Orcas Tow

A bugger getting under modern cars with little room under the plastic bumpers but look at all that oil pan clearance on the crossbar!

2 hours ago, dperone said:

That truck has pulled more weight than a lot of heavies out there and she's still looking good

Can you imagine the reliability of our day to day operations & savings in repair/emission failure costs that we would have if you could still buy a truck like this 2001 F550 with the 7.3 Diesel & 6 speed manual transmission? I have bounced the idea around about selling this for a newer truck but have always came back to the simplicity & reliability in this 23 year old truck & how solid it has been.

Well planned, laid out & executed. Proud Father in Law! 

Agreed, I like to see others techniques/approaches to complex jobs so this one was peaking my interest. Nice planning as always Ed.

I use the Miller short tapered forks 75% of the time & Irish Iron chain forks secondly on my 12 ton

https://zips.com/parts-detail/miller-short-tapered-axle-fork-2-wid-mil-tapered?optionlabel_quantity=pair&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIx4C52_aXggMVygGtBh253wmKEAQYASABEgLdz_D_BwE

https://irishironwrecker.com/products/chain-forks

I remember the days when you couldn't do recoveries with an autoloader!

Dang Ed as I was going through the story & pictures my excitement was building to see how you were going to recover this without a rotator then you went & ruined my day;) Nice work as always & rotators was probably the best equipment for the job:)

12 hours ago, EdsTowing said:

Very nice job. Can't say I recall ever having one land like that....

 

Thanks Ed, I expected it to come down a bit harder than that too but we had pretty good leverage at the line at the excavator boom & having the blade dug in helped keep things controlled too. Hindsight I should have rigged the recovery chains tighter (I was thinking veer angle when leaving them long) or put a sister hook in the chain to keep them from jumping as the angles changed. 

1 hour ago, dperone said:

Job well done sir. Try uploading the video to YouTube, you can make it so people can only find it with the link if you wanted. Then share the link in the post.

Thanks, I think I was able to link the video

28,000 lbs on a slope, 4 lines to the load for control, catch truck lines went to trees on far side & back to excavator for landing control, no wheel chocks or scotch blocks for catch truck as plan was to have catch truck drag backwards if needed to keep all rigging in WLL & no shock load or overload surprises, came down nice & soft. 2 hrs from initial call to back at yard with equipment put away. Excavator started & moved under its own power once rolled over. Heres a video: 

6 hours ago, dperone said:

Have you thought about redoing the sides in house? We did one of our renegades a few years back and it came out pretty nice. 

Yes thanks that's what we sill do if needed. I hesitate to do that as the rust holes are not only on the sides but coming up around the corner in the controls area too. From my experience theres double underneath compared to whats visible.

On 6/11/2023 at 11:42 AM, EdsTowing said:

Good luck with that...they are non existent back east here. Could you use a newer generation aluminum body?

Ed, I have called all over the West Coast to Chevron dealers & they do not want to sell just the back end/wrecker bed, they will only sell it mounted one a new chassis & I prefer my 7.3 non emission diesel for reliability & ease of maintenance/repair.

Im looking for a Chevron 408 wrecker bed, just need the bed but would consider the whole rear wrecker bed/boom, my bed sides are rotten. 2001 independent. Thanks.

Here

15 hours ago, Stuart Wagner said:

I know it can be good for business, but I hate snow now that I am 53.   I used to be able to deal with it, now I wouldn't care if i never seen a flake again.

Im 54 & been in business for 33 years. Used to be that Id get excited for snow, now I cringe, too many dummies out there unprepared putting us & others at risk, I find myself shaking my head in unbelief much through the snow/ice events.

Looks good, they are $500 plus now from what I found for the MPL 40, Ill build something stouter for $500

2 hours ago, EdsTowing said:

Only reason I asked was that on the steel body, it allows a little more bumper clearance w/out the boxes that are required for the aluminum bodies. You might even be able to get a set for a MPL40 with the D rings as well. To answer your other question, you can full pull off of the holes in the wheel lift. We had a spade on ours that was up near the main part of the structure that would plant the truck and not put force on the T head. You can also full pull off the side using the tear drop shaped holes in the boom mount, in front of the winches. That's what they are there for.

Im a creature of habit I guess, I like all my trucks equipped the same way, tool boxes set up the same, dollies, same rigging configurations, etc. In my area we hook a snatchblock to the tailboard often. 

Looking to add a good strong mount for a snatchblock, I see the underlift has holes that may look like similar holes as in the boom for snatchblocks but am unsure of what a hard side pull would do to the underlift. All my other trucks have D rings at the rear of the tailboard where the bed mounts to the end of the truck frame, seems like the strongest point for a snatchblock mount for a hard side pull which we do often on our narrow mountainous roads.

Does anyone have a set of bolt on D rings that would fit this 1210D at the 4 bolts mounting the bed to the frame right below where the truck bar mounts are before I build a set? Thanks

We have had an influx of wealthy people moving here escaping the city since Covid, my new frequent flyer is the Tesla S in the snow. They wonder why their Tesla doesnt handle well in the snow when on steep snow or ice covered roads, "But its all wheel drive". Well its 5,000lbs which makes gravity take over on a steep grade, has low rolling resistance EV tires which are hard as rocks & work similar to sled rails in the snow when sliding down a snow/ice covered hill, low ground clearance for riding up on the snow drifts...Perfect!   

On 10/24/2022 at 7:19 AM, EdsTowing said:

I don't see the attraction to them but they are bringing stupid money at auctions....

When I look at them I cant stop seeing a 85 Ford Escort with a lift kit.

Lol, My Son in law Trent was taking care of the towing while my wife & I were out galavanting across the country. Im thinking maybe I work 3 weeks & vacation the rest of the year, the towing was in good hands while we were away.

On 9/10/2022 at 1:04 PM, Moose said:

I thought this was @Orcas Tow when I first opened the topic from the email link.

Looks good Ed, guess they thought that rig would go places it shouldn't be going.

Lol, Ed's trying to take over my territory, guess I should have patented my technique;).  Nice work Ed!

Z20