specs on 1201 holmes bed

[TowZone]

17 Mar 2006 06:46 Willtow said:

can anyone tell me the specs on holmes 1201 protec bed.....

 

408Stroker said:

I believe they had the same DFT200 w/l as ours, which has a #4000 lift and #8000 tow rating. I think the boom was rated at 10 tons with some or all having 15,000 winches.
Doug Fitzgerald had one, he would know all about them.

On a side note, several months ago some guy had one on ebay, it was BRAND NEW, never been installed, and had been stored inside since the day it was bought. It was in pristine condition with the factory brownish-red primer and all the available Holmes accessories. The bid didn't go high enough.

 

Kelly Neal said:

Dan is right I still have one and continue to drive it today over my new trucks. I bought it back in 1986 and put it on a K3500 Chevrolet. It's still the best recovery small truck I ever own. The winches are 15,000 and with the stinger blade on the wheel lift and the truck rarely moves once it locks in place. I have 356000 miles on it and don't plan on parking it soon.

 

Doug Fitzgerald said:

I wish I had never sold mine. It was a strong wrecker. The 15000 lbs winches were awesome.

The DFT-200 wheellift don't have enough reach for long overhang vehicles.
The cable type control system was always giving trouble (the reason I sold the truck)

I did lots of heavy winching jobs with mine . One time I winched out a 18 wheeler dump w/cab over International tractor out where the fuel tanks were scrubbing the ground backwards and the truck was grossing over 80000 lbs

I set the wrecker across in a ditch and set scotch blocks and was using both winches with 1 winch double line and 1 winch triple line tied to a large tree beside my wrecker as a dead-man.

 

Kelly Neal said:

Doug I have the same problems with the cable controls aways sticking. They are also getting hard to buy, we now take them apart and repair what brakes inside. I was surprised you would have alot of problems in Texas, I'm in Minnesota and the winters are hard on them.
 

408Stroker said:

When did you "give away" that truck Doug? What kind of shape was it in?

Please step a little closer so I can smack you!!

 

Doug Fitzgerald said:

I had it listed on here for $6000.00 and no one would buy it so I had a friend that wanted it and I was needing some money bad so I sold it to him for $4000.00 He brought me $2000.00 cash to hold the truck and the very next day a man I had told about the truck called with $6000.00 ready to buy and I had to tell him it was already sold.
The friend ended up bringing me another $1000.00 cash and a $1000.00 check that was account closed and I had to turn him into the sheriff dept to collect.
The sheriff had my money the same day we went and filed .
Had the money in my pocket before dark !!!

this is a pic of the truck.

and here is a maintainer that I recovered with it using a backhoe as a deadman.

 

Here is my 1201 on the original chassis lifting a incenerator that weights 6000 lbs.

Mine was a 1985 model 1201 and it did have 15000 Lbs winches the boom showed a rating of 8000 Lbs and the DFT-200 wheellift on it had a rateing of 3500 Lbs extended.
Fitzgerald's Auto Service & Towing
San Augustine,Texas 75972
Serving The Pineywoods Of East Texas Since 1974

 

Kelly Neal said:

I didn't read the post close enough the boom is a 8 ton and the winches are 15,000 on the first wrap of the drum the 4th wrap comes in at 10,000. Daniel I noticed your truck has Vulcan recivers on the wheel lift.

 

408Stroker said:

Kelly, as much as they look like it from a distance and would love them be, the the l-arms on our truck are not Vulcans.

Sorry to question you Doug, I guess the real question in my mind is do all of the Protech 1201s have 15k winches? It can be easy to confuse them with the 1200 Commander which has 10k winches.

 

Doug Fitzgerald said:

Daniel, looking at the pictures of yours it must be a later model than mine was I see yours has a high side body.

I don't know if they all have 15000 lbs winches or not. I do know Holmes made a 1101 just like the 1201 but with only 1 winch.
I was in a Towing & Techniques class taught by Tom Lucianio and Joe Sroga in 1997 and they mentioned in the class that all small wreckers either had 8000 or 10000 lbs winches I told them that I had one that had 15000 Lbs winches and both Tom and Joe had never seen one and finally they said it might be the wrecker that Parker Industries made for Holmes.

I could not believe that two of the best trainers in the towing industry did not know what a Holmes 1201 was.

Mine did say Holmes on the winches.

What I liked about the winches was the open dog on the freewheel you can just look and see that it is doged in all the way.
This is what I like about my No-Mar 10-10's it has the narrow spool Braden winches with the open dog on the freewheel.
and my No-Mar's will pull almost as good with the 10000 lbs Braden winches as the 1201 did.
One thing I like better is that the Braden winches will hold 150' 7/16'' wire rope and the 1201 would only hold 100' of 7/16''
The way I work a wrecker I refuse to use 3/8'' wire rope or the little 8000 lbs winches
Fitzgerald's Auto Service & Towing
San Augustine,Texas 75972
Serving The Pineywoods Of East Texas Since 1974

 

408Stroker said:

Just in case there's any confusion, ours is a 440-2. About a 90-91(truck is a '91 and was built new). The body is straight like all modern LD's. It's got 10k winches. We've been pondering that when we replace the winch lines, replacing with 7/16"

Our previous(first) truck was a '80 K30 4x4 Chevy with an 1100 and the fabulous UTC-100 w/l. It's got a 10k winch.
Here's how it sit's now. We removed the w/l and sling to lighten and simplify it as we plan on using for off-road recoveries.

 

Missing Member said:

Hi Towers
I am mike's towing & recovery in williamsburg va. I am new to this board so if i screw up please forgive me. On the subject of a 1201 holmes bed. I bought mine from dave freeman of century towing in va. beach va.It was my first truck of my own it had 69,000 miles on it when i bought it and it now has 645.000 miles on it and i have retired the truck. It is pound for pound the strongest unit i have ever worked. Ask anyone in this area about it and they will tell you that when anything needs winching better call mike. One of the guys has a 600 holmes that i used through the 80s when i worked for someone else, he calls me all the time to assist with heavy winching. Another tower has a medium duty century and the 1201 allways pulled as hard as his. I have winched everything from cars to bulldozers with it. We have several driveways on the main drag of town that are very steep and buses and car carriers will get hung on them on a regular basis. The city police allways call me to winch them off of it. I now own a 2006 f450 xlt with a century 412 unit and there is no comparison to my old 1201. Thanks for listening and have a busy day.
Mike
mike's towing & recovery
Williamsburg va.

 

Doug Fitzgerald said:

Hello Mike
Welcome to Tow 411.
You are right the 1201 was a winching machine. wish I had keep mine and fixed it up.
My pair of No-Mar 10-10's has 10000 lbs Braden winches and will almost do what the 1201 did but not quite.
Fitzgerald's Auto Service & Towing
San Augustine,Texas 75972
Serving The Pineywoods Of East Texas Since 1974

 

Pheatone said:

Hi guys I just bought my first truck its a 87 F350 with what im sure is a Holmes 1201 pro tec. Reading your post have really been helpful and encouraging. I just wanted to say thanks.

 

Very encouraging words I just bought my first truck 1989 F350 with a1201 49,000mi been in a garage sitting 19 years. Thanks for the knowledge.

 

fishertowing said:

looking for manual control linkage for holmes 1200 fisher towing garrison iowa

 

[ParkersPerformance]

Here is a 1201 I am putting together on a IH chassis which has 15K hyd front winch as well.  

winch

[Chris Shelby]

Does anybody know the pressure and GPM requirements of a holmes 1100, Trying to buy a new pump for my wrecker but cant find the info.