GRUMPS The Towman

Being able to override the shift system is one thing, but as has been discussed at legnth on other posts here, the electric park brakes are a whole different animal. From the looks of the pics, the rear wheels being locked probably actually made the recovery easier by allowing it to slide over to the side as Derlyn Z winched back from the guard rail. I myself often use ebrakes, and transmissions in park ( with skates when possible of course) to get vehicles to slide one way or another as needed.

Congrats on 20 years of putting up with all us cranky towers from all around the world!!! Lol On a serious note, I am not one for social media. I dont do Facebook, Tik Tok or Snapchat. never have, mainly due to all the keyboard commandos and Know-it-alls, but I took the chance and joined up here a couple years back. And I couldnt be happier. This is a great place for TRUE professionals to get together, share ideas and experiences and even show off a bit without fear of getting bashed by the aformentioned keyboard commandos.. Please keep up the great work. I am honored to be a member here.

Rest easy brother...

Been there, done that, Got the t-shirt.... I feel your pain.. lol YEARS ago back in my early days of starting out on my own I had bought an old Chevy 1 ton with a eagle intergrated wheel lift body on it. Nothing fancy, Just a good starter truck. and at some point in the trucks life, I am assuming water had gotten into the hydraulic system. The previous owners fix was to pour air brake/air line dryer into the system (For those who dont know, its basically rubbing alcohol that you can pour a small amount into an air dryer/compressor on a big rig in cold weather if you have a frozen air line, brake can etc.. ). He never bothered to mention this to me of course. After a few weeks of running the truck, the hydraulics slowed down and at times got stuck etc... I ended up pulling the return off the valve body just to see what kind of pressure i was getting and what came out of that line looked like roofing tar... the air line dryer fluid had eaten EVERYTHING in the system. Seals, hoses, the clutch pump... It was a disaster... I ended up spending more to rebuild the hydraulic system on that crusty old truck than I had originally paid for it.. My suggestion to you Stubborn would be to give the system another good flushing and fresh fluid/filter after a couple of uses.. I know the expense of the fluid and filter sucks but it is better than all your new hoses and cylinders getting tore up from any contaminants that may still be in the system.

There have been days I have had 3 or 4 at a time this season spread all through the county.. This might be a new record.. I know I had a ton of them last year too... I gotta dig out last years log book and do a count..... LMAO.. Maybe I should have a plaque made up and give it to the postmaster as a token of appreciation... LOL

And they say the 16 ton rigs are the "bastard child" of the towing industry... That truck looks VERY useful in a variety of situations I can think of off the top of my head.. Beautiful rig, Congrats

I cant say for certain as my heavy days are far behind me But i will say It really doesnt seem too far out of the realm with todays fancy electronic power dividers, lockers, traction control etc... The old days of popping one axle, caging brakes and dropping air psi. to ensure the locker/divider dis-engage are long gone.... Now I am showing my age.... LOL It may be also due to some fancy high tech carbon fiber driveshaft, cv joints or something too... Anyone on here dealt with one yet??

Took yet another call for a LLV stuck in a driveway off a private road. The driver said he realized he was in trouble and attempted to do a k-turn and drive back out. From the looks of it though, if he woulda just went to the end like he planned he may have been able to swing around and drive out the way he went in. The choice to back into this driveway turned out disasterous for him.. lol A quick rig up and he was up n out in no time... BTW... This was my 43rd LLV winchout since winter hit...

The "repurposed and reconditioned" plow truck saves the day again!!!

That is just horrifying... My heart goes out to all involved I just cant imagine what that tow operator is feeling or going through, weather it was his fault or not.

Like they said in Jaws, "I think we need a bigger boat".... LMAO. Sadly, us old timers Know this deal all to well. It was just the way things were back then... I would have most certainly went through the trouble of turning it around and loading it from the front though.. As a side note, this pic gives you a real perspective of how trucks have evolved into the monsters they are today. Back in the 80's and 90's, that flat bed would been considered a "big 1 ton truck".. Lol

If the lights are the "loli-pop" style lights, they were usually wired in so they just turned on with the rotator beacon in the middle back in the 70's. ( Picture one of the cop cars from the blues brothers movie. Lol) Then, later into the 70's and 80's some people used to put a relay on them so they would wig-wag or alternate side to side. Lighting back then was more or less owner choice and how much wiring they chose to do.

Now thats Multi-tasking !!! Nice work.

I have come to the realization that many of these delivery drivers are tasked with delivering their daily load for a set amount of money regardless if it takes 8 hours or 15 hours. So many will "take the chance" to save time and get their day done sooner. The other part is surely pure laziness and not wanting to walk that far etc.. At least that is the way this one particular Fed-Ex sub contractor I deal with here sees it. According to him, he banzi's himself through and down a lot of these driveways and such and says 80% of the time he manages to power out. the other 20% he calls me... In the end, it is all about saving time for him. To each his own I suppose... He pays well. LOL

I know those walks all to well... Lol... On the bright side, if your anything like me, You could use the cardio-workout.... LMAO

Nice buy!! That will make a killer support/response truck. We all know you and your guys build some pretty awesome rigs so this should turn out awesome Keep us posted on the progress!!!

Leo was a great man, A good friend and will be sorely missed. My condolences to the whole Rinwalske family and crew Sadly, I could not make the procession Saturday because I was jammed with calls. ( sucks being a small company sometimes) Till we see each other again, Rest Easy buddy...

I know it is not a Chevy or IH but My 17 Ram 5500 4x4 / flat bed averages 8.5-9 mpg. Like Animosus, A fair amount of Idling/ high idle (pto). The one thing I have noticed is my numbers really dont change. Loaded, un-loaded, doesnt seem to matter. I do a lil better in the summer with less aggressive tires and less 4wd use she will avg 10 mpg. I too am in a very hilly /mountainous region and I am never lacking power with her.

We get at least 1 car hit by a plow truck in the county every storm in situations just like this one. The car gets plowed in by one crew then the next shift comes along and doesnt know its there because the first crew buried it. They go in to make a deeper cut and SLAM!!!

Your probably right being closer to 6k, I was trying to throw a wide berth on my guesstimate. Lol. On the right chassis with the right set up, It would be a KILLER off-road recovery rig. Those split boom 600's will pull ANYTHING when rigged right.. they are unstoppable . If you do end up building it, please start a thread on it. I would love to watch the progress and see how it turns out. Good luck !!!

That "re-purposed" support truck you put together seems to be paying dividends for you Those V-plows are the cats meow with the real heavy snow. Great work from team Ed's.

I dont know the exact weight of it but my educated guess is between 4-6,000 lbs. I do remember they were heavy lil f@#kers.. Hung a few on n off chassis back in the day with dad. Good luck. Post pics if you do buy it please

Rest easy Operator Spratley, We will drag those chains from here.

I agree with TowZone. Good tires, Chains and the knowledge to use it all goes a LONG WAY.. Nice work Stubborn

Sure. Back in my heavy days, I had a single screw, cab-over international with a 30 ton NRC unit on her and she towed twin screw, straight trucks and tractors etc.. just fine. Combo truck/trailers had to be split of course. Like I mentioned before, I feel it would be a good "shop" truck choice. You wont be snapping into any loaded B-trains with it but weight dependant of course, you should be ok if you could break it all up or just grab the unit that needs repair for instance..