Your opinion on this tow?

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67Dart273

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I'm not a tow truck operator, nor do I play one on YouTube. I have, however been on / in some rough ground off roading, and "we" back in the day have tipped, tripped, towed, winched, lifted, dug, well...you get the idea

I see no need for most of this in this video, and seems to me they likely did a LOT of body damage with the rigging up against the body like that

Would they have had to block the road? Maybe, but with that big hook seems like the could have dragged it by the *** to the crest, moved the crane over and yanked it right up

You guys?

 
I am not a tow guy either (insert camel joke here) but I do my fair share of ditch rescues, especially in the winter


I only skipped through it, but dollars to donuts, my plow truck in 4 low would have kept that right back out (especially if the truck was still running and someone ran it in reverse)

As for blocking traffic, I would definitely want to block the lane I am in, and probably not a bad idea to block the oncoming lane aswell

There is no room to safely pass me by there so I don't want anyone trying, or more cars will end up down there

And since people simply can not multi-task the can't pass by me and gawk at me pulling the truck out of the ravine without putting themselves in, so yeah, block both lanes
 
Looks to me the guardrail post, and what's left of the guardrail would have been in the way for them to just drag it back up the bank. It's probably totaled anyway, what's a few more body dings gonna matter.
 
Hmm. I woulda put my J-hooks on the rear axle, double winch line pull and rip that sucker outa there. 10 minutes in a smaller medium duty truck.
 
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I worked for many years for outfits doing heavy duty dirt rock millings hauling for decades, through the years trailers have went over loaded, 18 20yard dumps full have had trunion bars snap......Ive see tow companies with rigs that size recover these trucks
Id be willing to say guys operating rigs that size know what they are doing given the cost of that truck and the damage that could be done to it
That slope was deeper than it looked. I had a 3/4 ton plow truck with 456 gears and a SM 4 speed with the low first gear....... Even if I stayed on the pavement put the truck in 4wd low im not sure if I could have yanked that thing out or just smoked the tires
I also would say while that crane can lift a lot its not made for heavy side pulls.....Its no different than any crane or excavator, meaning you can lift with the hoist or boom but not side load the boom pulling with the turn table
ive repaired many a excavator dipper because operators did exactly that
The crane operator on our derrick would never yank pilings out with a side pull
These guys kept the traffic flowing by not blocking lanes and got that pickup out as safe and quick as possible id say that they know their ****
 
Yeah, that's steep as hell, the view is decieving. And that pick-up ain't no light-weight. I've witnessed needless damage done loading/recovering by some tow-monkeys, but sometimes it is what it is....
 
I'm not a tow truck operator, nor do I play one on YouTube. I have, however been on / in some rough ground off roading, and "we" back in the day have tipped, tripped, towed, winched, lifted, dug, well...you get the idea

I see no need for most of this in this video, and seems to me they likely did a LOT of body damage with the rigging up against the body like that

Would they have had to block the road? Maybe, but with that big hook seems like the could have dragged it by the *** to the crest, moved the crane over and yanked it right up

You guys?


Hey I think I saw that truck being built at Zips in New Hampton, Iowa 28 years I should have taken a lot of pics. I remember some Plaza trucks being built.
 
OP just learned the difference between a tow and a recovery
 
Just too bad he didn't roll it in a couple of times how did the dumbass end up down there anyway, oh wait his big *** four wheel drive can go anywhere including riding everybody's *** bully of the road it gets really old.
 
I donoo from what I saw that would not be a "total" in my book.
Just too bad he didn't roll it in a couple of times how did the dumbass end up down there anyway, oh wait his big *** four wheel drive can go anywhere including riding everybody's *** bully of the road it gets really old.
Well I don't know what happened. Could have been fog/ rain or any number of things or SOMEONE ELSE bullying HIM. "I wasn't there."
 
From a recovery operation that is a big fail especially with a million dollar rotator, in Australia we basically use a modified prime mover unit with a jib and a couple of winches to recover vehicles, i one area i worked back in 1990 we had semi's going over 100 ft embankments and we quite often got them out with no extra damage it is all in how you hook them route the winch cable either off the jib or down low off the bottom back of the truck to get the best angle of pull, and skull drag them back up the ditch they went into, i was amazed the first time i saw a rotator on television i thought why not do like we do get a crane out there as well if it will need a lift from out of a ditch, our company ran cranes as well as towing.
 
I didn't like how he did not have the right side outriggers ON the pavement. ...and yes, I've driven a wrecker for a few years when I was in my late teens and early 20s. Just an old strap wrecker...nothing like that bigass thing.
 
I DO remember a body guy rolled into town in the 70's after I got out of the Navy. He was a typical NJ/ NY guy talked a mile a second. He was OK once you got past that. Had a 70's Ford about a 1T dual wrecker, so not that big. One day "I thought" I saw him drive past AND I DID!!! Could not believe my eyes, all "hunched" in the middle

Turns out he'd "tied down" the front trying to pull something out and bent the frame. Drove it to his shop to fix it LOLOL
 
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