TowZone

Many Old posts are still archived on the old board. The two systems would not work together proper and Yuku/Tapatalk was unwilling to help with the transition. Many topics are being recreated here and many will remain there as archives.

06-20-13: tnttowingbradenton wrote, we are up to about 5 a day hope more come. towtegrity said: You give them the lowest rates possible and then they ask you too cut them in half. When we signed up for NSD they made promises of all of these calls we were going to get...Needless to say they said the only way we would get them is if we cut our rates in half. Good luck! ESC said: Lower your rates is the only way.... until someone cheaper comes along. NSD used to send us alot of work... and had a great rep that we heard from often. Now, haven't heard a thing from them in a long time. advancedtowingofwa said: I just signed up with them so far 3 calls in a month I made my rates. I am sure I am not the cheapest. So far they seam to be easy to work with and pay fast. NationalAutow said: If you are working with rates that allow you to make a decent PROFIT, then stay there. If you lower them for volume, it will come back to haunt you. If you do not believe me, see a gazillion previous posts by others on tow411.net. They can't all be wrong! Towtegrity said: I guess we have a new NSD rep for PA and within a day of posting my response he contacted us! He seemed geuinely interested in fixing the situation and was nothing but nice! Thumbs up for NSD! NSDrep1 said: As with all and any rate issues, we aim to ensure that our top providers receive calls, Our criteria is such that we demand a high level of acceptance as with most organizations in the same field, however it is not the only means of ensuring those who accept a majority (over 90%) of calls receive our business, Competitive rates are important, we dont expect everyone to be the cheapest, we expect the BEST at a comparitive price within an area that we know the average rate price for the various available services on offer. You are a business, We are too and we are looking at ways to improve our relationships with providers like yourselves and everyone like you all over the country. We stand by our payment process as THE best around, We stand by our Regional Field Managers being available for YOU to help resolve any issues, but understand this is a two way street, we understand that there are unscrupilous providers and organizations out there, we are not one of those, You give us a competitve rate and accept 90% of our calls and we will certainly want to ensure we grow and maintain that kind of relationship, however not all providers when committing to accepting dispatch calls from us can for whatever reason maintain that required acceptance rate. Feel free to discuss any issues with myself direct at 1-800-338-2680 x 284 David Jones - Network Provider Manager - NSD ffhop said: Called yesterday left a message, pa rep emailed me in morning saying he just missed me(heard that before..), I called 4 times today in which each time went to voice mail. Really... come on, do your job please... nsdrep1 said: We are preparing to go to the Tow Show in Baltimore tomorrow, so some of the reps have been off this week i Please call me direct on 1 - 800 - 338 - 2680 x 284 I will deal with any issues you have. David Jones - Network Operation Manager - Nation Safe Drivers nsdrep1 added: Steve, As I understand it, Gary upon his return to the office called you back this morning, correct, just wanted to make sure you got a reply to your call and that we got everything sorted you had an issue with. ESC said: I have been back and forth a few times with the Pa Rep, Gary Fader. He has been great to work with. Gets back to me usually same day, last week it took him a day to reach me, but i know he was preparing for the tow show from what he told me, so i can understand. But NSD has been the BEST at being able to reach my rep. No other club comes close for us in being able to reach anyone. The down side it, the very very low amount of work from NSD. We have had 1 job from them in the past two months. Our rates are set to retail with them, so when they call, we will go... no issues. They tell us up front what the miles are calculated at, and the pay rate, so we know before we roll a truck. We have great luck with them, just wish we could get alot more work from them. nsdrep1 said: Please call me on the number above lets look at everything to discuss this issue, thanks ESC said: I got a call again from Gary this afternoon.... changed our coverage map around a bit, and gave us some info on some new clients they are working with in the near future... so i am hopeful that their client base will grow in our area and we will get to do alot more work with them. They are very easy to work with, and they actually care about getting the best service for their customer. KOENIGS said: I wish they would call or Email me back... Used to be Same Day or first thing the next. We moved to a location 80 miles away and Emailed / called every addy / number we had. 2 months and no contact back. Just unable to change our location and coverage map. KOENIGS Added: 72 SECONDS and we got a call. Thanks NSD, yall continue to be the best. KOENIGS Towing and Recovery in Savannah TN, and surrounding area. Oldtow said: I can't remember how long we have been with NSD, but we receive very few calls from them. Perhaps they just don't have that much business in our neck of the desert, but I must say, whenever their dispatcher calls they are always fairly accurate on the millage. We are not the cheapest dog in the fight for business, but we always go way out of our way to take care of their customers, as we appreciate their courteous dispatchers, and their business. I sure hope that we get more business from them in the future, thennnnnn maybe we could kiss Agero goodby Rick Cowboy For All My Life Wrecker Driver To Make A Livin Cowboy Preacher by Calling ! ffhop said: We have been working with PA rep, and managers, since last post. Sorry for frustrations if takin as such. Looking forward to continuing our relationship. Have a great holiday to everyone, from everyone at Godshall's Auto Service.

4th in a Series of Safety Discussion Images sirknucklehead said: Are you serious?... Who would tow that this way? Is this something staged or did you actually see this one in progress? mooresbp said: I think that should be on a landoll. Don't think that should be on the road like that, and I don't see any tow lights. Tow_Zone said: I am now into images that are being sent to me via email. I am not at liberty to divulge the source of the images or the member would have posted them in Good Bad and Ugly themselves. Speaking of GBU, some images may be taken from old posts if I run out of what I have. Thanks kunes towing said: was this a Repo? If so... its very hard to repo using a landoll... Would I do this? no... but I dont know the story of the tow/repo. Could be they grabbed it and took it to a spot where they had the proper truck. Towgod46 said: Maybe because they had the two one- tons there, that would be just as good as one MD duty. It's that new wrecker math there teaching kids these days. LoL. Using old wrecker math take the two one- tons add in the rain and it equals one big cluster ****. rlc4523 said: tires too big for straps and have no capture on the tires with the arms and the auto forks don't have chain hooks to at least chain the axle to the cross bar. I hope they are only moving it to a better location in that lot. We have a couple of those big "over compensating for something" trucks around here that we tow occasionally but always on the back of our MD from the front on the wheel lift with the drive line dropped. We strap the tires and chain the truck down and then also put our safeties on. Even if they would fit width wise on our FB they are too high going down the road. NationalAutow Said: Looks like a good poster picture for: Just because you can - Doesn't mean you should Towgod46 said: Been thinking about this, now at 55 I know I wouldn't do it. If I'm totally honest. Go back in time to 1978 and I had all that machismo, mouths at home to feed, not wanting to be the one that got sent out and couldn't get the job done. I most definitely would have done it. I've lucked out have never had a ticket or accident in a commercial vehicle. Not saying it is right. The repo companies don't care much HOW you get it just get it. Silverhawk said: Is a 22 foot rollback with a 12,000 deck. Roll on, four point tie-down and bring it home. Don't know about the height, but looks like a 13'6" load to me, loaded. iqmech said: honestly my first thought when I saw that picture was: IS HE INSANE???? no way would I touch that thing with a light duty. and in all honesty I really hate dealing with those highly modified vehicles to begin with. George Geissinger said: Do you have one of those tapes too that just keeps repeating itself after 13'4"-13'6" ? hti said: I wish I had taken a picture of the mid 90's international rollback I saw yesterday with nothing on the bed and a 20ft Toyota motor home on the wheel lift. It was sitting at a caseys store getting ready to pull out on the high way. What are your thoughts on what it weighs I would bet under 10K. It would fit on a 21ft bed with regular tires. those wheels and tires will make a lot of height difference but not much in length Tow_Zone said: It has been years since I put one of these on a roll back. It felt really top heavy and if I had to turn to quickly or maneuver to avoid a hazard I think it might roll the truck. Anyway you look at it, even though we did it 10, 20 even 30 years ago. Today it cannot be justified even for a short move. Far to much risk involved. Dave Lambert said: As others have said, we don't know the whole story but...the tires are sitting on the wheel lift, not in it. There's only a small chance straps would keep the vehicle on the wheel lift under moderate to heavy braking even if you could strap it. When we were doing "panic stop" testing for the AAA Towing Manual, we've seen properly secured light-duty cars jump out of the wheel lift during extreme braking because the straps stretched so much. 21' flatbed would handle the job. Crackerking said: it looks like there is a strap on the bottom of the tire. maybe its running through the rim. Just my 2 cents rlc4523 said: Weight would not be an issue for a standard 450/550 recovery truck or 550 RB and of course any larger RB but the Wheel size, Lift height is what gets you in trouble. I would agree with Tow zone that with that thing on the RB a hard turn would feel really sketchy being the center of gravity would be extremely high. Also it depends on that trucks suspension how well it would ride on a RB if the suspension is really soft it would magnify every move you made making it worse. Leave it on the ground and tow it with a MD

04-08-05: stevo wrote, I've probably changed a few hundred tires but not a lot of Mercedes. Well, I did over $800.00 in damage by using the lugs from the flat tire. I didn't know that there are special (shorter) lugs meant for the spare. She drove about 10 feet and I knew there was a problem. A very loud problem. I got the manual and saw what I did wrong. BUT WHY????? isn't there a sticker or some kind of warning on the spare? NOPE,,,they are in a little baggie with the jack ( I hardly ever use the customers jack) And it was a full size spare too. Its the first damage Ive done in years and Im Pissed. Are all Mercedes like this or just the C series? Steve - Choice Towing & Recovery - Fredericksburg, Va Schu said: I believe its only 1 model that has that ( the one with the funky center caps ) and from what I remember on the couple I did was that there was a sticker on the bolt holding the spare down and the lugs where with the tire tools. Stevio replied: There wasnt a sticker on the spare, the only clue was in the owners booklet. This sounds like something at least one of the MCs would have warned us about. What a stupid design. Steve - Choice Towing & Recovery - Fredericksburg,Va Topquality said: Steve, Please enlighten me on the year and model so I can let my driver's know. I haven't heard of this and we have changed quite a few BMW tires. I hate hearing of any damage claims like this. Damn BMW's - Steve Don 29 yrs aka THTDon said: Are you sure that the wheels on the car aren't aftermarket wheels? Usually, factory-installed custom wheels use the same lug nuts as the spare timre does. I have noticed that if a car has those old Crager SS chrome wheels (yes, I am dating myself here!). the lugs have washers and go through the lug holes like a sleeve, whereas the original nuts shoulder against the wheel. Towie said: A lot of Mercedes have them too, particually when they are fitted with a space saver tyre as a spare... The normal wheels have a great rim track as the the space saver almost none... It should have been real hard to do up the wheel nuts I think because on a normal lug, the thread gets larger as it goes in to lock the wheel to the car... (So it doesn't fall off) I know this as we tow a lot of Mercedes, BMW & Jag's that customers changed theown wheels and did what you did... Stevo said: My apologies gentlemen, I was a bit tired after along shift and I put BMW when I should have typed Mercedes ( at least I got the C series right ). I dropped it at the only dealer here that does work on the Mercedes and its a BMW and Volvo dealer. When I get to work Ill dig out the invoice and tell you the exact year. Steve - Choice Towing & Recovery - Fredericksburg, Va Nick Ovenden said: Guys, The Mercedes C Class and E Class have ally wheels and a steel spare. The bolts are too long for the steel wheel. We were issued a memo from the Merc dealers and the motor clubs that cover them. I guess we have a lot more of them than you do over there. Sorry to hear you had a problem.

Welcome the Owners Den is now a Club Level Forum and can be found in clubs. This forum is temporary and was create as a portal for members seeking access to the new Owners Den. The supporter requirement has been reinstated after several years, however some senior members may find an invitation to the Club as it grows. Note there are other Club Level Forums such as WreckMaster "member must provide info to access" Does not require supporter level membership to request access. RBU (Recovery Billing Unlimited) "member must provide class info to access" Does not require supporter level membership to request access. Tow411 Alley is a Senior Member Group or Club - "By Invitation - Criteria is yet to be set" Drivers Lounge - Any driver member can request access to the Drivers Level Club. Members cannot request access to both the Owners Den & the Drivers Lounge. There is not supporter requirement, however proof of driver, dispatcher, etc. is required. Keep in mind these are Club Level Groups, some may have a forum associated with them and some may not.

Yes, the supporter status is being set as well as number of posts. The supporter status will permit the Patron/Sponsor to list equipment and access supporter level forums. Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

Tow411 the message board is being phased out. Tow411 the Towing Information Network is the Parent to TowForce, TowTruckShopper, TowCareers and Tow.Photo along with other Towing & Recovery related sites yet to be developed. In the end this is just Tow411 2.0 and the new name reflects on the New Force in the Industry.

In order to recognize members who held a specific screen name on the old message board. In all fairness "Screen Names" will be based on seniority. I know all members will understand this action and should the need arise a new screen name request will be sent to the member will less time in the Tow411 community of forums. In many cases the member with more seniority may choose to select a new screen name. However many we know are member specific, just as mine is to me. This window will expired 90 days after the member has selected the screen name.

10-08-02: Unknown Member, How do you determine when a customer you are dealing with is a danger or not? I don't mean just a danger to others,but also to themselves.It seems I have been dealing with more and more people that have definite personality disorders and other mental problems lately,(no offense meant Moose) and I am having trouble on where to draw the line as far as calling the authorities or not. Yesterday I had to go tow a van for Geico Insurance,the owner of the camper told me "I heard people with power tools under my van as I slept last night,and now this morning my reverse doesn't work" I repaired her broken transmission cooler line and took her to nearby service station where she could get more fluid. She burst into tears at one point and said she didn't know why people were following her and sucking the transmission fluid and coolant out of her van,(she also had a leaking waterpump).She had South dakota plates and I really had to wonder if she wasn't possibly a missing person. What do you do in these cases? Lee Fredstowingnj said: I had one of them customers with Mental problems this morning.Police called at 3am for a disabled car out on the highway.I get on scene customer is requesting i tow the car 55 miles to his home.I tell him its going be $xx.00 hook up and $x.00 per mile and we don't accept checks.customer says no problem.I load car he gets in truck we go do the road a little ways and he turns my radio up and starts singing.So we get to his house i tell him its going to be $xxx.00 he aid ok write up the paperwork.I write up the bill and hand it too him he says thank you and have a nice night leave the keys in my car.I said excuse me sir but you have to pay me he says well i'll just send the bill into my insurance company and they will pay you.He said i have no money.I say no sir it doesn't work that way i have to be paid before i unload your vehicle.He says ok let me go get ym check book.I said no i don't accept checks.he goes in the house and comes back out with a check.And starts yelling at me calling me all kind of curse words.Goes back in the house his wife comes out and asks me why the tow is so much.I said it was 55 miles.She said well where was my husband broke down at.I told her and she had no clue where it was.Her husband told me he was on his way home from work.The wife said he doesn't work.I was all confused.This guy was about 12 cans short of a 6 pack.Anyone i got my money in cash.and got home at 5 30 am wow am i tired.Fred Koch,Jr. jackmaster said: We have this problem here. One of my drivers got stopped by a nude man on the interstate, walking down the fast lane at 2 am. My driver called st patrol and then tried to keep this guy from hurting himself or any body else. When asked his name he said it was Jesus.

Mark Salentine of Ray's Towing, Inc. job is beyond dangerous