dperone

Our winter never showed up this year, I saw flurries once and the only snow I saw is when I got sent up north to the NJ/NY border on 287. 

Looks like a huge asset to have on incidents, congrats

That's the post I was thinking of, thanks for finding it!

Iirc Boardman towing out of Ohio posted about theirs in the original tow411. I believe he was blue stripe on here if there's anyway to look into the archives. 

Lol it always worries me when an insurance company agrees too quickly

I'd love to get together with everyone. Hopefully they go back to the old schedule with Sundays so we don't have to cram everything into less time like last year.

We were called by the state police for a rollover right around the corner from my house. I took my wheel lift and my dad met me there with his bed to clean up this mess. A brand new Cadillac lost control, hit a pole, started rolling through someone's front yard, hitting the front steps but luckily missing the rest of the house. It continued rolling into the yard between 2 houses, where it landed facing perpendicular to the road. The front end was torn apart with not much left intact. 

I figured the easiest way to recover the car would be to pull into the driveway, do a single lane roll, and back the bed in so this way I could use my truck to "steer" the casualty up the bed. I ended up just lifting the front end and holding it up while we winched it up the bed. Once we got it loaded and cleaned up the mess we took off so the electric company could set up to replace the pole. 

Sounds like it worked out perfect for you. I'm surprised they paid you to take it that far and didn't try to find some low ball salvage guy. I guess none of their trucks would've made it that far. 

This one happened right down the road from our shop. I saw the police shut the road down at our intersection, looked down the street and saw the mess so we started rolling. Arrived to this...

As I did my walk around I noticed the wires entangled in the truck frame

One of the cops said he didn't think they were live anymore as the pole he took out was "dead". I told him great, you move them then, because I'm waiting for someone from the electric co to tell me that before I touch them. When the fire department arrived one of their members happens to when for the electric co. I saw him look at the pole then walk away. Shortly after the chief told me that member said the lines were disconnected. I told him the same thing I told the officer, when I hear it from the bird's mouth I'll proceed. That member then walked to to the pole to show me himself that it was safe, then he grabbed the wires and moved them. Like I told him, I don't know electric but I know enough to stay away. After that it was a simple upright.

I kept winching the front around to load it from the front as the front passenger wheel was non existent anymore. A simple 1 minute tow later and it was in the yard and we were warming up from the 20 degree weather with 30mph winds. On a happy note it's registered commercial and the owner claims it has full coverage, so we might actually get paid for it.

My pump would get louder the colder it got. I took it to a hydraulic shop and they suggested changing the fluid to ATF. It's been running ATF year round for a decade or so with no issues, and it doesn't get slow in the winter like our other trucks. 

I was just talking to someone the other day that owns 4 trailers just to rent out. He said after the first season the trailer pays itself off and the remainder of the life span of the trailer is almost pure profit. He replaces them every 5-7 years ago the maintenance is fairly low. 

I use these...

https://zips.com/parts-detail/b-a-products-wheel-lift-tie-down-strap-w-wheel-lifts-38-3d

https://zips.com/parts-detail/zip's-2-ratchet-with-strap-and-snap-hoo-zr-2rssh

To get this...

Horrible picture, but it never comes loose on me and is long enough to cover any tire that'll fit between the bars.

Bought one when they first came out from our tool truck. Tried it in the yard and bent it immediately. Traded it in again and bent that one. Threw it in the trash and never bought another one.

I asked the guy selling them at the tow show and his answer was "it's designed to be pulled straight, not on an angle". As almost every car I've seen with a tow eye has the hole offset on the bumper, every use will have some degree of side loading on it. On cars with missing hooks we've been using a roundsling around a solid point on the car with no issues. We also bought the Collins system with the bar that links the 2 dollies and provides you a solid hook point and it's worked flawlessly.

We get a couple jobs a winter they some dude in a pick up tries to "help"  get someone unstuck and makes the situation even worse. Usually turns what could've been a simple winch into a recovery, a tow, and a repair to fix whatever suspension component was bent to hell or removed via brute force.

Iirc the bed next to the cougar had the self loading wheel lift, but it wasn't really prominently displayed. I agree that the JD side of the house was quiet this year, even though they don't typically bring the "show" that Miller does it was still disappointing that there was no corporate showing. 

The two best trucks in the pagent we're Dallas's and Bill's, at least on the small side. I kept finding myself back at those 2 just admiring.

The new Century body is quite possibly the ugliest body I've seen since that 810 monstrosity they had years ago with the super deep top loading boxes. I'm not sure what you're going to need legs for because it doesn't look like the addressed the real draw back of that truck, it anemic boom. By comparison, a renegade has almost a foot more of boom and it's rated for twice the century boom at full extension. They need to bring the boom out more and give it some of Popeye's spinach if they want to sell stiff legs on it, which I hope they do because I like that design over the Chevron legs.

I swear BMW's and Mercedes seem to know when they get parked in a garage, that's always when they break for us.

Here's how I set up one if our beds. We got a bunch of throw away pieces of pvc fencing from a local company and used it to keep all the straps organized. The milk crate holds chains and snatch blocks.

As of right now we should be down on Saturday. If we're down I'd love to get together

We can tell Uzek is on vacation, not a single snatch block or Holmes tree anywhere. Great job thinking outside of the box and bringing some old school to the modern day.

I don't think the new Bronco's are very stable. When they first came out I had one get hit in the front corner and rip the pass. front wheel off. Just winching it up the bed the thing wanted to roll over and play dead. I had to run a snatch block to the opposite corner to pull some downward pressure on the driver's side to keep it from going over until I could strap it down. 

On 9/21/2022 at 11:52 PM, EdsTowing said:

Thanks for the clarification Brian. I'm curious if they will give me a problem with my temp permit for the state? It still doesn't have a weight class on it...but it shows I have paid funds to their state to be there.

 That last sentence is all New Jersey cares about lol, unless they think they can pump you for a few more $$$

Motor homes and mud generally mix rather poorly, but it looks like you found the unicorn that looks like it's made for mud. Unfortunately it looks like he found a weakness in his "bug out buggy", but it worked out for you

As I've learned from this forum, you can't fix stupid but you can sure charge for it

Was cutting the rail an option? We've had a couple where we cut the damaged rail away from the car to make it easier for us. 

Interested to see how much it helps. We've been really surprised by the 7.3 gas motor in the bed we got, it just about keeps right up with my 6.7