Projects How do you tow with an old boom wrecker?

So I bought this '38 Chevy wrecker at a rummage sale (no kidding) and now I'm trying to figure out how it'll be useful. It runs and drives and has a PTO winch hooked up for the boom.

How do you tow with one of these? Do I need some kind of harness or? I just want to use it around the yard at my shop for loading trailers and stuff. Someone has to have towed with one of these in the past. I can see how it'll be nice for lifting heavy stuff into the air, but how is towing with a wrecker better than just pulling stuff around with a chain?

I guess what I don't understand is what the purpose of the boom is for towing, I have to be missing something obvious. Anyone with wrecker experience have any instructions or tips for me?

 

Thats more of a gin pole truck used for lifting things up high...

A wrecker will have a tow sling ; kinda like a tow bar on backwards, which you`ll hood your tow hooks to keep the towd car from banging into the back of the truck when you start to go foreward or stop...Did that make any sense?

Tom

 

Most had t-bar slings off the back of the bed. The t-bar was lowered and the sling hanging from the main cable was backed under the vehicle. then a couple of j-hooks with attached chain were hooked to the axle/a-frames of the vehicle and linked to the bottom of the sling. The main cable was then raised cradling the front of the towed vehicle and raising it off the ground. Kinda hard to describe but it is clear if you see one hoooked up. I think it would be too much of a pain in the ass to just move stuff around a yard as the system was designed to tow vehicles over long distances.

Frank

 

i just call mine a winch truck. i have moved alot of cars with it but never really in a wrecker capacity (as in towing long distance or at any speed what so ever). i'm sure there are guys on here that do it with the same equipment. the biggest problem with using it as a wrecker the (way it is set up) is keeping the towed vehicle from ramming the back of the winch truck, and exactly the reason you are here looking. i had a racecar roller come all the way up the back of mine and folded my poles over on my welder. man was i pissed. you will use the heck out of that booger, great find and i hope someone can help both of us with where to find a harness or how to build one. till then i'll just move crap around the yard and load trailers.

i gotta type faster or check in more often.

 

I believe that this setup was used for lifting or erecting things like poles, posts, building components, etc., not for towing. I've heard of this type of boom referred to as a gin pole, but I don't know that to be correct.

Nice score ... definitely got the funk factor working for it!

edit: add me to the list of slow typists...

 

I have run a chain through a piece of pipe and hook it to the front of the vehicle and the back of the wrecker. Works pretty good. Lippy

 

attach hook to vehicle to be towed raise desired end of car..
use a chain slipped through a length (approx the distance from a plumb line from boom top to rear axle of wrecker) of pipe attached to rear of towing truck attach other end to car being towed

a triangle will be formed from the tow'er to the tow'ee

practice with a lot of room

backing will seem trickier...uneven terrain?

remember everything will move forward when stopping and everything will stay put when taking off

low speed and room to stop

1st try with stuff that is not in good shape body wise

balance, good mirrors , steering knob

watch boom height!

this boom was not design for lifting too much weight....any deflection to the un gusseted rigging will cause failure

 

A Gin Pole! I've never heard of that, but it sounds cool. That makes a lot of sense, the guy who owned it built the boom in the 70's and was still using it up to last fall to pull out fence posts. He also had molds to build boats so he might have been using it to lift those up and move them around. I don't know if he ever towed a car with it.

The description of the "sling" makes sense to me, I've seen those before on old wreckers, this one doesn't have that. Not that I wanted to use this to haul cars up and down the road (it doesn't have any brakes yet, and the old 20" tires on split rims don't fill me with a ton of confidence for long road trips) but I wanted to know how it was done, I couldn't figure it out based on the setup this truck has. It makes a lot more sense that this was never intended to be a wrecker.

Thanks for all the responses, I've learned a lot already. blt2go, got a picture of your truck? How is it set up?

 

The 'rubber' sling / J-hook system came around the early 70's with the demise of 'real' bumpers as the plastic 5mph 'bumpers' were prone to damage. Prior to that a steel equalizer/ spreader bar was utilized with cinchable chains often wrapped around the axles or a-frames as an attachment point for lifting. If you were lucky a rail tie-down hole was accessible for a grab hook. On the earlier systems, lower valance and bumper protection was provided by a combination of wooden blocks and rubber mats (often old conveyor belting) as required.

As someone else stated, fore and aft movement was controlled by what was basically an adjustable, reversed towbar.

 

Your truck might be from a race track of the 1950s. In So-Cal this truck was known as a "Giant A-frame wrecker" and was used to lift jalopies off the track after an accident.

 

Actually, the sling and 'J' hook setup was around well before the 70's. I used to run a wrecker in the 60's and we had that by then and it wasn't new. The advent of plastic bumpers and facias actually spelled the END of the sling style and the lift bar with wheel 'brackets' ruled the day for awhile until rollbacks became more widespread.

Ray

 

This isn't a "repo" truck exactly, I have used it for a few however.... This pic shows how a wheel lift grabs the drive wheels of a newer vehichle without touching any part but the tires. Plus I think its pretty funny that I had two cop cars hooked at once.

 

Ok, I concur...you have a better memory than me

CC

 

I have this picture of an old winch truck. Must have had some sort of additional tow bar for towing.

 

Be very, very careful with a hand winch type wrecker.
Many years ago a friend of mine had the right side of his face tore off, when the cam lock slipped in the rain lifting a car to tow it & the spinning crank handle caught him him the head.

 

You don"t have a wrecker or tow truck most of the times they were called boom trucks,good for moving stuff or loading stuff for transport on other vehicles.alot of scrapyards still use them today.

 

All good info. The pipe thing makes sense for moving cars around, keep them from smashing into the back of the truck. Maybe 4 boards in a box section to put the chain through, instead of a pipe, would me more cushion-y.

I had been looking for a forklift or an old tractor with a bucket for loading and unloading stuff, but none seemed to come along when I had any money to buy one. I'm hoping this thing will take the place of the forklift/tractor for yard use. Looks cooler, at least.

 

The way the boom is set up I don't think you will be able to tow anything on the road without hitting the front of the towed vehicle on the boom but with a strap setup like Pro Enfo showed and a lower mounted sheave for the cable you might make it work pretty well. I don't have any photos of my buddy's home built wrecker boom that is bolted in the back of his Dodge 4x4 to show but If I wag the camera along Friday I'll try to get a couple for you to see how he did it.

 

Those booms have taken down more house-to-garage wires that you can count.


there, I warned you

 

hook and drag

 

Good for pulling pipe out of a well.

 

Another photo from Southern California. 1954 at Orange Show Stadium in San Bernardino. Car #66 on hook belongs to Rufus "Parnelli" Jones.

 

Yup. That's what you use to get the pump out of the well.

 

Ask Povertyflats he owned one aways back.

 

The second wrecker that me and my Dad had was an old International one ton that had a homemade set up similar to what you have. The "T" bar or sling base (whatever you want to call it) was built from an old lower control arm and used the ball joint for the swivel. Then the sling or old conveyor belt was attached to a bar that was on the control arm or bottom end and to the top bar. Chains were welded onto the bottom bar with hooks welded onto the ends of both the top and bottom bars with the cable from the winch being hooked into a clevis mounted to the center of the top bar.

The rigging in the back of the truck was four pieces of pipe; two at the rear of the truck for the main support and two that ran from the front of the bed to the top of the bars. The two that came from the front we replaced with chains and welded tabs onto the bottom of the two upright so we could adjust the height if we needed to for use as gin poles.

Sorry I have absoulutely none of the pictures of this setup here at work...

I hope it made everything as clear as mud...LOL

 

Thats a pretty kool find. That should be handy at Symco next year.

 

That was my thought! I've seen them around, mainly well companies used them for that purpose only. Seen a few around scrap yards, never seen one on the road doing any actual towing. The boom is too high up for that. I'd sell off the existing boom and graft on an old Holmes or Weldbilt back.

Bob

 

I made them for junk yards. Used for stacking cars,pulling engines or just moving stuff around the yard. Put not for road use.

 

Check the above search engin for Post Your Vintage Tow Truck Photos!!

 

Could you make a ramp truck out of it? Looks like a cool score.