EdsTowing

Came in this morning...still adding "Bling" to the truck...

Chrome grill & a new Valance Panel. Next it gets the plow frame installed...

That MV is really nice...best of luck with it. I really like how they look, no doubt I'll be trying one of them in some form or another...

Chuck the 4300/Cougar combination is one of the best Light/Medium Recovery Truck money can buy. 

This truck has been delayed for over two months now but we are supposed to have it the week after Baltimore... Ticks me off because it was supposed to be IN the show but whatever. Getting a little nervous now because snow is right around the corner.... Hopefully I will have some pics soon to update the build.

I saw this cab & chassis going up for auction a few weeks ago and it caught my eye. The pics were poor at best...and it was hard to tell what shape it was in, but it only had 32,000 mi on it. Advertised with a bad 6.7 engines but I can take care of that. I wasn't able to go to the sale that day and it was pouring so I didn't think they would have too good of a turn out on site anyway so we bid cautiously. I didn't want to get it home and find a POS that i would be buried in. Our original intentions was to build a dump or construction/plow truck out of it to flip...

We won the bid for cheap money and when it got home, I was pleasantly surprised! the body is cherry on it and the chassis is very nice considering it lived in upstate NY...some surface rust but will clean up like new when we are done with it. The truck was owned by a NY municipality and I have to figure that the 1st Gen 6.7 failed early (like many did) and it was out of warranty by time? Someone decided to take the body off and dump it I guess...

We decided to make this our new Dump Truck to replace my Chevy. We have a new 11' body coming and we are installing a new 6.7 from Ford in it. It will get all the necessary upgrades to make it durable & reliable. Some "Bling" and a new dress...we will have a "like new" support truck for 25% of the cost. I'll post updates as we go along...

Installed the revised coolant bottle & battery tray in it the other day so we can have duel batteries...

It also got a full service, tune up and all new coils/wires/plugs ect... Once it goes in to service, I don't want to have any problems.

Got it back from the sign shop with her new dress on...

I'm happy on how it turned out. It's down getting the windows tinted and back up camera installed now. We got the Off Road fuel tank & Pump painted to install in the bed so that will probably go in this week.

Well they finally headed out today to their new home. I'm sure that both of these units will provide them with great service...

Well I have a "Part 2" to this story.... I'm always saying "The irony of Life". And if this isn't ironic I don't know what is.

Like I said, the Hoodlums that stole the 1st two Uhauls were caught and the trucks came back to our shop. The Pick up had to be taken to the main facility to be evaluated but we got the go ahead to fix the 10 Ft'er so Friday I backed it up to our roll off can to empty the debris & garbage out of it. Found the guys credit cards & personal junk that got trashed. Ordered parts and got it in the schedule for next week...figured that was the end of the story...

Saturday we get a call for a box truck that went off the side of a bridge and landed on it's side in the water....Nice wake up call to begin our day....

A hunter found the truck on a State Game Land road back in the woods. Truck was cold so I guess the guy wrecked the previous evening. We recover the unit back to the road and I look in it for paper work & find the rental contract. This truck was rented by the same guy that had the Uhaul truck! He literally rented this the day after we towed the Uhauls... I asked the officer "what kind of Society do we live in that this guy rammed a police car last week and obviously got out so he could do some more sketchy shit"?

Unbelievable.... 

1 hour ago, Stubborn66 said:

She's a rough rider but she is always ready to work.

Oh yea mine rode like a rock....but it towed anything

Two of our trucks are leaving the nest and heading to their new homes in Ohio tomorrow...

Both of these have been good trucks and well cared for so there is no doubt that they will give their new owners great service...

We removed the "Ed's Branding" and had them re-imaged for them through our Vinyl company.

Very nice. that Cougar is the perfect unit for that job. I miss mine...

Looks like a pretty good mess...nice work

I had a 2 car I had to do by myself on Saturday night which was fun...

I didn't get any pics on scene...busier then a 1 armed paper hanger...

Looks in nice shape, good luck with it.

12 hours ago, Bushwacker said:

Ed when you fix them instead of towing do you charge as much or more than a tow? Great job getting them going so fast!

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We charge a 2hr min for the wrecker which is what it would of been to tow it. Then the service van will be extra. So I guess it's more then the tow but I wouldn't be able to tow it any other way. They don't like a rear tow but it would of been dragging up front. Caging the chambers was going to take extra effort due to stuff in the way. I don't have a trailer option readily available but even so, that would be a project since it was so low and brakes locked.

One from the other day...Transit bus broke down, had an air pressure problem. Arrived on scene & found it blocking the travel lane, in the intersection at a light so I called back to the shop to send someone up with the van to keep them from running over me...

Bus wouldn't build air pressure and laying on the ground. These are "Kneeler's" but they require air to operate. I had to force my T head under the bumper to get it up enough to get blocks under the tires.

We stacked cribbing under the engine carriage and lifted the front up so I could get under the coach & check the problem. With no suspension & can't release the brakes, we aren't going anywhere until I can find the issue.

The wonderful engineers mounted ABS valves in front of the Type 36 chambers which inhibit getting cage pins in it...found the leak coming from a disconnected line feeding the relay valve for the parking brakes. It was tucked up over the drive axle and not very accessible. I stuck my camera up there to see what was up, found a hole in the top of the valve...

The threads looked ok? It appeared that the fitting was only threaded in 1 turn based on the undercoating all over it? I got a new fitting and was able to thread it in the valve and re-hooked the plastic line to it. These busses are over 10 years old...hard to believe it lived this long without failing prior? At that point he was fixed and could drive the bus back to their facility.

Hey you guys are going to have to start bringing some equipment out on these calls if you want to make any money...Just sayin...

Well if you have to work on a Saturday...at least it's pretty...

Rob picked up a 1975 Mercedes today at a residence coming back to the shop. It will be transported to the owners home a couple hours from here later in the week.

14 hours ago, Orcas Tow said:

Dang Ed as I was going through the story & pictures my excitement was building to see how you were going to recover this without a rotator then you went & ruined my day;) Nice work as always & rotators was probably the best equipment for the job:)

Well the only other alternative was to winch it 250' back the way it went in and deal with less of a grade at that point of entry (only a 3' drop). I thought about it and actually when I requested they bring me the sweeper out, I said bring the bucket too. It was going to drag dump truck loads of marsh & mud with it to be cleaned off the road. Then I was still afraid of what lied under the truck after seeing that slab of concrete...an environmental impact would of changed the entire scope of this procedure.

So then I thought how can I get this out of there with as little mess as possible...not do any more damage to either units...and be gone before the sun came up... This was the answer. It's was quick, efficient and came with a nice reward.

Got a chance to get it up in the air today and fortunately everything looks great...

We removed the cap from it and gave it the truck a good cleaning. It has a Pull Out Tray in the bed which I'm going to leave in there...

Next it gets the electronics updated, some tint & then wrapped. We have a fuel cell & pump going in it for off road diesel to fill the machines up in the winter. We always used our Emergency Response truck for it but that's going to a new home in Ohio.  

We needed to get a new "Shop Truck" and the one we intended on turned in to refurbish job for the customer so we were back on the look out. Eddie found this at a JJ Kane auction in Virginia. We took a chance not being able to inspect it prior but wanted to find something that lived in the south to avoid rust issues. Well we won the auction and Rob went on a 750 mi. R/T adventure to pick it up yesterday...

Made for a long day... So it's a F250 Ext. Cab, 4wd w/a Gasser. We were pleased when it arrived and found it to be in great condition...

She'll fit right in once we go through some modifications and drag it through the chrome garden....LoL

We do a lot for Uhaul on a daily basis. This one job this week was a couple guys rented a Pick-up & a 10 Ft'er and didn't return them. Then they were steeling copper from a junk yard in NJ and got caught. The one guy rammed a police car with the truck & then took off on foot...

A couple of fine, outstanding citizens here... I guess they caught them all.

The next two we picked up at a Amazon Center with supposed mechanical issues...

These were all brought back to our facility for repairs...

On 10/25/2023 at 8:23 PM, Bushwacker said:

Ed you'll don't have a rotator?
Great job! Thats money in the bank!!

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No I don't have one. It just didn't fit my business plan. I can make a call and have whatever I need inside of 45 min so this works for us. This one is paid in full and already gone so another successful job in the "Paid" column...

Tough situation....anyone know who's truck it was from the reading area?

Had a 4am call over the weekend for a Tractor Trailer that was in a deep ditch. I was sleeping quite comfortably, apparently so was the driver... My first thought was "Dammit"... I had my Heavy buffed out for a Big Parade on Sunday and as I was getting dressed I noticed it was raining... I thought this better be worth it...LoL

He veered off the road and in to a 7' drainage ditch that was full of water & mud. I would of had to drag it backwards a couple hundred feet to get it out of the ditch, and I didn't know what else was down there. As of right now, there wasn't any signs of petroleum in the water anywhere and I wanted to keep it that way.

In searching around, I found this big slab of concrete in the ditch that concerned me. PA has always buried their road debris over the years, filling in ravines and median strips with older road pavement & concrete ect... I was concerned that there could be other unfriendly debris in there to tear up an oil pan or fuel tank.

Ditch was so deep he had to crawl up out of the window to get to the road...

Brought a Skidsteer & power broom because there was quite a bit of mud on the road from the incident and I figured there would be a lot more where that came from when it came out. I felt the safest way was to vertically lift the complete unit up and swing it out on the shoulder. That was going to take a little more "Iron" to accomplish that though...

Called my buddy Mike & His son Nick to bring me some "swingin" sticks to help. We discussed the plan of attack and began executing it immediately.

We had a Tator on the rear doors of the trailer, another on the front of the trailer to do the heavy lifting and my heavy on the front to keep it strait. Once all of the rigging was hooked &verified, it was up and out in minutes...

Once it touched down, everybody hustled to break everything down and get the casualty out of the way so we could clean up the area.

Everything went on with out a hick up and we were out before anyone even woke up. We have done a number of jobs with this team and work well together...everybody has the same goal in mind - Get it done, be safe & go home...

Sorry not used to posting in the Tator page...if you guys need to move this, that's fine...  🙃

We do this parade every year...it's one of the highlights of our Autumn season...

The local Youth Soccer organization asked if they could do a float so we gave them the Dump Truck & Trailer...

New wreckers aren't done yet so we just did the F600 Rollback and my heavy...

Had my heavy professionally rubbed out to get the aluminum nice, picked it up for Friday. Don't you know on Saturday morning we get a truck wreck in the rain.... Had to reclean it on Sunday am.

The kids have such a great time and we get a lot of exposure from the community. Over a grand in candy...LoL It was 11,000 pieces I think.