EdsTowing

This is coming up to our shop to get the cab & chassis painted I believe next week. There is a new body being fabricated at the factory. I'll update with some pics if Jamie wants to.

Nice ride

Had to tow a loaded gas truck the other day that derated. I smelled propane when I was under it but figured it was residual and it was pouring so I just wanted to get the dam shaft out of it. We went to look at it the next morning & found it lost 15% due to a leak of a seal in the bottom of the tank. They came over and pumped the rest out & then blew off the lines and what not to get it back to atmospheric pressure. It only had 60 miles since it left the dealer so they asked me to tow it back there for warranty DPF issues....

Sometimes you get one that was "made to tow"....LoL. You couldn't ask for an easier rear tow...

50 mile tow back to International yesterday morning.

We are a small company but try to do our best to keep a dedicated staff. My head guy in the shop is with me 20 years this year. He has an attractive pay scale, I cover 100% of his health insurance package and he has a company personal pick up that I supply/maintain/insure. Also do the same program for my Body Shop guy.

As for the "daily grind"....I regularly buy the shop breakfast or bagels in the morning. Lunches... Ice Cream or Dunkin' runs through out the week... Numerous parties through out the year & bonus's. Sometimes I'll grab all my employee's keys and fill their gas tanks up at the shop just to show how much I appreciate what they do for me. My business philosophy has always been "you're only as good as your people" and I truly believe that. I have been to some incredible facilities or seen top notch equipment that were operated by total incompetence and proved that you can't just buy professionalism, work ethics or integrity....

What a great project. Best of luck with it.

We unloaded a lift the other day for a tire shop but I guess it was the wrong one. So we reloaded it on the trailer & unloaded the replacement...

A little bit of a "pain" with the short boom but we got it in there...

My dad always said "Every Man Must Know His Limitations"...Words that I have used often through my life. The other day I got a call for a Rolloff Truck that blew the rears out. Got on scene and found that it had a 40 yard can on it as well. It was 90 some deg. and I wasn't looking forward to pulling axles so I figured I would try it backwards. The truck wouldn't roll at all...not even freewheel and I found a small junkyard on the ground under the power divider where it grenade'd the housing...

After hooking up which was WAY too easy...I stepped back and took a look...not too good. I could see me steer was light. I can tell on my truck when it gets bad - my steering wheel is vertical instead of horizontal....and my wheel was turned like a clock! So I moved it to a better area and dropped it to rehook to the front. Spent over an hour getting the axles out since they were bound up. Aired it up & on my way...

One of my guys caught me at he lights...

Times like these I wish I had a counter weight...

This is our 25th year in business and as we do every year, we donate a tool box to the VoTech's highest achieving Senior. This year was "sketchy" with Covid restrictions and schools being closed. We were afraid it just wasn't going to happen. But in the end, the instructor Ben was able to put it together at our shop. We couldn't get the box we typically would do because of plants shut down & whatnot but still able to pull it off.

This young man is continuing his education at a trade college. 

Working in the Army Depot the other day...With COVID-19 issues, it's probably easier to get in to a Rolling Stones concert for free.... LoL

Eddie had to do the forehead scan, the mask, background check & full inspection of the wrecker....

I agree with Grumps....👆

Good work.

1 hour ago, Bushwacker said:

I see you have some good help riding shotgun!

Yea my Daughter in Law flew down to Florida to rescue 3 dogs & bring them home. My granddaughter has been running calls for 3 days with Eddie.

Somebody has to be the "Boss"....

This was something different yesterday....Guy said his trailer rolled over in the parking lot of a strip mall. Wasn't sure if it would be "roadable" so we took a rollback over as well in case we had to carry it home...

On his way out, he hit the right side tire against a rock and the trailer bounced off of it?....then it disconnected from the Explorer they were towing it with...

1 rim sling around the axle support & another through the wheel to "catch" it coming over...

Fender was already ripped off so that made it easy... Then hooked it to the rollback and transport back to our shop.

No big deal but it broke up the day...

That was the right truck for the job. We do these pretty often for the same scenario. Uhaul is a great customer for us. We do a lot of mechanical repair, service & body work for them.

19 hours ago, Njsss said:

According to the FMSCA.gov “the average cost of all large truck crashes is about $91,000 per crash” without any fatalities

You left a couple of key factors out of your information there...1st off that's total cost which includes the vehicle casualty repair or total loss. But more importantly, how about the rest of the information that you left out:

• The average cost of a large truck crash involving a fatality is $3.6 million per crash.
• A crash with injuries costs almost $200,000 per crash 

Do you think that the tow bills are different between the $91k non injury job and the $200k injury or the $3.6 million dollar fatality tow? No...No I don't think so. That's not a determining factor in our industries billing procedures. The 4000% spread difference is in the litigation and medical costs. And then you have their operating costs which are driven by multi million dollar salaries & bonuses....while sitting in their Italian Marble $500,000,000 facilities but hey...they got to eat too, Right?

Anyway, I'm not saying that some tow bills aren't excessive or fraudulent... But some companies take it to the next level and do a more complete job. Don't be in a "race to the bottom" or minimize what you do to save them money...or increase your own liability & risk without increasing your reward.

Of course that's just my opinion...I could be wrong...

Quote

Then wonder why the tow industry insurance premiums are what they are

Don't kid yourself..... Towing & Recovery invoices and fees don't even have their own Line Item on an insurance companies balance sheet. Premiums are driven by three major factors... Litigation costs, medical costs and their own internal operation costs. I hear guys in our industry blaming the tow bill when in reality it is the lowest financial factor in any incident or crash.

Nice work. I like splitting the load between two trees for dead men to get your line load down.

We see a lot on NJ cars with failures like this since they stopped the State safety Inspections...it may not be safe to drive but you can breath from the tail pipe! LoL

It's like you guys did that before...

My body shop guy restored this vehicle for Barris prior to that sale. Cool tow.

We do this on every job possible. It's a thorough job that people appreciate once you show them the value. And from a business standpoint, let me say there is a substantial amount of coin to be made. Do a complete job & get paid for everything that you do.

1 hour ago, mooresbp said:

nice, love that mini hoe

Yea it came available right when this Covid stuff started and I really didn't want to spend any money but the deal was right so we bought it. My guys like it... I "fumble" around with it, not much of an equipment operator....I know how much they cost...LoL 

Saw this and it cracked me up...

Business has been challenging the last couple of months being in a "Covid Virus Hot Spot".... With most companies not working, work has been thin. Here are a few jobs I have done.

Engine grenade'd on a customers tractor. He dropped a truck off at my shop for me to swap this one out...

Loaded Tri-axle in the rain....My favorite!

We have 1 low underpass in my town & this lady found it... Towed to the shop for PD. We cut the remainder of the roof out, secured the walls together and took it to Penske's Body Shop in Reading PA.

Well Driller support truck back to our facility for repairs...It stopped raining just in time to take a picture...

Yea it opened that one up!

The Innovator...getting it done! Nice work buddy.

Oh and...That's a Wicked Cool Ramp Truck...."said in the voice of a Kennedy"