Drilling Rig rollover 2 Tators.

[Tow411]

Topic Originally Created by jhook5230 in December 2007 wrote:

 

12-16-07 myself and GENERALTOW were called to for an owners request for a drill rig that had rolled over off a mountianside about 12 miles west of Searcy,Ar.Luckly it had landed back on its wheels .We talked with State police and DOT and it was decided to shut the mountian down at nine AM 12-17-07 for the recovery. I called my buddy Tad Bokker from White Mtr Co. in Forrest City Ar to bring his 60 ton tator to back me up. Our first order of business was to cut the derrick off since it was trashed and wieghed 45,000pds. We sat up and brought the derrick up to the road and loaded it onto a flatbed for transport.

 

 

After the derrick was loaded and out of the way we started the recovery of the 95,000pd chassis. The front suspension and steering was torn loose and that made for a hard pull all the way up to the road. Once we had the chassis on the road we loaded and loaded and loaded pieces. I hooked it behind my tator and towed it to our yard with DOT escort as it was about way over width.

 

 

The job went smooth but I can tell you we were sore from all the walking up and down the hillside pulling chain and cable. Equipment on scene was two 60 ton rotators and one 5230 just in case. Personel was myself.,GENERALTOW, and Tad Bokker who is also my counterpart in the PTRAA training program. Total time for the recovery and tow to our yard was nine hours.

 

Allenstowing said:

you guys made that look easy. nice job!! talk tad into joining 411.

 

WheelLiftWarrior said:

very nice work......teamwork goes along way nice to see so many companies working together.

 

BigWheelRecovery said:

Louis thats what I call a real recovery job,an very well executed I must say, when you play around with one of those Drill rigs you got to have the right equipment an people ,calling in another company to assist was a smart move, everybody looks good an a job well done , BOB

 

 

john fenshaw said:

that was a extreme recovery. awesome show of team work and power. i tow one like that a lot down in Florida i always flat tow them but they are very heavy stay safe

 

Ian Tomei said:

Wow !trucks really earned their pay on that job!

 

rotator60 said:

Well thought out and executed recovery..Thanks for sharing..

 

jhook5230 said:

John(pacman06) every aspect of the rigging and game plan was a collaborated effort between myself,steve(generaltow) and tad on the other hand how tad platformed his truck was not my decision to make but I can tell you that my tator had all outriggers in place throughout the recovery.Thanks for the reply. Louis

 

General Tow Said:

That job was a total of nine hours, time out, time back in the yard. The operator walked away but the people in the suv that it did a full roll over the top of did not. Very tragic accident. A well taken point here is that advance training and preparation are essential to these kind of recoveries. This job could have been accomplished with our conventional tow trucks but would have taken much longer and time is always important when a major highway is closed. The two tators made for a much smoother recovery, but still a lot of work. Thanks for the comments. General Tow "STEVE"

 

jhook5230 said:

To answer the question about how hard the derrick was to remove......It came off without a hitch. We cut the support legs on the back of the rig,one side high at the derrick and the other side low at the chassis. We the hooked to the high side of the derrick and basically rolled it onto its top and brought it up the hillside and swung it into the road between out trucks then repositioned to load it onto the flatbed. Louis