Some Heavy Towing...

[EdsTowing]

We slowed up some...weather not cooperating and there seems to be a general "lack" of money in our area... Here's a few recent jobs I have done with the heavy...

 

 

Brand new 24' Freightliner with After Treatment issues (what else?) and went in to de-rate. I have the driver's trained pretty good...he made it to this shopping center and pumped it off so it would be easier to tow! Any time I can grab it by the butt and not have to pull shafts is fine with me. 50 mile tow to the dealer.

 

 

Another gas truck slid off the driveway. Easy job, hardest part was getting the big truck in there. It's always a problem with the smaller private communities where the shoulders & intersections aren't pushed back far enough to get around. It would of been a lot easier with the F550 but my son was out on another call with it.

 

 

This guy pined his trailer and when he pulled out in to the highway, it fell off blocking both lanes... Can't see my wrecker, it's hooking up on the other side of the trailer.

 

 

Guy ticked me off...asked how much was in the box and he said 25,000. So I hook it and pulled away with it to open the road. When I turned in to this dirt lot to turn around, the front of my truck skated around pretty bad. First thing I thought was bullshit 25k... When I got back to the shop, I told him he was full of it because nothing makes the front of my truck get light...I know it's "out there" but I haven't met it yet...until Saturday! We got the BOL and it showed 44k in the box and when it dropped, everything tightened up in the nose, full of bottled water. The tandems were also all the way back so this had to be heavy on his tractor as well but the guy was just too stupid to know...

 

 

Another heavy one...Volvo TriAxle dump with a set back axle. 73k on it and the transmission quit (auto-shift).

 

 

I could of taken it back to the quarry to unload it since I didn't want to go 50 miles to the dealer in Scranton @  119,000 lbs., but I would have to find someplace to turn it all around. I opted to take it to the job site 10 miles away so we could dump it and save the trip for them...

 

 

110psi on my rear suspension....that's pretty heavy...probably 50-52k on my drives.

 

 

Backed in off the street and dumped it on the site. Then it was just a walk in the park to the dealer from there.

[Stuart Wagner]

I think a lot of trucking companies are hurting for cash.   My 35 ton Vulcan has 46,000 pound kenworth 8 bag suspension ( I wouldn't buy that suspension again but Miller had built it that way and I bought it many moons ago at the Baltimore tow show) anyway when I tow like an 80,000 pound fire ladder truck with a 24,000 pound front end my air suspension gauges bury and start coming up the other side. Years ago I put timbren rubber blocks in the suspension and that helped it a lot from squatting so bad. I only have a 14,000 pound front axle so I hung  2,000 pounds of steel plate below the front bumper and that also helped with my steering ( I only have a 305" wheelbase)

[EdsTowing]

14 hours ago, Stuart Wagner said:

I think a lot of trucking companies are hurting for cash.   My 35 ton Vulcan has 46,000 pound Kenworth 8 bag suspension ( I wouldn't buy that suspension again but Miller had built it that way and I bought it many moons ago at the Baltimore tow show) anyway when I tow like an 80,000 pound fire ladder truck with a 24,000 pound front end my air suspension gauges bury and start coming up the other side. Years ago I put Timbren rubber blocks in the suspension and that helped it a lot from squatting so bad. I only have a 14,000 pound front axle so I hung  2,000 pounds of steel plate below the front bumper and that also helped with my steering ( I only have a 305" wheelbase)

Yea the 8 bag suspension leaves some to be desired in a wrecker application. We had one many years ago and it was even worse due to small fill tubes back then. It recovered very slowly when you lifted something up or set it down. The newer ones have those large pipes feeding the bags so it helps. My truck has 46k Air Trac which works very nicely. Most guys are using the 52k Neway which is nice, especially with Tator's and what not. I have a 4500 counter weight behind the cab which gets my steer up around 16,000 on a 320"wb. It doesn't squat at all and feels very reassuring...but that trailer did make me light trying to turn on gravel.