someotherplace

Nice. Haven't seen one in that color before! Only black (dark gray?), and white. I loaded a white one a couple weeks ago, but since it was parked head-in, I loaded from the rear and dollied the front. A little trickier since if the tire sits too low in the bars, the rearmost bar will contact the rockers when you pop up the dollies. I extended the boom a couple inches to roll the tires up onto my skates so I could pinch the bars a little closer to each other; no biggie. Same (in reverse) to unload at the lot. Richard

No experience in a heavier truck, we have them in a pair of 2020 F450 short wheelbase selfloaders. The 7.3 gas absolutely has more grunt than our previous 6.8 trucks, which is good and bad; they move when you need them to but as a PPI truck they are quite loud at the tailpipe even when idling. They remind me a bunch of an old Chevy 3500HD 7.4 or 8.1 rumbling away. I'm still a little wait-and-see on the 10 speed auto. It sure seems to hang in 1st longer than I like while accelerating from a dead stop, it really winds out the engine for no apparent good reason, when I'd prefer it

It's set up the way it is likely due to federal motor vehicle safety law.. the reason the camera is there in the first place. If there's a way around it, it's going to be an aftermarket solution. Not sure about your 2017 model but we have some 2018's that I was able to get a little bit of extra functionality for free simply by going through the on-screen menu to enable the camera delay. It will stay on for a few seconds after you've shifted out of reverse. I found it useful for pulling away from a vehicle after opening the claws. The 2020 I'm driving now stays on even longer (h

Y'all killin' me with these cat stories. : ( But yeah; there does often seem to be someone around the yard that ends up feeding the lot cats and making them lazy. The little polydactyl monster (extra toes, also called "Hemingway" cats) curled up next to me on the bed was a wild lot cat that at an early age decided she liked people and started coming in to sleep in the office, whenever the owner wasn't booting her out. Right before a hard freeze several years back I brought her home, full-time indoor cat now. She's got reflexes for catching mice and birds for sure, though! And

Heavy doses of "not my truck" all around. Richard

"because they're looking legit" --- sorry; if I see a tow truck with no markings and no license plates, I see a likely thief. Don't know about other states, but in Texas it's law that the truck be marked conspicuously. The requirements of info displayed and even the size of lettering is stated in the law. Not that there's much enforcement of it, selective to be sure, but the more people are aware that it's law then the more can be aware of people operating illegally and easily differentiate them from actual honest, legitimate, hard-working tow operators. Richard

Funny (not) how Houston news sources have no interest in this story, yet it's reported on two different San Antonio news sites. Real short on details; I'm trying to see if anyone around my group knows any more. At first I thought it may have been near a storage lot as there's lots of metal fencing but it appears to just be 18 wheeler parking areas. There are some apartments across the street.. Richard

That's pretty much how I imagined they could be released. Seems like it's just a stepper motor or similar device that you power it to apply, reverse polarity to release. I mostly am just concerned that it not cause any errors or problems with the vehicle if I released them, towed it to the lot, then re-applied them. Everyone wants a payout on a damage claim whether real or imagined. In most scenarios we just throw them on the dollies because we need to get off property quickly, no time to mess around with the brakes. However in the rare case where it's a dolly job that has to go a long di

I was mostly teasing; I know no experienced operator would intentionally leave the extension out that far when towing unless the clearance was needed. That's one thing I've noticed on those particular units, if you let debris get in the extension housing, it spells doom for the hoses and man it ain't fun taking apart to repair. None of them are, but it seems the auto-grip is a bit more susceptible to damage there. Previous job had one in the fleet and several lots we store at are gravel. That was the one truck that kept catching rocks and eating hoses. With several different pe

One can reasonably deduce that the vehicle he was attempting to load would belong to the suspect, unless of course it was stolen. In my experience when they park stolen cars where they're obviously not supposed to be, they're dumped, and WANT them to be towed...not going to come out shooting. So chances are pretty high the vehicle in the manager's spot belongs to the suspect. Not difficult detective work, this one Richard

Careful there; I think you might be approaching the load limit of that wheel lift and your dollies. : ) : ) : ) I think you could bring the extension in at least a couple feet or so, though... Richard

One-liners day was the 21st? Well then, I must be "a day late and a dollar short" ... LOL In regards to going after a tough-to-load PPI: "We'll either get it, or we won't" (you'll never get it if you don't try) Multipurpose: the classic "What could possibly go wrong?" And the motto of a former employer, "It isn't a problem until it's a problem" ....... Richard

Agreed, sounds like a scam attempt and likely has nothing to do with Square themselves. Are these coming in an email? If so it's probably scammers with a fake email hoping to get your Square login info so they can snatch your money. Richard

There's the convertible version at one of the lots I drop at. Looks like it may have been someone's low-mile grandpa car, before it got crashed.. it looks like it went under a flatbed or something. The windshield frame is completely flattened, highest point is hood/trunk area. : ( Oh, and I wasn't trying to be funny about the "convertible" thing - it was an actual ragtop car, fake woodie sides, etc. ugly as hell even when brand new. I wanted to take a picture of it but I'm pretty sure it was from a fatal crash so I decided not to. Richard

The ghosts around our place are completely silent. Any time something comes up missing or broken, and you ask the crew, the answer is DEAD SILENCE I wish I was joking, but I'm not. : ( Richard