dperone

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.

Awesome job from start to finish, with both the car and the customer. It's amazing how everything needs a flatbed, until the flatbed isn't the easiest tool anymore. I also bust out the pictures of other cars that "need to be on a flatbed" getting dollied around.

Yup, did that once and now I leave the keys with the vehicle or right on my center console where I can't miss them

30 minutes ago, EdsTowing said:

One of the things my son does with his self loader is he hooks everything and takes it out of the road. Put it on the shoulder...in a parking lot...just try to open traffic. That will take the pressure off the situation. They seem to like this, and it looks impressive. Many times we still have medical & fire on scene and they don't seem to care so much about time. We still try to work as efficiently as possible. 

Me and my little wrecker do the same thing. My first job when I get there, usually first, is to clear the road to the point that we can send the troopers home. It doesn't always work, but if I can open even one lane it makes the job a little less stressful. 

I've been pretty bad about leaving my phone in the truck lately, so my supply of pictures is dwindling. This one was a pretty cool story though. I got a call about 5 minutes before my week was finished to tow a SUV about 50 miles away to a dealer down at the shore. My wife and daughters happened to be at our friends house right over the bridge, about 5 miles, from where I was dropping, so I wasn't that upset. I arrived at the breakdown spot, right in the middle of a fairy busy intersection., to find out was one of our local U.S. Congressmen. Needless to say he got a first hand lesson on the importance of the SDMO laws while he witnessed first hand the general lack of caring the motoring public gives for us and our safety. 

I loaded it up, his ride came, and I scooted around the corner to take a pic. It was a pretty cool 5 minutes or so hanging out with him and explaining the industry to him, and hopefully a benefit to our crusade to make our job a little safer. Bonus is now I can tell my dad that the spikes on the front wheels have congressional approval because he loved them 😎

I mean really, who feels like carrying that heavy bed all the way down the stairs to put it in the truck. Might as well just back the truck up to the bedroom window and save yourself a couple steps. 

Another legend in the industry gone too soon. Rest in peace sir

I've said it before and I'll keep saying it, this industry will not see any respect from the general public or government agencies until we weed these idiots out. How any sane individual thinks this is a safe professional way to transport a vehicle is beyond me. Even if it was loaded correctly and rolled off while driving down the road, the fact that it moved at all tells you your securement process is severely inadequate. Take a class and get certified, it could save your life or the person's who's behind you.

26 minutes ago, sweetk30 said:

one thing to remember if at all possible ........... NEVER GO IN A ACTIVE DOT CHECK FOR A TOW  .......... you might be the next victim .

 

i have towed a lot of trailers . always made sure i had all 3 ball sizes . saved a lot of people extra b/s when tow rig was dead . i would roll up load it on the bed and hook the trailer and away i went .

 

i just dont get WHY tow trucks dont get 7pin round plugs when they know were going to tow a trailer now and then . these 1950's round 4 pin are so out dated .

Around me the truck unit troopers don't bother us when we're there picking up an out of service truck. It could be because we tow their troop cars but I'm not complaining lol.

14 minutes ago, Stubborn66 said:

Yet another reason not to grow the company and have to hire drivers.   If it is not theirs, they do not care at all. 

I dunno, I see plenty of one truck operations running around doing crazy shit around here and beating the hell out of the trucks that they purchased with blood sweat and tears in the process. 

Gotta love a nice easy one once in a while.

Nice work with a tricky situation. Glad I'm not the only one getting ball joint jobs in tight spots this week. This one broke as he was backing up, leaving no room behind him for a bed and no room for me to get in front of him. Ended up running a block to a tree behind him and winching him back a couple feet to where I could get to the front. These ball joint blocks are worth every penny.

I did this one yesterday too, he

Was it stolen and was it full? It must have had some dough in it to make it worth them paying you to recover it.

Any operator who took the time to attend any formal training class would've been able to one lane that car in the space provided without beating the hell out of two decent pieces of equipment. I'm not usually a fan of the government reaching any further into our lives, but videos like these make me wish there were more barriers to entry into our industry. If I need a license to clip your hair, snake your drain, or trim your tree, why can't there be a license to tow your car? While it won't totally weed out idiots like this, it would make them less common then they are today. 

Well his story ended better then my cat wrangling story. I went to a ladies house one day because her car wouldn't start. As it was coming back to our shop I decided to check it out before I loaded it. Tried to start it but the motor would only turn a little bit before it locked up solid. Opened the hood to see 2 pieces of the same cat wrapped up in the fan belt. Needless to say I was very happy to hear there were calls waiting for me after I dropped the car at the shop, and I made sure to take long enough that the mess was cleaned before I got back.

Knowing how Team Ed's goes all out on projects, I cannot wait to see how this one turns out.

This is why I strap everything down, no matter how "just around the corner" I'm going. Luckily no one was standing in the way of it. 

Damn, we only got about 6 inches of snow and were slammed with winch outs, both big and little. We're heading your way Sunday, hopefully we won't need to call you lol.

14 hours ago, Stubborn66 said:

I bought the 15 minute flares without the wire stand and I am not going to worry too much about retrieving them.  Once they burn out, there will be nothing left but the ash and maybe some paper, I am not going to ruin the planet.

Dad used to use them years ago but we got away from them when the free supply dried up, but not any more, I will have them on each truck.

 

Last night I was on a long sweeping curve up against the guard rail, plenty of room.  Visibility, in hindsight was not as good as I thought.  I had it up on the deck and was at the controls, I only have left side controls, Two trucks coming in the hammer lane, one car in the right lane with a truck coming up behind it.  Car slowed, truck was bearing down on it blowing the horn, I dove under the bed and under the guard rails but the truck got it slowed down in time.  I didn't wait around to see how close it actually was, but all I smelled was brakes after they go by.

 

If I had had the cones out or the flares, it would have given them a heads up sooner.

 

 

I also agree, there is no full proof to make us completely safe, and the drunks are always going to be a problem.    

IMO, this is the best reason to take the extra minute or so to put cones or flares out. As I say time after time, the drivers cannot move over or slow down for you if they do not have adequate warning that you are there. I've seen it myself, a tower on the side of the road at night with no vest, no cones, no flares, and the lightbar either blocked by the disabled car or facing the ground. You cannot see them until you're right on top of them, giving you zero time to react. Again, if you want them to move they have to see you in enough time to react. 

Cones and flares are not going to get 100% of people to move over for you, but it's a big help in getting them to. An added benefit is if you do unfortunately get struck, you have your best defense laid out behind you. No lawyer in the world will be able to defend their client by using the excuse "I couldn't see him" because you were have taken every precaution you could. I tell my drivers that the vests and cones are less to save them from being hit and more to save their families should God forbid they do get hit. 

Our local state police barracks is pretty good about getting us a junk title within a few months if the owner never shows up with the title. The problem is they only keep logs of impounds, not wrecks. If we junk a car without a title it's pretty well tore up and the owner emptied it out and told us to just keep the pos.