YouTube:Deep Down.... A Lesson In Resistance

[TowBot]

[06BIGRIG]

     Well that was interesting.  The job was done with no apparent damage.  There's obviously more than one way to skin a cat and I, however would have done it differently.  Good job, Steve.

[DodgeTowGuy134]

Great video!

[Lightdutykid]

As a person with only 2 years of experience, and mainly in light duty towing and recovery.  May i ask, would raising the boom and pulling from a higher angle helped that truck come out of the ditch it was mired into any better?  Thank you for the video it was very interesting.

[DodgeTowGuy134]

@Lightdutykid =  From that distance for such a pull, no not really. If you're close up on a casualty, then pulling from a higher angle can sometimes help, but not when the pull is so far away from the truck.

[Towmanjc]

[EdsTowing]

Well with all do respect, it's my opinion that this procedure was done incorrectly. I don't mean this as a criticism but would like to reflect on a couple of things.

 

First off you came up with the 30k casualty had 50 some thousand lbs of resistance but chose to do the job with 1 single line? It sounded as if you were making an educated decision in the video but in reality it would of been dangerous. Fortunately I think your calculations were off a little but regardless you drug a 72,000 lb wrecker backwards & kept pulling? You added more resistance to accomplish the job but kept the same rigging & increased the line load. That's a mistake that you need to understand because it can kill you. You could of easily pulled the steer axle out, broke the chain, ripped the drive axle loose...just to name a few. You have a massive wrecker there so you need to respect the line loads & rigging used.

 

Second...whenever possible recover what is stuck. The left rear axle was buried - that's where you want to concentrate your efforts. A wrap around the tailgate to the right side would of lifted the left side out of the hole...eliminating nearly all of your resistance. Now that could of been done from the same position & pull out 150' of rope...and single line would of been acceptable since I think you would of been pulling around 20-23k. Or just back that single axle in and set up along side of the dump, that was plenty big enough to sit still & do the job. No need to pull the front, it's not stuck. This procedure would of been a lot easier on the casualty as well since you're not putting so much load on the suspension....a lot less of a mess to clean up as well. If you want cool pics, back the Tator in, swing the boom over the tailgate for a vertical lift & use the drag winch for forward motion. It would add visual drama to the pictures & justify all that iron on scene. Just a thought.

 

You were right though...it was a lesson in resistance. Just please be careful out there when dealing with it.