EdsTowing

Dam that's cool....

A couple of jobs this week... Small dump with the parking brakes stuck on, coming back to our shop for repairs. Customer's Excavator coming back to the shop for engine work A FreeBee ...LoL Rob dropped the dump off for full detail service Uhaul back to the shop for a wheel bearing failure.

That's incredible...

No I don't think this one sat around....LoL It was only like 7 weeks from order to build date! We were amazed on how fast we got this one...even the dealer couldn't explain it. As for the suspension, we will leave it alone. Honestly the 408 can't handle much more weight anyway then designed. With the 84ca, ext cab, diesel and will have a plow frame...it will do fine.

Most of the people going in to Uhaul lie about what they are doing anyway...and I wouldn't consider some guy working at a storage facility or hardware store a "Towing Professional". This guy was trying to save a buck and got bit out of his own negligence. He could of Googled it on his phone and got the answers he needed.

Had to go up by Connecticut the other night for one of my customers that broke down with a Peterbilt... Nice 6hr ride... Towed because a rear let loose.

The little trucks have been staying busy every day.... Flatbed hung up in a driveway... Food truck we moved a couple of times back & forth to an event an hour away from here... The daily (and nightly) grind... Bus I picked up the other day for a trans problem. An old Buick Convertible back to the shop...

Eddie called me last night to help on a rollover he had... Simple job...

I finally got the truck home today... We went through it to familiarize ourselves with the options. The trucks dash & electronics are much more advanced then our other Superduty's... A wireless phone charger built into the center console is pretty cool... I don't know what I think of the side emblems but they are growing on me... Our plan was to install an Air Ride Rear Suspension on it prior to the wrecker installation but that got squashed... The 23's have an electronic E-Brake module located behind the inner tire and they say it will interfere with the air bags operation space. They informed me that if everything goes right with their engineering a unit would be available in 12 weeks or so...This will be a wrecker by then so I'm not going to hold up the build. I would like to try to see if we could make it work but that's like a $7000 gamble if it doesn't work out so...No...

Not yet...I had a buddy ask me on Saturday if we used it yet and I said I haven't had a rollover since I got it...wouldn't you know... Then Saturday night we got one but didn't have the bag with us.

Amazes me when folks load these with nothing but a gravity hold down... Nice work.

One I had Saturday night...car hit a bear near the shop... Couldn't find the bear...I would assume he's hurtin though... Talked to them today and she's arguing why it's totaled? Says it's only the air bags... So I find out that she doesn't have any insurance. I said ok then you can pay the charges and give us the title in leu of storage to which she tells me she aint got no title, the car is financed!...Lovely... We get 2 or 3 of these a month and it gets pretty frustrating. Looked for the bear to see if he had liability but struck out on that too...

Yea that cracked me up... I looked at the car today to get the info off of it and saw it has bald ass tires on the rear....I would guess that was a factor when he came around the turn in the rain? And after looking at the 4 slide marks in the grass, I think he went in to that wire and it may have helped flip him up & over...kind of like a catapult.

Thanks for the explanation. Please understand that I meant no negativity towards your company because quite frankly I have no idea of what/how you get paid. My concerns are more about what the clubs have been doing to this industry. We stopped all contract work about 5 or 6 years ago and concentrate on the highest margin work but I realize that not every company has the same demographics, scope or abilities that we have. There is definitely value in what you guys do. My son & I often discussed how it was a full time job to monitor the payments & shortages. Whether intentional or not...it adversely effects your bottom line profoundly. We just took a different solution to the problem.... 😉 Good luck with it though.

Dam...thank God he's alive.

One of the crashes from the weekend...we had a hard rain come down for 15 min and this guy hydroplaned off the road. The car flipped on it's side in to the woods... The phone cable was hanging low from a previous pole hit we had here a few weeks back. Fortunately it had a lot of span and we could move it around some... One of my guys was on scene and told us it was an AWD SUV so we came with the rollback as well Pulled it under the wire & loaded for transport... Family wasn't from around here and his wife & daughter went in the ambulance to get checked out. I gave him a ride to the hospital once we unloaded it.

This road used to be a "Hot Spot" for us but we haven't done a truck on it in a few years. It's a 10 ton weight limit, clearly marked NO TRUCKS on both sides of the road but that doesn't stop these GPS Rambo's... Bent the slider subframe & pushed the axle back... I was going to call my buddy that just got a new dolly the other day to transport it but I didn't want to bother anyone at 1:00 in the morning. Assorted brake chamber & suspension damage... Had to back out quite a ways, then backed up to the unit.... I lifted the trailer off of the guard rail, removed everything out from under it and shuffled it over away from the bridge railing. Then I plugged the brake lines to the damaged chambers and pinched off the front air bag so I could drive it out... It's a few hundred "windy" yards to back it out of here. I asked the guy if he was a good "backer upper" and to tell me the truth... he said no he wasn't which I would rather he tell me then piss me off trying to get out. I handed him a flash light and said for him to walk behind me so I can see the edge of the road. Had to slide the trailer 2 more times to get it back & turned around. Then we escorted him out of the Fish & Game commission the 2 miles to the cold storage facility he was delivering to. Once unloaded, we went back up to single out the axle so he could get it home.

What's up with those spades?...Do you need an app on your phone to work them?

With all do respect, I can't imagine giving up a piece of the small pie received from motor club work for additional administration costs. It makes no difference to me and I don't do any contracted service anymore but the clubs are typically 50-70% below retail and with rising costs, I can't see how anyone stays with that business plan. But hey, I hope it works out for you.

We base most everything on hourly. For local stuff, it's menu priced (based on hourly) for common areas or strait up local tows. Light duty long distance we figure hook & mileage but always consider the hourly rate as well. For us, I can do a 100 mile tow to Binghamton NY (up-state) or 100 mile to Manhattan NY.... Binghamton will turn in 3.5-4 hrs. , Going to the city will be 5.5/6 to 10 hrs depending on what time, weather, construction, car with flat tire on the Cross Bronx....so many factors can kill the profit of the call. So now...we pretty much won't go to the city unless we are making $1200....didn't leave anything there, don't see any reason to go back...LoL

Think they will total it?.... 😁

We said good buy to our mini excavator yesterday...it was a great machine for us. We replaced it with a little bit larger machine, an E42 Bobcat... This unit is about 3000lbs heavier and should better suite our needs.

Andy this isn't really a cost savings. It was more a matter of the times we live in. Jerr-Dan Corp had like 1500 Fords on order and the manufacturer told them they were going to receive like 58 for the 23 model year.... I didn't want to take my chances with that. Also, this is far from an "A Typical" spec for a wrecker chassis, I don't know many dealers that would order a chassis like this on speculation. We were told that Ford was going to serve their dealer network 1st compared to the mass wholesalers. In the end, that appeared true on this chassis considering it was 10 weeks from order to delivery...the F600 I just got we waited over a year for. In this case, I'm really not building it myself, I'm more like the general contractor... We are having the wrecker dealer do the install of the unit. We are doing the suspension upgrade in house and we will do a lot of the custom work. This allows us to have a little more control over the build process and elevate the "settling" factor with buying a prebuilt unit over a specific build. The negative is that I have to pay for the truck and can't use it for 3 months or so. Also a dealer doesn't want to sell incomplete chassis outright because it can be difficult with Title issues and financing. These are issues that you need to work through. As for abilities, the specs of this unit are very similar to the truck it is replacing. I will assume it's going to perform the same. Each truck you build has it's own characteristics and it's always a "give & take". I believe this combination will be a very capable unit that will fit my needs and exceed most of the standard trucks on the market. The other side of that "coin" is I am predicting that we will be in to this unit for $200 grand till I'm done...THAT is ridiculous for a LD Wrecker...

You answered it...the F600 is only available in a regular cab. This will be my son's personal truck and we need extended cabs. I have another 600 in the works getting a MPL60 for myself because I will need the higher GVW with what we are building.

It's always nice when you can do a "For Two" job... Couple of Uhauls coming in for repairs. Crash Eddie did the other day...