dperone

I would argue that a vehicle being loaded to transport it to another location is a different animal then a vehicle being loaded due to a mechanical breakdown. A vehicle being transported usually is in good working order, where as the breakdown vehicle is only being towed because of said breakdown. Aside from the vehicles problems, on a transport you usually have more time to go through the vehicle versus trying to load a breakdown on the side of the road. Other than those issues I agree with you though. I will add, though, that sometimes the winch is there more to hold the vehicle up then get it up. One night when I was working the fire department we were dispatched to an accident. The rotation company showed up, driver was wearing basketball shorts and flip flops and I knew we were in for a show lol. It had been raining just about all day and everything was soaked. The car ran, just had no bumper, so the "driver" decided to drive the car up the bed. After a few attempts to get enough traction, he made it up the bed and put the brake on. When he hoped out, the car beat him to the ground. The deck was so slippery the car slid right down, even in park with the brake on. After trying to drive it up 3 more times, he finally gave up and used the winch.

I'd say a good 75% of my rollovers are reverse. The only real exceptions are when they're far off the road in the woods, in which case I roll them whichever way I have access. I'm my eyes you can't beat the reverse roll, I have yet to have one fight me to come over.

I don't trust any parking brake in my area. Between people never using them and the salt rusting out the components, I have found very few that work properly and will hold the vehicle. My go to is to chock the tires, no mechanical parts to fail.

It's something I practice with in the yard quite often, but in actuality I rarely use. Cars usually don't land that hard for me, and often times it would be a pain for me to get into a position to control them, either because they're far off the roadway or I don't want to block any more lanes then absolutely necessary. There are times, however, when it's necessary so I keep it in my toolbox.

That's a big no from me. Mr Brooks was a criminal who disarmed an officer and attempted to flee before turning and shooting the taser at the officers. Don't call me into that situation until the subject is in custody or dead, and the only way that's going to happen is with cops with guns.

In prior summers we stay stay through the week and then we get busy Friday afternoon when everyone gets done work and heads to the shore and stay busy through Monday morning when everyone leaves the shore and heads to work. This year, however, with a lot of people out of work or working remotely it seems that every day is a Friday. We were down 40% at the beginning of the pandemic, and July seems to be on track to be about 10-15% over average. Add to that the fact we've been 2 drivers short since February and can't find anyone who wants to give up the additional $600 a week from unemployment and it's been a fun time.

We were called by one of our customers to head out to our local can opener, an 11'9" bridge that has an insatiable appetite for trucks. Thier driver had a 20 yard compactor box on the back that he apparently forgot how high it was, and it struck the bridge. When it struck, it snapped the 1" thick cable and ripped the box off the truck and promptly landed right under the bridge. As their truck was now sans winch to pull the box up, they called us for a hand. We responded in my Renegade and our 16 series bed. When we arrived we found the box under the bridge on the far side of the direction we wanted to take it after we loaded it. We could have loaded it from the other side of the bridge but choose not to for 2 reasons. We wanted to load the compactor on the nose of the truck to get the weight up front, and if we took it the other way there was another low bridge between us and the customers yard that we would have had to detour around. Luckily the can had 4 good wheels so we decided to winch it through the bridge to get to a spot we could load it. Once clear of the bridge it was just a simple matter of loading the can on the bed and delivering it a few miles to the customers yard. I did offer to leave the can on the side of the road next to the bridge to make cleaning up future bridge hits there easier, but the railroad didn't have a spot to keep it.

Repo or not, I likely would have done the same, grabbed it and pulled it into a lot to secure. From the position the car was in you would have had to block a lane no matter what truck you used or direction you loaded. His method limited the impact to traffic as much as possible and got him out of "harms way",in one sense or another, quicker. For the sake of argument, let's imagine showing up to tow that as a disabled car with a flat bed. You'd have to park in the live lane and manuver the vehicle up the bed, then secure at least 2 points to get off the road and apply the other 2. Add the time to lower the bed, attach the winch, winch the car up, secure and stow the bed, and your in that live lane at least 5 minutes if not more. Add a lot more time if it's an impound or repo to deal with the no key, in park without being able to steer. Now show up to the same call with his truck, disabled, repo, or regular run of the mill breakdown. Lower the wheel lift, back up to the car, pick it up and get out of traffic. You end up using both lanes, but instead of the 5 to 10 minute impact, your in and out in less time than it takes to put a bed on the ground. Even if there's not a parking lot to pull into like in the video, you could always pull it into the shoulder to secure the car and be on your way. This gets you out of traffic and lets everything flow with minimal interruption. With today's push to get in and out of the road side assistance quickly as possible, I feel he did just fine. Yes he skipped a few steps, but only for the time it took to get himself out of harms way. Were an officer to call him on it, I would like to think common sense would prevail and the officer realize that taking the time to strap the car down could be accomplished mere feet from the the pick up happened, rather than while the truck is blocking a live lane or lanes.

If it's a newer car and the hook is easily accessible I'll use it. If not I go to the control arms with soft straps. We had one of the universal to eyes, used it on a dumped impound and bent it the first use. Called Steck, they sent a replacement and we bent that one the first use too. It seemed to us that it wasn't strong enough to withstand the slight side pull that comes with offset holes. They are now paper weights.

We have a 3rd shift, kind of. We have a "part time" guy who comes in 5 nights a week from 4 to 10pm to take the load off for a few hours. However, after 10pm or if we get loaded up with calls during that 6 hour period then my dad, my uncle, or I go out, depending on who's answering the phone that night.

She's sure going to be a beauty! Can't wait to see the finished product

Looks good to me. Those trucks aren't heavy at all empty, and even loaded I can usually drag them out with my Renegade.

What a shame, Da Moose shall be missed but will most certainly live on in those of us lucky enough to have known him

Assuming it doesn't get cancelled I will be in Baltimore in November

You beat me too it. The bed can handle that tow all day long. The chassis, however, is dependent on the person who spec'd it. If they spec'd the chassis to match the bed, it'll be fine as well.

Looking good sir

Yea we got them a number of years ago, but I'm sure they weren't cheap even then. These are fiberglass with a metal base, they're light but strong

I was scheduled to work a shift at the fire house today, so I figured I'd bring a car with me so we could get some training in. We worked with a new member on stabilization basics for a little bit. Once we took care of the basics we moved to more advanced scenarios. I raised the front of the car to simulate a car going up a guy wire so we could stabilize it with our struts. After that I put it on its side and we went through some different scenarios based on calls we've had in the past. When we got tired of looking at the car we cut it apart. It was a long day of training both on the fire side and towing.

You can't pay for the kind of training he gets. I did the same thing growing up and became an 18 year old operator with 18 years of experience on my first day solo. Add to that the bonding time most kids don't get with parents who work as hard and long as us.

We were called by the NJSP Buena barracks for a single vehicle accident. Upon arrival my dad found a car well off the road on it's side pinned in a tree. He immediately called me for a wrecker, as he was in a flatbed. It was pretty clear that the only thing holding the car from going all the way over was the tree that was a good foot and a half into the engine compartment, meaning that as we winched it away from the tree out was going to roll onto it's roof instead of wheels. We decided to utilize a perfectly placed Holmes tree off to the left to keep it on its side as we pulled it back with a low line. We also decided to use the control line to roll it once clear of the tree. This presented a problem as there were a couple trees behind the clearing we rolled the car into. Another perfectly placed Holmes tree on the opposite side helped us swing the rear of the car around to pull it the rest of the way out of the woods without taking any trees with us. Once out of the woods we loaded it onto the flatbed and brought it to our yard.

Do I count being the owners kid lol?

We're fortunate I guess that we lost 2 drivers right before this hit. We were a skeleton crew in the hiring process right as this hit, so our payroll is already down to a somewhat manageable level. Our call volume is certainly down, but this is historically a slow time of year for us anyway. I for one don't see this going on into the summer. I don't think people are going to willingly stay inside for too much longer without going nuts. I've already seen an increase in traffic on the roads this week from the ghost town we were last week.

I mean, people don't routinely park of the side of a highway, they typically only do so in an emergency. Therefore, the truck who responds to the call from the motorist would be tending to their emergency? If that didn't constitute an emergency I'd hate to see what would in their eyes.

I've never had one break but I've had a few that if I kept going I would have. I always load a tree slowly so you can get an idea of it's going to work with you or against.

This is where it pays to have a network of fellow towing companies. If someone calls me for a service that's 2.5 hours away, I will first suggest one of our friendly competitors who are much closer than us. If you word it correctly the customer understands that you are looking out for them and their wallet and many times, especially if it's a good customer, you'll find that you'll still get the job and the customer won't shop around while you're en route. Worst case scenario is they use a company you're on good terms with and they'll usually reciprocate and send jobs your way in the future. Too many in this industry are scared to call the other guy, no matter how far from you he is. Many times we get calls from companies an hour or more from us that need something pulled up locally to us, and many times we call on guys to bring us vehicles that are hours away. Networking with towers in my own town has even lead to a lot more tows for us, as everyone gets busy and needs a hand picking up slack. I guess my point in this is next time don't drive so far for a 3rd party with a history of price shopping and cheap customers. Refer the call to the local guy and build a profitable relationship for the both of you.