Milk Truck Rolled in Water!!

[BigBen835]

Topic Originally Created on Tow411 in October of 2008.

 

Got a call from local sheriff dept. for a HD recovery of a partially loaded quad axle milk truck in the water.

 

Described as 20' down, and approx. 30-40' away from road in @ 4-5' of water. Driver stated had @ 18000# milk on board. Total vehicle weight of est. 50000 lbs. I took my 75 ton, and Justin came in on his Sunday off to help with the 60 ton. Upon arrival the road was wide enough to get one side of the outriggers out and hug the far bank. The truck did a complete roll and came to a rest drivers side down. Driver was OK. The road had no shoulder on either side and near vertical rocky face. During the upright procedure the road cracked and more of the bank caved in. The local varmints had made a tunnel system under road. As the truck settled on its wheels the left side outrigger went thru. After that, a vertical lift was out, no good base. The adjacent property owner granted permission to her yard for a long winch thru swamp. Justin fit in the waders so he got elected to be in water. He spent 3+ hours in water rigging, spring fed and very cold. A 220' winch to yard and a little help from the 75 ton from the road, winch the 60 ton out of its holes, back to shop---- done.

 

Truck was towed from scene to customers shop one mile away, to be unloaded into different tanker. Total time for recovery was 10 hours port to port. The scene was restored approx. 2 days later after the ground dried up a litlle. All grade 120 rigging used, for winch. I know someone will ask why the outriggers were out during winch, I don't know but the ground was so soft and wet there was no pressure on them. No equipment breakage, and a round of applause from on lookers.

 

Comments & suggestions?

 

 

Carter & Sons Towing  said:

Nice recovery, that swamp looks nasty. Also like the saying on the outrigger.
Jason

 

Morgan1 said:

Nice truck and nice picks.Areend you afraid those stabilisers breake?The man ho put the gains around need an cleaning i think

 

Michael212  said:

Nice Job Ben

Michael Myers
253.588.1757 ext 150

 

BigWheelRecovery  said:

NICE JOB GUYS ,,Thanks Eric

 

Heavytowman12 said:

Looks like a recovery most of us would like to have done. Nice work!

 

WyomingTowPro said:

Hey Nice job out there. gotta love a good challenge.... Do have a question. Based on the moisture.were u able to pull out of the yard on your own or did ur other truck assist u getting back to the hard surface??

 

Heavytowman12 said:

Nice job , Nice looking rotator also, does your truck have a canadian spread. ? It looks wider than normal

Richard Guttmann 

 

BigBen835 said:

Yes, it is a spread, and no we had to pull it out with my truck. It was very wet, the side legs were down a few inches, when we started winching they were not touching the ground, but i had a pretty heavy lean to the left, that's why i put them out. I had one shot getting in and i was a little crooked. Once it started to come out it was a straight pull off rear. I never thought about them again. The ground was soooooo soft it was just peeling the sod up, no side load. The taillights we built in shop. Thanks for comments.

 

wm060071 said:

nothing like a good pull!! Stupid question but Did you have to pull the wrecker out. You can see that the out riggers went down at the beginning. But don't it make more sense to have them down for more surface contact!!! Or will they bend?
That's awesome !!!

 

TOWAHOLIC  said:

Cool job. that's the kinda jobs ya dream about. woulda been a cool pick too!

 

NR8171 said:

another stupid question> why not put the legs down on a pull like that?

 

Bighook18 said:

Great job...I have a question.. who was the "lucky" one to rig the front axle?? WOW....

"I always got my hook.."

Todd Pell

 

BigBen835 said:

Big Hook, Justin fit in the waders, so guess what!!!! He had to rig everything by feel. He did a heckva a job, the water was 50--ish degrees. The bulk of the time was rigging and pulling lines. The water was just a few inches from the top of the waders. Literally no bottom just endless muck. I threw down the rigging, and started pulling cables thru the slop.