dewalt wreckers

[oldwinch]

Topic Originally Created on Tow411 in January of 2008.

 

an any one tell me about dewalt wrecker beds an wheel lifts? good bad or any response would be helpful was looking at one on dirt cheap. just your thoughts on the dewalt please. thank you Tim .

 

dangeloautobody said:

tim don walters who built the truck is a super guy and very smart. parts might be a problem . i don't know what he still has laying around because he does not make trucks anymore. derek

 

MTA415 said:

Don Walters is still here! A legend around these parts. He's out of Boerne Tx which is about 20 minutes from here. Good friends with Mark Mott whose son Jimmy (jlmott here on 411). Call Motts Wrecker at (830) 620-0455 and I'll bet you Mark, Jimmy or Jason will be able to get you connected with him. Also (if I'm wrong I'm quite sure someone will correct me!) if I'm not mistaken J-D got their 1st HD design from him and the early J-D heavies were "rebadged" DeWalts.

 

anaron said:

Don was building wreckers out of the Houston area years ago and I believe Trevor is right about the JD deal. The Dewalts were the only wreckers I ever seen that had more iron in them than Bill Bottom's Challengers!

 

allenstowing said:

jd did buy out the dewalt heavy line, you can still get parts for them. anaron is right they are very heavy built units.

 

oldwinch said:

thank you for the replies.

 

Dallas Horton said:

There is still running around the beltway here, they were monsters in the day. Very well built units.

 

TOwBoY88 said:

You know, I always thought the JD's looked a lot like the DeWalt's...never knew the story though. That was when I was still in grade school though probably...

 

littleswap said:

We had a t-800 tri axle 50 ton stick boom dewalt. That thing was a ox. I loved that truck. We sold it about a month ago to a guy in chicago. Are first big heavy wrecker. We use to do some amazing things with that truck. I like using the boom contols they were joy sticks. Took a while to get use to them. But it was awesome. The wheel lift was pretty strong. I would defantly look at that truck. We had it for 15 Years. We replaced it with 30 ton sliding rotator of Big wheels. Perfect truck.
 

Jesse Trgo

 

Topic was revived in 2011:

Don Walters said:

Hello out there in the towing and recovery industry! Don Walters here. Am back in the business, available for consultation and parts. Also look me up for new units. Can be reached at 8307965899, 8305892473, or email dewaltmfg@yahoo.com. Look forward to hearing from you!

 

RedPete said:

Hello Don, You are a true Icon and I am glad to here you are back. Do you have any pictures of the trucks you built? I am sure everyone would enjoy seeing them....

 

michael212 said:

Glad to here your still interested in the T & R industry. It would interesting to hear what you have been up to? I always liked your light weight twin winch heavy under reaches!

Michael Myers

 

Teams251 said:

Welcome Don,glad to hear you are still around.The first hyd. heavy I ever operated was one of your,no equal in my mind!!  

 

Don Walters said:

Thanks for the welcome and support. Always want to know what's going on with the Dewalt line of trucks, enjoy feedback and suggestions. I am in the process of setting up a website, which will have pictures and information. Will get it out to you as soon as possible.

Again Thanks,
Don

 

mttowing said:

Don , great to hear you are returning....I got the cross bar on that I purchased from you and will get back to work on it when the weather warms up. The UR needs some more repair and parts, we would like to purchase some forks and other misc. adapters soon. Would like to consult you on the welding and fab work when we get to that point.
Thanks  Wayne

 

Dallas Horton said:

elcome back Don!! From me and dad as well.

 

Don Walters said:

Looking forward to getting back into the business, catching up with old  friends and making new ones. As we all know, trust is a very big factor in our business, and I think my history will vouch for me. Thanks for your support, see you on the street.

Brand spankin' new website - dewaltmfg.com
Look us up!

 

RedPete said:

In 1996 I went out to the west coast just to visit towing companies. It seemed like Dewalts were everywhere. Pepe's had 1, statewide had 1, Bill and Wags had 2, and Superior had three. I remember thinking Dewalt was king of the hill at that time for building heavy wreckers. I Can't wait to see some new units!

 

automedics said:

I have three of them and would not trade them for anything. Glad to see you on here Don.

 

gtowman said:

I just recently purchased a Dewalt LG50 on a Kenworth T-800, the truck is at a friends shop getting some modern stuff done to it and a few repairs that it needed, I had it sandblasted because I wanted to inspect the actual structure of the lift and boom, after very carefully inspecting it..I found nothing, body seems to be built like a machine to last for ages..The truck was sitting since 06 out of service, when I first saw it, I wanted it, its just a 
very strong looking unit. Truck has a new 3406B with about 500 miles on it and a 15 speed transmission. Plenty of toolbox space, when I mean modern I only mean lighting, some d-rings, in cab controls for under lift, a few 
hooks and a better set up for safety chains. The bed has been fully sandblasted, and the entire truck will get a new coat of paint and should be in service on Jan 3, 2012






Parked here in 2006 after a new engine was installed, I picked it up 11-4-2011, took it to my yard to draw out a plan of what I wanted done to bring it back to life.


At my friends heavy equipment repair and welding shop, going through the things I wanted done and repaired.












The under lift was sandblasted so that my guy could carefully inspect it for any stress cracks, they carefully inspected it and told me that it needed nothing, just a pin replaced 
on the 3 stage of the lift


I will continue to post pictures as it continue to go, Im pick the truck up on monday and taking it to the body shop for paint..They already have completed all the repairs and 
sandblasting..Will get primer tomorrow and a few last minute things I wanted done.

 

morrisandsons said:

Javier,
That truck is sweet, tell your buddy to fab you a big heavy bumper for it..

 

gtowman said:

Im not sure if I will keep it that long Art. We have a V100 and thats our truck for awhile. Im going to hook it up..and take
it from there..

 

dieseltek said:

I believe that Don built a rotator at one time. Is he going to get back into that market?

 

RodneyP said:

I believe Jerr-Dan has donated the first medium heavy they built after their association with DeWalt, to the our museum. It was at the AT Show.

 

cddx1 said:

Have there been ANY new units to roll out lately? How about some photos?

 

gtowman said:

The dewalt 50 ton is coming along and should get painted this saturday according to the body shop..

 

Montana said:

We own one of the 70T dewalt rotators. It is one stout unit.

 

Topic continued into 2012:

gtowman said:

The boom is painted now along with the underlift...the back board is going to get repainted back to white, they thought I told him orange along with the underlift,good thing I walked in on them if not the entire bed would had got painted orange. Boom and underlift go orange, rest of truck will be white. My 1st of the year deadline got pushed back 
to Valentines Day because my friend the painter, had a tragedy in his family and needed to take 3 weeks off, but hes back and hopes to have the rest of the unit painted by Sunday.

Last edited by gtowman on 1:37 AM - Jan 12, 2012, edited 1 time in total.

 

OConnelBodyAndTowing said:

Looking good so far.

 

gtowman said:

Truck is finally painted and getting ready to put it back together...

 

1twinline said:

good to hear your back, im an old driver from city towing. glad to see the monkey on your web sight,sure does bring back alot of memories, D&G towing out of gonzales,tx. now own king kong. good luck. the last truck i seen you build was over at collision country getting painted. Franklin Keilman is still around. take care.

 

GT John said:

Just got our 70 ton from Montana. Like it so far.

 

Santiam01 said:

I wondered were that truck went to!

 

Montana said:

Hopefully you didn't have any problems at the scales. Now you just have to wait for the next big wreck.

 

GT John said:

The trip home went smooth. He just dropped the axle for the scales. We have other trucks for the scales. We got this one for recoveries. (plenty of flopped ocean containers here in the port of Seattle, thanks to all the non english speaking "truckers") I will try to get some pics when the "next big wreck" happens. 

 

gtowman said:

Our 50 is almost done, hopefully by the 11th which is this weekend, just waiting for the 7 inch stacks and we can finish her off..Been replacing many things, new rubber all around, airbags, many air lines, a few hydro lines, serviced axles, new front brakes, 
oil change, just trying to repair or replace whatever it needs..no cutting corners..

 

Almost getting there, T-800 elbows for the stacks just arrived today, waiting for sun visor, a couple set of LED spot lights, and inside the cab chrome..our deadline got pushed back another week..The plan is to replace every light and chrome piece, we are trying to get the truck back to excellent conditions, if we do decide to sale it, it will for sure make somebody an excellent unit. The entire truck
is getting restored. Engine has less than 1k miles on a full blown inframe so it is in good shape.

 

RedPete said:

Outstanding job...... Looks great! Gotta love how low that big boom goes.

 

gtowman said:

Almost done, a few more lights and details to finish this unit. 

 

GT John said:

Nice work. Looks like a new truck.

 

gtowman said:

Almost done..still working on it.