EdsTowing

We got our set through Dale @ Matjack and they work very well.

Sorry, I meant to put this in the Wreck/Recovery forum...

We were talking at the shop the other day about local guys that do driveway plowing advertising on Facebook that "We now offer recovery service If you get stuck, give us a call." I'll admit it pisses me off when we loose a job because some scab is driving around the roads plucking cars out for $25.00... Had a wreck yesterday at the bottom of a steep hill that has always been a hot spot for accidents & winch outs during storms. When I got back to the shop, the owner told me he came over the hill and there was a Pick Up sitting in the middle of the lane. The guy was out soliciting another vehicle that slid off the road on the hill. The F150 had nowhere to go and couldn't stop so he ended up side swiping the other truck. So I see later in the day, the same plow guy posts that he won't be able to plow anyone else because his truck got hit... So my 1st thought was that his insurance can probably get themselves out of the claim because he was performing services for hire without the proper insurance. We have gotten beat buy wrecks where the driver was delivering pizzas or Uber/Lift drivers not insured. The shame is I told our customer with the F150 that he will probably be found At Fault due to the circumstances. Nobody was injured so typically the PD won't go in to an investigation. So I said that his insurance will certainly try to subrogate against the other vehicle involved but then he told me they both had Progressive...So I explained good luck...but I doubt anything will come of it. The Ford is certainly a total loss.

Al's too dam old to be rollin around in the grass...Glad to hear he's ok. They make new trucks every day....well, at least they used to...

Well the 1st plowable snow came yesterday and we got the equipment ready just in time... New wheels & tires installed. We haven't got the chance to install the new plow on the dump truck yet so we got the wrecker ready yesterday... My 14 year Old Grandson heading out to do the property in a $90,000 piece of equipment...LoL The kid does a great job and is a hard worker so I know he'll be fine.

Got a call for a guy who got stuck in a brand new shopping plaza they opened near us. Still not sure what he was trying to accomplish? He hopped the curb...and then apparently rutted around in there for a while trying to get out... He hit the curb hard enough that it separated from the blacktop... I didn't want to just tug him backwards since it was sitting on the oil pan and I don't trust these steer axles. Ran a Rim Sling through the front spring hanger so I could lift & roll backwards... What a mess...

I borrowed this from Fallsway's Blog page so I didn't have to spell it all out... FORMULA: (Front Axle Weight in lbs.) / (2) * (Wheelbase in inches) / (Overhang in inches) = (Tow Performance) EXAMPLE: 14,500 lbs. / 2 * 312” / 190” = 11,905 lbs. that can be lifted and towed with a safe useable front axle weight This calculation is intended to show you what can be towed while maintaining a safe useable front axle weight. It is not intended to calculated axle weights for scaling purposes. Tow Performance is a calculation of 50% front axle weight reduction while towing and is a standard across the country. In addition, it is a good rule of thumb to abide by when building a new truck. So a 286" wb is pretty short for a heavy. Some guys use that as a min. on quick pick's being installed. If you can get the specs on the front axle weight of your truck, we could help figure it out. It's best if you can max your steer axle weight out to the full rated capacity but if you have a light spec'd chassis, that may be only 12,000lbs. The bottom line is these are the only figures that matter in the equation so anything you can do to improve these numbers will help - greater steer axle weight, more wheelbase or limit the overhang. Picking a truck up on Spring Slippers instead of at the axle decreases your overhang by 24-30" so it will lift better. This is why short trucks of days gone by worked fine with slings, there overhang was much shorter then a under reach. I just want to say that the formula has been discussed through out the industry and some feel that you can safely operate a truck with less then 50% of it's steer weight and I would say that is true to a point. You just have to accept that the lighter you get, the closer you get to a "white knuckle" ride. Hitting a bounce on the highway and feeling the tires loose contact can enlighten your expierience...LoL

One I did over the weekend...driver swerved for a deer which turned out to be the wrong "call" on this situation.... This area is a huge boulder field next to an "S" turn and I have done a lot of wrecks here. This guy was pretty lucky to walk away from this unscathed considering the boulder went right up through the sunroof and stuck in the car 10" or so... Hooked to the high side due to ease of access... Brought it half way over and then stopped to run the rear line to the right rear tire. Then I walked it off the rocks and set it down on the shoulder. Left the line hooked through the LF wheel and drug the car right to my wheel lift. I impressed my self and said "Dam, that was good"... The officers laughed...LoL Hooked & booked back to the impound yard.

We also got the support machines ready for the season. Snows installed on our older machine which gets used on a long term project... Ordered a new set of wheels for the new machine as well. I will get the tires together tomorrow so that machine is ready as well... The 19.5's work incredibly good on the skid steers for snow removal.

Yea I agree....and more so for me is just the cold. I did a service call on a trailer the other day and in minutes I couldn't feel my fingers...they just burn from the cold anymore...

Every year it seems it's at the last minute we are getting ready for winter. There's never enough time in a day... But anyway, My guys put some new studded snows on the dump truck to get ready for inclement weather... We got a new set of wheels to take the aluminum ones off so they don't get tore up for winter... The rest of the LD fleet is ready...just waiting for the misery....

Another busy day yesterday. Doesn't help when our primary driver has been out for 10 days. We were hookin yesterday though... Uhaul to the shop for repairs. Transit bus broke down. Loaded oil truck quit running, back to our facility for repairs Machine we completed for service delivered to a customer... I finished my night delivering a tool box. I know some of you guys like your Rams but I am not a fan of this truck. It looks great but that's about all I can say... LoL

This appears like a lot of Lawyer B.S. to me.... I have owned a lot of Super Duty trucks and worked on hundreds of them. I have never heard or seen any with roof problems? Can they make it stronger? Well of course, they can make it like a F'n tank if they want to. Look at how the truck generation changed in this period. The subject at hand is the 99-16 Superduty's. It was the introduction of the extended cab option with door access & then full crew cabs in mainstream. That has predominated Ford truck sales for 25 years. I'm sure regular cab trucks which used to be the norm are now a much smaller percentage of sales. The only one advantaging in class action law suits are the attorney firms that introduce them....

The back story to this one was from my younger days as well. When I was around 6 or 7 my dad had a white 67 coupe. He had a habit of opening the door while still moving as he was pulling to a stop for some reason? For whatever reason, I thought it was cool... So one day while driving with my mother, she made the left turn in to our driveway. I opened the door and the weight of it ripped me out of the car as I held on to the arm rest!... As she got the car to stop and I lay on the gravel, I'll never forget the look on her face when she said "Are you out of your F'n mind?"....Memories... 😁 Didn't get to use it much this season. Did some upgrades on the brakes and wheels & tires. I'll run it a little this spring before I move it for something else...

Yea I had a truck do the same thing... We were upset about it and they sent us a roll of double sided tape and an instruction video to fix it....Not what I was looking for considering a spent a few grand on the boxes! We don't use their product since that situation.

I get it and I'm the same way. My MPL40 didn't have the sling option so there wasn't anything on the tailboard. I bought the D ring package from Jerr-Dan for a few hundred bucks I believe. I'm not sure if the bolt pattern/spacing is the same though as the Cougar body? Just thinking these because they wouldn't protrude out as far as the Sling Mount/Safety Chain boxes they came with.

Only reason I asked was that on the steel body, it allows a little more bumper clearance w/out the boxes that are required for the aluminum bodies. You might even be able to get a set for a MPL40 with the D rings as well. To answer your other question, you can full pull off of the holes in the wheel lift. We had a spade on ours that was up near the main part of the structure that would plant the truck and not put force on the T head. You can also full pull off the side using the tear drop shaped holes in the boom mount, in front of the winches. That's what they are there for.

Curious as to why you would want to change it?

I didn't take many pics at the Tow Show last weekend but I thought I would post some for the guys that didn't go... The Jerr-Dan booth wasn't the same to me...with out corporate being behind it as typical. The dealers brought some nice trucks but nothing that really grabbed me... Couldn't believe out of all of the Jerr-Dan rollbacks that were there, none had the self loading wheel lift? Not sure how big of a deal this will become for a "revenue stream" but I can't help but think the motorclubs will try to keep it down.... Dallas's truck looked great, I think he got a 2nd place for it. This was a pretty nice ride too. Nice rollback for Ron's & Sons... The new Century wrecker body. Something looked odd to me....not a fan of the design. Bolt on legs that I had dealers tell me they were "very expensive".... Nice F600 carrier. I wish mine was done, it would of been here. We have been talking with Matjack for a couple years on a MD "Catch Bag" for cars & smaller trucks. They are sending us one to put through the wringer a few times & see how it works. A new message board on the market that we are going to try out. I hope to have one of these on the new F600 when it gets built.

These can be heavy little buggers for single axles... I typically only rear tow these if I have to...it puts a lot on the steer axle. This one towed to the dealer for Regen/De-rate issues.

Some work Rob did recently... Cleaning up before winter, running some scrap. This was a 21 F550 my guys found a problem with. They had to replace the under hood fuse box due to water getting in it and corroded off the terminals for PCM power. Truck was under warranty but many companies just have us fix their equipment rather then loose the use of the truck for weeks waiting on a dealer...

Nice work on the recovery. I wonder in "hind sight" if it would of been easier/faster to cut the bogie right out from under the trailer and set it on a flat top dolly or set the whole trailer on a Landoll?

That is literally the definition of the "Pocono's".... We never saw those type of cars in our area though until recently. We were just discussing the other day my Service Writer saw 7 or 8 of them "plugged in" at one of our local grocery stores on a Sunday. I have never drove an EV car but I can't imagine 700+ Ft Lbs of torque @ "tip in" is good for navigating snow & ice either?.... LoL

Totaled the car in the parking lot....LoL

Tight squeeze...