dperone

Looking good but I sure do miss seeing your cougar on here

Well I guess they arrived in style.

Anytime the guy coming to transport your second most valuable asset arrives wearing sweats and pink sneakers you're in for a bad time. I hope he was brand new because if he has any experience at all he should know that the wheel lift was tilted way to low and the boom still had a couple feet to lower. In the end we're the ones to blame, we accept low rates from a 3rd party then don't have the money to pay a properly trained operator nor do we have the money to train them ourselves. Until the owners of these companies realize their true costs and stop this race to the bottom for motor club work this is going to be our reality.

Looking good as always Ed. It must've been the weekend for trailer wrecks, we got one in A.C. that "a car hit and broke the studs off". How a car managed to miss the fender and nail the wheel hard enough to break the studs all while leaving a chunk of concrete imbedded in the sidewall of the tire is a feat I'd like to see live. That one was fixable though, took longer for the U-Haul area rep to cover get the trailer than the repair took.

Has anyone gone through the new online WM/TRAA online TROCP recert? My 4/5 is up in December and I guess I'm going to give the new online system a shot. Curious as to how much it resembles the 4/5 test they used to give at the end of the class or if there's anything else I should be studying. Thanks

A few weeks back we attended the annual touch a truck that the local toy market hosts every year. It's always a fun event for us, even if I spend the next week cleaning tiny fingerprints off my glass. It rained for the first hour and a half of the event but it didn't seem to stop anyone from coming out. We had a hundred or so you truck trucks from Zips to give out and they were gone in less than 45 minutes. My littlest was stoked that "her truck" got to go, since her sister and her name's are on the doors of this one. My wife took this and sent it to me. She said "I guess you don't need a paternity test for this one". Not bad for 9 year old paint

I know a lot of "tree huggers" drive Subarus, but this seems a little overboard as far as getting in touch with nature

I've run in to this issue many times and it usually stems from poor communication in the dispatchers initial call to us, the general lack of knowledge in the police arena in what a qualified and competent operator can do with a wrecker, and a serious lack of said qualified and competent operators. A few years ago our local state police station called for an impound. The only info I got was we have a car to be picked up for an impound, it's at this intersection. Click. I took my wrecker as that's what was in my driveway at the time. When I arrived on scene it was a chaotic scene with police, fire and EMS all crowded in a little dirt road in the middle of no where. I asked the fire chief what we had, thinking it was a serious accident or something. He stated that there was a murder and the body was laying next to his car. The detective in charge saw me and said they needed the car, a newer Infiniti, towed to the station to be processed. He then noticed my wrecker and took a fit, saying the prosecutor ordered all evidence tows be brought in on a flatbed. I explained that with my wrecker I could lift all the axles off the ground while eliminating the need to go inside the vehicle to put it into neutral like you would with a bed. He stood firm and said the prosecutor wants it on a bed. I said no problem, I'll be back in an hour then went to switch trucks at 16 miles each way. When I got back they were ready for me to load it. First thing I told the detective was I need the car in neutral. He looked at me as of I didn't tell him this an hour ago before I left, then huffed and puffed about evidence. I told him the first truck I had here could've towed it without gaining entry, but he didn't want it so now I need someone to put it in neutral. There was no solid hook points and without digging through the trunk all I had were soft straps on the lower control arms and I didn't want to damage them dragging the car in park. He finally ordered a trooper to glove up and put the car in neutral. When we got to the station we went through the same argument as someone now had to put it back in park. The way I figure is the initial dispatch error cost an hour of both my time and the police's. If they would've given all the facts in the initial call I wouldn't have had to switch trucks. This isn't going to change anytime soon as they still call for just an impound and you show up to a mangled vehicle in the woods but the driver was drunk so it's classified as impound. They do have one dispatcher who moonlights as a tow man and I love when he's working because he gives every bit of info I need to dispatch the right assets to the scene. Unfortunately he's just one guy and the rest of the dispatchers pale in comparison. As far as requiring a flatbed for evidence tows, I feel we're probably mostly to blame for that. How many times do you think they had a flip flop tow guy show up in a self loader and ripped a bumper off or couldn't tow it without someone taking off a parking brake. It reminds me of the neighboring county that required a speed crane for all rollovers with injuries on certain major highways as well as all evidence holds. Bottom line was they got tired of shutting down major roads waiting for amateur towers to figure out how to do the job so they went with one company that they knew had the equipment, knowledge, and people to get the job done quickly. If we as an industry made sure we showed up looking and acting professionally we could probably explain our reasoning to the detectives in charge and they might start listening to us. Unfortunately it seems that there's more goof balls out there then pros.

I also stopped going to a tow mate vendor for replacements and started ordering them online from a battery supplier with much better results. I forget how I got mine in the bar it's been so long since I've had an issue, but I do know a hammer wasn't involved.

You can't fix stupid, but you can sure charge for it

We're a little of both, our shop is in a mood size town with a couple 4 lanes within a mile or so of us, but outside the couple square miles of the center of town is farm land so it starts getting rural quick. We also tow for the state police who cover a few rural rural towns south of us, and those calls get to be 20-30 miles each way. Luckily the state rates are pretty high, so we get taken care of even without being able to charge towed miles. When they regulated our state rates they actually set the tow price higher than what we were charging for hook and milage before, so I can't complain.

I like what you have going on there, looks a lot like what we have. The only thing I would suggest is getting some PVC square fence post to keep the straps separate. I just set my dad's new bed up like this, and so far everyone who looks in the box has been impressed.

With the way our contracts and municipal codes are written, the tow itself is the same price if it's in our driveway or at the furthest point of the town. The price is still more than adequate for going to the furthest spots, and we can bull for anything and everything we need to do to complete a job. It works out though because we're right at a busier intersection for accidents, and we've had more than a few land in our parking lot.

Don't you love when the work comes to you for a change

Do you get to road test it? Nice job as usual sir, always putting the tools in your tool box to the best use

One of our extinguishers just saved our bacon a few weeks ago on an impound. While in tow the car caught fire, luckily my dad noticed right away, pulled over and knocked it while it was still a small electrical fire. Easy access to a charged extinguisher saved our truck, the customers car and a much bigger headache.

She's a beaut, best of luck with her Ed!

I love towing those guys, they always remember you the next time.

Why are some of the hardest hits in parking lots and 25mph streets?

Good job as always sir.

It seems like every one of these videos follows a similar format. They all fail to use advance warning devices, they never wear ansi rated reflective gear, and they always stand on the traffic side. While that isn't a foolproof way to avoid being hit, it helps a hell of a lot more then doing everything you can to get hit while you're whining about it. Additionally, if you do get hit, your lawyer will thank you for having done everything you could to identify your work area.

She's a beaut!

Jeez, you ain't kidding about a hard hit

That's one thing I wish my Renegade had, a real sling. I can use the wheel lift as a truck bar, but it doesn't help me much with overhang, the head is still back there a ways.

This car is owned by a friend of my dad. In the 10 years or so he's owned it, it has more miles on one of our trucks then it does being driven. He has a guy down in Delaware that specializes in restoring these cars and a couple times a year he drags it down there to get something "restored", even though it was mint when he bought it. Today's reason was too paint the door jambs, because he told them not to do it last year when they painted the car and now regrets it. It was a fun 50 miles with his tape job coming apart in the wind and the rear hatch unlatched because he removed the catch, but we made it in one piece.