for judgements, civil suits, etc... Of course this is all just my opinion on the matter. Sadly, these days we have to look at most everything in a "will this get me sued " type of outlook.. Btw, Welcome to the forums Mr. TexasTowman.

My partner finally had time to haul it down to the scrapper today. We ended up with $295 for the truck ( a few other odd n ends were thrown in with it too ) and $315 for the cats off of it. $600 n change for a little more than an hours work n maybe a 1/4 tank of fuel is just fine in my book. My partner is the scrapper of our operation. I would rather not be bothered with it. I know it can be easy money sometimes, Especially when the prices are up like now, I just hate doing all the prep work n whatnot or babysitting a mountain of cars waiting for thew price to come up.

This happened not all that far from me. I am up there frequently and know the area where this happened. There are quite a few high speed wrecks there every year. Although I dont know this operator, I hope that I cross paths with him in the near future so I may shake his hand. Operator Swank demonstrated the true meaning of "In service to others before ones self". This Tragic accident would have had a much worse outcome if not for his heroics.

Awesome!!! You certainly know how to treat your crew and customers. Letting them know they are really appreciated is what makes a good team the BEST team. Great job, It looks like it was a blast.

Wow. that is really nuts. Then I stand corrected. I will say I would not believe it if I didnt hear it from another pro. Not really doing any repair work anymore has put me out of the loop with a lot of the common failures happening on the junk being built these days. I have been the towing provider for This taxi company for over 6 years now and when he started buying these things up and using them, I told him he was probably going to regret it. Prior to these, they were using Honda Odyssey's and Nissan maxima's but they are hard to come by on the cheap.

Prices are up here too. I think what they consider "complete cars" are around $285 a ton. Maybe I can pass this as complete.. The battery, cats and wheels are still technically there...🤔 Incomplete cars are $ 230ish.. Thank god the deputy cut me a release notice for it. This way the scrap yard wont give me any guff about not having a title for it.

The forum moderators post these "what would you do" threads from time to time as a discussion point for us members. It is also a good "wow" factor that there are really some dumb assed people out there that actually get away with this crap regularly.. Think of it as if this clown worked for you.. How would you handle seeing him do this with your equipment. What would you do differently if presented with the problem type of stuff. I personally look forward to these. some of them are really out of this world stupid. Lol

Ditto. Super happy to hear there was no injuries. That poor tow companies insurance premiums are gonna be out of this world from this mess..

Took a call from the county sheriff's dispatch This Xmas for a burned out truck on a seasonal road. It turned out to be whats left of a Mazda b2000 pickup. It was pretty deep down this steep, seasonal road not far from my house. Apparently, two other tow companies from the rotation were called for it and refused it because they couldnt get to it with a flat bed and did not want to use a wrecker to drag it out to the roadway. Knowing that road pretty well, I knew I could get down in there easily with my flat bed being 4wd. Being an older junk truck, the sheriffs office gave me permission to scrap it asap so I wont have to babysit it for months. I wont make any money on this deal but I did my part to help out the sheriff dept. and got some junk out of our wooded areas that we hunt, camp and ride atv's on. I didnt get any pics going down in or loading unfortunately but you can get an idea of the road from the pics I did take. It was just on the other side of that bend in the road at the bottom.

Picked this one up this Xmas morning for one of my loyal, regular customers. Typical Chrysler product issue when the lugs are over-tightened. Luckily, the driver had just pulled off into a housing complex off the highway when the wheel let go. Driver also claims there was zero warning that anything was amiss with the van untill the wheel simply fell off. ( No, I dont believe him and neither does his boss ) Some cribbing, a quick lift to remove the jammed up wheel, a skate, a plank of wood and off we went back to the taxi companies terminal shop. This is probably the 5th or 6th one that has happened to this taxi company. Majority of their fleet are these vans or Chevy Malibu's. I have tried telling their "mechanic" to stop hammering the lugs on full blast but he doesnt seem to be getting it..

Funny you bring up the inspection thing. This particular vehicle was just "inspected" last month according to the sticker.. But on the other hand, There are a few Ray Charles and Helen Keller State Inspectors here that wont see a damn thing for the right price if you know what I mean. As long as the check engine light is off and the monitors are set, your good to go..