dperone

I started using advanced warning many years ago and the very first time I set flares out saved my life. I had a car go off the road on an icy night. Approximately 100 yards before the car in the ditch was a tight curve and I didn't see the car until I was almost on top of it. I decided to put a line of flares out before the curve to get traffic slowed down before they got into the curve. With my advance warning set up I went to work winching the car out. About 5 minutes into the recovery I heard screeching tires from the other side of the curve. A car was flying down the road and hit the brakes when they saw the flares. He slid quite a ways before getting control and stopping. If I hadn't set up advance warning he wouldn't have started stopping into he was right on top of me, most likely hitting me in the process. Ever since then I've been a fork believer of advance warning.

That was actually the first plan I had, to lift it while on it's side and spin it away from the rail. Unfortunately the car was only sticking past the guardrail 2 feet and it was a pretty good distance from the end of the rail. Even if I had more reach I don't think it would have helped me as the car didn't want to pivot due to the front being dug into the ground. The other issue that made me decide to roll it first was how unstable it was. Resting on the guardrail on it's side, it was pretty wobbly. I didn't want to be stuck with the car in the air on it's side and not be able to control it if I had to set it down.

Looking good. He's lucky no one was coming the other way

We were called by our local PD for a single vehicle crash. They left out a few key details such as the car was on it's side, on top of the guardrail, with a debris field approximately 1000 ft long. The car failed to negotiate the softest curve a road has ever seen and blasted 2 poles. After clipping both poles down to about 5 foot tall, it started flipping through the grass. I counted at least 4 complete rotations, one of which took down a rotten dead pine tree that was 3 foot around. After the 4th flip the front dug into the ground hard enough to leave a foot deep crater, which pretty much stopped the car dead in it's tracks (finally). Unfortunately, it was still on it's side and it failed to clear the guardrail by a measly 6 feet. The field was saturated thanks to the 1.5 inches of rain that fell a few hours prior, so our access was limited to the road side of the rail. My first action was to roll it over as it wasn't too stable teetering on just the rail. I set it down as gently as I could because of course the gas tank was super close to the guardrail post. Luckily the car landed without hitting the tank and we moved to step 2, lifting and swinging the car off the rail. It went smooth until it got to the return at the end, it kept snagging what was left of the exhaust. At this point we set the car back on the rail and carefully wiggled it off the rail. What I did was roll the car towards the driver's side with a high line just enough to clear the post and pulled the car to me with a low line. Think WreckMaster's 4/5 Cherokee hitch technique but using both winches instead of a rope. Once it was clear of the rail I moved out and my dad backed the flatbed in to load. Because of the many missing pieces in the steering and suspension, I used my truck to "steer" the car up the bed. After wiggling it up the bed and cleaning up the massive debris field, we took the car to the police department's secure lot. I once again had to scoot the car sideways on the bed to get it to come off straight, as it kept sliding sideways instead of down. The job went about as smooth as I expected it would with so much going against us and we cleared the scene in a little over 2 hours.

We were called by NJSP Buena barracks for a single vehicle crash. I arrived to find this Jetta that tagged a tree in the passenger side, breaking the lower control arm and and wheel as well as taking the fender off. It then spun around and came to rest against another tree on the driver's side. I pulled the front end around back onto the road where I loaded it up and towed it to their house. Gotta love getting paid for a job before you even leave the scene. 

We were called by the NJSP to respond to a motor vehicle accident involving a pick up pulling a boat on a trailer. Upon arrival we found a pick up truck in the woods with the front bumper wrapped around a pole. The force of the impact caused the boat to break free of the trailer and land on top of the pick up. The combination came to rest at the edge of an embankment causing the boat to want to slide down the hill. The trailer was still in one piece so my first order of business was to lift the boat off of the tongue so we could get the trailer back on the road. Once the trailer was free I kept lifting the boat and pulled it back into the road where we loaded it back onto the trailer. With the boat and trailer out of our way we turned our attention to the truck. It was leaning against one tree on the side and fully wrapped around another to the front. I ran 2 lines and wiggled the truck away from the trees. Once clear of the trees we backed a flatbed up the rear and started loading it. The steering column was broken so the wheels were stuck turned to the right, complicating the loading process. I kept both of my lines hooked to the truck to help steer it up the bed. Considering the scope of the recovery and the tight working quarters, the recovery and loading went extremely smooth. The owner had a friend on scene with the fire department who was willing to tow the trailer and boat home so we just had to worry about towing the truck to our shop about 25 miles away.

We don't divide PTO into sick, vacation, etc. Your days are your days to use as you see fit, but when you run out you aren't getting paid to take off.

There's so much wrong with this video it hurts my head. To have both vehicles roll away from you has to be statistically higher than winning the lottery, unless you don't use that thing above your shoulders for more than a hat rest.

It was pretty tall, I had to have the phone all the way on the ground ant cam style to get the whole thing in the shot. The big glass building of the Ocean Casino Resort, formerly known as the Revel Casino.

We were called to pick up a vehicle for the state park service in Atlantic City at the light house. Where it broke down made for a pretty good picture.

We have a set of 4 at the shop and that's where they spend most of their time. As you've discovered, skates are the way to go with vehicles stuck in park. The only time we really use them is when they're street parked or in a tight lot, we can push them into a spot to load it straight on the deck. If we get to that point though we have to get someone from the shop to bring them out, but this way you have 4 skates and a helper to push. Or you can go the ultra easy route and just wheel lift and dolly it, then you don't have to push or drag it.

I will say this contest has me back into taking a bunch of pictures. Lately I'm usually by myself for at least the recovery portion and don't have time to take a ton of pictures. With a new light bar on the line though, my last roll over I stopped winching on it at least twice to get a good shot.

I also prefer it, I like to work close to the casualty and I've never had a reverse roll fight me to come over

There's not much better than 2 chevron's working together, especially on such a delicate recovery

I'll start by saying this was a super simple winchout. It was a newer Jeep Cherokee that went too far down a driveway and ran over the edge. All I had to do was run a low line and pull about 10 feet. I was more blown away by the fact that a Jeep couldn't make it over a 4x4 without getting stuck. I tried to give it the benefit of doubt because the stone driveway was fairly fresh and hadn't really settled yet, but once I pulled the Jeep away you could see it was just spinning it's way down the board instead of climbing up and over. No wonder why the older Jeeps are going for almost as much money as the brand new ones in my area, even rusted out. They just don't make them like they used to I guess.

We received a call from the state police to respond to a overturned vehicle. Knowing the area and the fact that vehicles that crash there usually leave the roadway and are pretty demolished, we immediately dispatched my dad in a flatbed and myself in a wheel lift. When we arrived we found a car that stuck a telephone pole and went off the roadway, rolling at least twice and landing on it's roof. 3 out of the 4 wheels were only holding on by the brake hoses and the 4th didn't look to be on the greatest shape either. Luckily the wires from the broken pole stayed about 12' off the ground so we had plenty of room to work. I decided to do the recovery in the field the car landed in as it was solid ground. I also didn't want to block the road anymore than I had to, as it's the only direct road connecting a couple of towns. I elected to reverse roll it and as such backed as close as I could to the car. The upright was fairly straightforward and once it was on it's wheels, or what was left of them, I winched the back end around so our flatbed didn't have to block the road to load the casualty. We had a couple of big car parts to remove from the yard, some of them made it quite a ways from where the car landed. Luckily for us though most of the junk that was on the car stayed in the car. Why is it that every car that rolls over is loaded with a ton of junk? I love when they land off of the road and we have plenty of room to work, it takes a lot of the pressure off when you aren't worried about blocking the road. Jobs like these always seem to go smoother and quicker than jobs where you have to rush to open the road.

We were called by Uhaul roadside for an Amazon van stuck on a dirt road. Apparently the driver made a wrong turn and when he realized his mistake he tried to turn around, which is when his day went to hell. He found a soft spot in the middle and sunk like a stone, right down to the frame. He was perfectly centered on the "road" so I couldn't get to either the front or back of him. Luckily there was a Holmes tree right where I needed it. I ran a line to the tree and back to the rear of the van, and a quick little tug got him going.

We were called once again by the state police today to respond to a single vehicle accident with the vehicle reported to be on it's side in the woods. I arrived to find a Subaru on it's side up against a couple trees. Because the rear of the car would have hit the trees before it came to it's wheels, I slid the car forward on it's side a few feet to clear them. Once clear I rolled it back on it's wheels and pulled it out of the woods back to the road. We loaded it on a bed for the tow back to the yard and cleared the debris from the wood line, and the wood line from the car as it took quite a few vines and branches with it to the road

We were dispatched by the state police to respond to a single vehicle accident. Knowing the area, I was pretty sure it was going to be in the woods. I arrived to find a Mitsubishi that left the roadway, struck a tree sideways and spun back around pinning a tree between the front bumper and fender. The fire department cut the 2 trees of as low as they could then I pulled it straight back to clear the stumps. Once clear of the stumps and tree I repositioned my truck and pulled it sideways back to the road so I could tow it away. Once loaded I moved up the road a few hundred yards to a pull out so I could strap it down for the 30 mile ride home.

The number one thing I did to get more traffic to move over for me is to implement cones, flares, and vehicle blocking. I personally feel that the public is so accustom to seeing flashing yellow lights that they don't recognize the meaning behind them anymore. Putting cones and flares out to go along with the lights makes people realize that it's not a truck driving down the road but rather a truck on the side of the road with an operator outside of the truck. That's my opinion anyway.

Looks like he'll be a repeat customer, probably everytime he hooks up to it

Only you could turn a Holmes tree into a Holmes spreader bar. Awesome work sir!

I was called to a car vs pole a few towns over by the state police. En route they called and changed it from an accident to an impound with a DUI hold. Considering it was 3am I didn't need to the second phone call to tell me they were drunk, I was already assuming it. Upon arrival I found a brand new Eclipse SUV off the roadway in a row of bushes. There was a telephone pole right in the way of me just spinning one end around to the road, plus one of the fire fighters out there helping me owned the house and the very beautiful lawn. Trying to save the grass and the pole, I opted to pull it a few feet away from the bushes and reposition to bring it straight out to the road. Once on the road I hooked it up for the tow home and cleaned up the mess.

Last Saturday we picked up a 2 car crash from an intersection, with one of them being a Chevy Equinox. Fast forward to this Saturday and the state police call for a 3 car crash at the same intersection. I arrived to find another Equinox in the same exact spot as the one from last week. Talk about deja vu. The only difference was this one managed to knock down the big road sign that the other missed, and landed on top of it to boot. Along with that there was a soul balanced on top of a telephone pole up against another pole and a Sonata in a shallow soft ditch. As I beat my 2 beds by quite a few minutes, I started moving everything onto the roadway so all they had to do was load and go. I started with the soul, which was a quick pull sideways to get it off the pole. I then brought the Sonata onto the roadway where I loaded it. The picture is a little deceiving, where the car landed was at the base of a hill that goes up to the tracks and it was pretty soft from the rain we've had this week. By then my beds were on scene and one started loading the soul while the other loaded the Equinox that was trying to have relations with a street sign. Once we were all loaded and I blew the debris off the road we opened it back up and were on our way. This is a fairly well known back road to go to the shore so the troopers were very happy when we cleared the scene.

We were called to this 2 car accident on one of our lovely 100 degree days. Upon arrival I found a Chevy Equinox in the roadway and a Chevy Cruze in the woods up against a tree, both with front end damage. My second truck was a little ways behind me so I moved the Equinox to the shoulder if the road then got started winching the Cruze back to the road. Once I got it past the low branches and wires I turned it over to my second truck and went back for the Equinox. Altogether we were on scene for about 15 minutes.