TTOUT

It looks really cool and well done. The only issue I can see with that wrap, is the camoflague it will have when in shaded streets. In the early morning or after noon, and even in wooded areas, it will be harder for other drivers to see. Just my 2 cents though.

Back when we used wired tow lights, we had an operator put the wire under the arm of a Mercedes wiper. He actually put it under the whole blade and arm assembly causing the blade to crack and when he took it off, he bent the arm. Ended up costing us $50 for the rubber blade and a couple hundred for the arm.

I kinda miss my old Yugo from high school, it was the mustard yellow and ugly as heck but a fun teenage car.

On 1/5/2019 at 5:22 PM, rreschran said:

Sorry for the me responding to a really old posit, but I like your creativity. Others suggest tail-lights or a red-flag based on overlength considerations of the state you work in. It doesn't work in Califoirnia, even if the owner is following, but laws are perceived differently in Cali.    R.

Yeah, with Prop 65, tow lights cause cancer lol. They do have some if the most interesting laws there.

One question, does your local regulations say that once you are hooked, the vehicle is in your possession until a release is paid for? If so, hook it and then throw dollies, then go about your day. We would get to the vehicle, hook the front, or rear, and once we had it, it was ours. Even if the person came out, we still had legal possession of it and were allowed to charge a drop fee in addition to the hook fee. If they didnt want to pay it, off to the yard it went. At the time, the regulations here were $131 p/h minimum plus $70 drop fee and 15% fuel surcharge. All set by the state as required fees. We also would charge an after hours fee, (not state regulated), if someone just had to have their car back at 3 am. The person could avoid the drop fee and the after hours fee by coming in during normal business hours to get it back, this would be only 1 day storage for them which at the time was only $15 per day. 

On 1/27/2019 at 8:33 PM, EdsTowing said:

We pull shafts unless like the gas truck was 4wd so the case can be put in neutral....obviously the rear tow was in 2wd.

 

The wheel grids haven't been an issue yet....the wheel lift may be though. This is our 1st Chevron so I'm not sure what to expect. For instance, that service truck from the rear was an issue that it wouldn't tilt until it was sucked all the way in? My previous unit would out work the truck in every aspect. We are going to do some checking...

Speaking of 4wd and being put into neutral, I picked one from the rear axle a couple months ago, put it in 4 wheel neutral and strapped the steering wheel, made sure the hubs were unlocked and took off. Only to be met with seeing the transfer case and front driveline flying out from under the truck a mile down the road. Be careful doing it that way, I'd suggest just pulling the driveline and going that way.

Ok but let's look at it differently. Hook it like you have in the picture and its said and done with. Spending the time to try to shift it into neutral is time wasted, as well as, potential for damage. If you really dont want to throw dollies, just disconnect the rear driveline, which would save the transmission. Maybe I've been in heavy duty mode too long but it's easier to throw dollies or disconnect the driveline than to fiddle with the shift linkage.

If you loose a skate and dont have go jacks, you can always use a fast food tray with one of the skinny sides cut off. It works in a pinch but always better to have the right thing handy.

So the biggest issue we had here in Utah about that dolly is the overall width. It would make for 8 inches over our legal load width without having to get more permits. As cool as it is, the boss agreed as well, we would need to figure out some way to make it 10 feet or less in width. 

So what solution do we get when our heavy only has the tilt and extend/retract controls on the driver side? I have moved everything needed for any regular situation to the passenger side except the air hoses because there is no more room over there and the wireless light bar is hard wired into the driver side box for charging. All our heavies except mine and 2 others have working remotes so the operator can work from the passenger side.

Using another truck as a blocker is neither economical, or even possible due to call volume for our area and company.

Other than those few reasons, I try to work off the passenger side as it is usually the side out of traffic. I'm not trying to stir the pot here but maybe some of you have some suggestions.

Pardon me, do you have any Grey Pupon? Always think of that line from Wayne's world when I see these cars.

I don't do light duty anymore, or roadside service for that matter, I only do heavy duty now. When I did do those types of calls, good luck getting the auto clubs to pay for the tow and service in 1 call. It is a ton safer to get them off the highway but why should it cost the customer 2 of their 4 allotted calls per year? It's not the towman who is charging the second call. When the auto club puts it in as a roadside service, often the club fights you on getting it off to a safer place. Or they even send out a service truck with no tow capabilities in the first place. It's all to make or save a buck for them, it's not about the driver safety or even their customers. Sure, you can get them off the highway to a safe spot to do the service, assuming you're in a tow unit, what happens when the boss gets pissed about having to fight to get fair compensation? He's at the mercy of the auto club most often and is going to take it out on you or at least tell you to perform service on the highway. Look, I'm not saying you're wrong, different companies handle it differently. Even when the operator would rather just tow them off first.

Okay, so normal GPS doesn't know the weight of the vehicle you are driving. Even the ones specific to trucks, the one where you have to input the weight, still mess up. Never trust your GPS. Always look for signs and keep in mind how much you weigh. Also, this driver may be blaming his GPS but he's still at fault because he should have known better. 

This will be something we see more and more in our industry, when self driving cars become more prevalent. People don't want to admit to a mistake, they look to blame it on someone or something else.

On 2/16/2018 at 8:13 AM, Whtlwlf316 said:

Good Morning All,

 I have heard around the industry that there is a way to supply brakes to a truck that you are towing without using a brake Buddy. If you can please upload pictures showing how this is done..

 

Again Thanks for the help

 

We have a kit for almost any truck out there on our trucks. We also have an air line to supply the system from the fitting where the compressor meets the air dryer. 

Okay I may have figured it out now, here's the picture I was trying to upload earlier.

Back when I was new in the business, we got a call for a trailer with a broken axle. The boss sent me out in the wrecker and someone in a carrier just in case. She beat me there and was grinning when I got there. We thought about a basket lift but had no spreader bar and even though it was empty, couldn't tell how sturdy it was anyways. So we went from the front of the trailer. I lifted and pulled it away from the curb, she backed up and we loaded it up. Back to the shop for this little homemade fella missing its shoes. We just used a short nylon strap and once it was on the carrier we strapped it with 2" straps. I believe the bed on my wrecker was a Chevy 4500 Kodiak with a Vulcan 892 or 894 and she had a Sterling cab over with a 21' JerrDan steel deck and a wheel lift.

https://freightliner.com/e-mobility

We've been waiting to see these trucks out on the road but many manufacturers have pushed back the production so many times. So there are based on the Cascadia and M2 box truck as well as a Fuso model coming later. 

There are a ton of questions I, as well as many of you, probably have about towing electric only trucks. Penske is getting them first and has had the eM2 box trucking the streets for a while in California. Understandably this is not in my state but close to here.

I cant seem to find out much in the specs but the Tesla model is supposed to have independent motors for each set of duals. How would we tow it from the front without possibly damaging the motors? Also the front bumper on the Tesla appears way too low for the underlift, so there is an issue as well.

Does anyone have any experience in this area? Do we know of anyone who has looked into how we are to provide service to those trucks?

As cool as this sounds, I'm willing to bet that when the system finds something, it is going to refer the truck to go to the dealer for service anyways. 

Back when I was with a light duty company that was a AAA provider, we did Tipsy Tow. We would get bombarded with calls during those days and it worked pretty well. The biggest issue that we encountered was that people were given a free tow of 5 miles or less home or to a hotel. Even though the dispatchers were very good at telling them the details, how rationally do drunk people think? Many people would get mad if we charged the extra mileage to get them home even though we discussed the options before hooking the vehicle. We only had 1 time when someone puked in one of our trucks so I guess that's a bit of luck. I usually ended up getting some good tips from those nights.

Maybe the fire truck called the tow truck hot and the tow truck wanted to get a little closer... 

Ok, so something I dont see in the pictures on the resource link is the circuit breakers pulled out. I see that they decided to extricate by cutting the b pillars but with an impact like that, there is potential for a short of the hybrid battery to the body of the car. It's not hard to pull those breakers and many people involved should have been trained on how to pull them. I'm glad nobody got electrocuted. Too much risk with that type of accident to leave them in.

Share some of that ice cream with the operators when they get back in. They'll thank you and love it like a kid loves a popsicle on a hot day!

We had a situation at our company, I cannot go into the details, but our owner was really good at making sure the operator was taken care of. There was a high possibility of some PTSD from the event and the owner was right on top of getting the operator the potential help he needed, in terms of counseling and some time off to deal with how he might feel. The operator was offered workman's comp for some counseling as well. The main issue that the operator had was that there seemed to be no services in our area that would take the pay scale that workman's comp was paying. I guess what I'm trying to say is that, I dont think the owners try to avoid paying for potential PTSD related services, I'm willing to bet that it is hard to find reasonable services for the employees, should the need arise. I'm also willing to bet that with everything the owners have to consider that is more pressing at the moment, this topic takes somewhat of a backseat unless it is brought up. 

Love those yard mules. I have towed the same one several times due to the recurring issues with it running rough. I would throw a pic in here but I guess the picture has too large of a file size since my phone camera takes UHD pics.

I'll let you imagine though; a white and blue, 2014 KW W900 with a Miller DTU, hauling an Ottowa T2 from the rear.

You can save some time and crawling around on the ground by using a kingpin puller to pull the chains back up around the axles. Also not a fan of the way it is chained to the T bar or how the safety chains are ran. If it requires a bungee, it's not secure enough or too long for that job. I didn't see the mirrors turned in to avoid damage and no fairing straps were used for this rear tow. That's a glutton for damage claims.

@Trent A Butzlaff