While You Were Sleeping....

[EdsTowing]

Had a 4am call over the weekend for a Tractor Trailer that was in a deep ditch. I was sleeping quite comfortably, apparently so was the driver... My first thought was "Dammit"... I had my Heavy buffed out for a Big Parade on Sunday and as I was getting dressed I noticed it was raining... I thought this better be worth it...LoL

 

 

He veered off the road and in to a 7' drainage ditch that was full of water & mud. I would of had to drag it backwards a couple hundred feet to get it out of the ditch, and I didn't know what else was down there. As of right now, there wasn't any signs of petroleum in the water anywhere and I wanted to keep it that way.

 

 

In searching around, I found this big slab of concrete in the ditch that concerned me. PA has always buried their road debris over the years, filling in ravines and median strips with older road pavement & concrete ect... I was concerned that there could be other unfriendly debris in there to tear up an oil pan or fuel tank.

 

 

Ditch was so deep he had to crawl up out of the window to get to the road...

 

 

Brought a Skidsteer & power broom because there was quite a bit of mud on the road from the incident and I figured there would be a lot more where that came from when it came out. I felt the safest way was to vertically lift the complete unit up and swing it out on the shoulder. That was going to take a little more "Iron" to accomplish that though...

 

 

Called my buddy Mike & His son Nick to bring me some "swingin" sticks to help. We discussed the plan of attack and began executing it immediately.

 

We had a Tator on the rear doors of the trailer, another on the front of the trailer to do the heavy lifting and my heavy on the front to keep it strait. Once all of the rigging was hooked &verified, it was up and out in minutes...

 

 

Once it touched down, everybody hustled to break everything down and get the casualty out of the way so we could clean up the area.

 

 

Everything went on with out a hick up and we were out before anyone even woke up. We have done a number of jobs with this team and work well together...everybody has the same goal in mind - Get it done, be safe & go home...

 

 

 

Sorry not used to posting in the Tator page...if you guys need to move this, that's fine...  🙃

[Chuckud]

Well done!  It’s always good to have competent fellow operators to help when you need it.

[Derlyn Z]

Nice job working together like that! I think that was the right decision to lift it out. Was the trailer loaded?

[Bushwacker]

Ed you'll don't have a rotator?
Great job! Thats money in the bank!!

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[EdsTowing]

On 10/25/2023 at 8:23 PM, Bushwacker said:

Ed you'll don't have a rotator?
Great job! Thats money in the bank!!

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk
 

No I don't have one. It just didn't fit my business plan. I can make a call and have whatever I need inside of 45 min so this works for us. This one is paid in full and already gone so another successful job in the "Paid" column...

[Bushwacker]

No I don't have one. It just didn't fit my business plan. I can make a call and have whatever I need inside of 45 min so this works for us. This one is paid in full and already gone so another successful job in the "Paid" column...

Yeah I knew with Schneider it was money in the bag! I've done jobs for them with idiot drivers in the past! I just thought you had a rotator because you had all the other equipment and hazmat team. I definitely wouldn't buy one if you have access to one when ever you need it. Like me I have a guy about 40 miles from me in another county with a pair of them and when I need them I call him and make more than he does because I usually double what he charges me and he has all the expenses! I'm the only heavy duty in our county so I get alot of work and 95% I can do without a rotator because it's mostly wrecks.

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[brian991219]

Good job! Great call to work with Mike and Nick. Mike is my go to guy and a long time friend as well. He has been the only one besides me to tow my stuff, and stuff I'm responsible for, (like brand new trucks being delivered), since I sold my equipment years ago. Heck, even when I had my own tow trucks I still have had Mike tow my stuff when it made sense.

[Orcas Tow]

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:)

[EdsTowing]

14 hours ago, Orcas Tow said:

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:)

Well the only other alternative was to winch it 250' back the way it went in and deal with less of a grade at that point of entry (only a 3' drop). I thought about it and actually when I requested they bring me the sweeper out, I said bring the bucket too. It was going to drag dump truck loads of marsh & mud with it to be cleaned off the road. Then I was still afraid of what lied under the truck after seeing that slab of concrete...an environmental impact would of changed the entire scope of this procedure.

 

So then I thought how can I get this out of there with as little mess as possible...not do any more damage to either units...and be gone before the sun came up... This was the answer. It's was quick, efficient and came with a nice reward.

[Orcas Tow]

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