How about a picture thread of old towing rigs? Here is a picture of a 64 chev 3/4 ton that I towed many vehicles with. That bus was likely the heaviest load It ever pulled. Complete bus with the 292 engine and driveline radiator ect. That tuff little wrecker has a 250 six SM420 trans and 456 rear gears. with 19.5 rear tires.
Had an uncle who was always foolin around with old junk, He had an old 60s truck like yours but only had a flatbed on it, no wrecker bed. He would put the frontend (just under the bumper) of an old junker up on the edge of the bed and get it chained on somehow and tow em like that, doubt it turned to well but he managed
to move the bus I placed the front wheels on a home built sort of dolley and chained the wheels to it. I wouldn't have wanted the DOT to catch me.
I used this 1939 Ford half ton to tow a 1939 1 1/2 ton truck home. I chained the back bumper to the front bumper of the big truck and towed it about 5 miles thru the city.
I had this 46 Chevy 2-1/2 ton wrecker w/Holmes split boom bed for several years sold it a couple years back ..good solid original truck it was alot of fun...the wildest tow, actually it was more of a recovery, I did was get a friends2-1/2 ton farm truck out of a ditch ...he called one after noon said he needed my help so off went I get there he had put his truck off of a county road over down a slight slope into a ditch no problem..well I backed up kind of half on the road the other half ...well..not on the road run the deck winch to his truck..we had a good freeze like the week or so before so the ground was very soft and muddy .started pulling..to run my winches you had to stand on the running board door open and one leg in the cab to operate the clutch and it had three lever's on the front corner for the deck for the huge winch it went from one side to the other divided into three spools center was the huge deck spool and the outside spools were for each boom so I pulled and pulled some more at this point I have mud rolling up behind me 5feet or more and up on to the deck almost to the winches and the front tires where about 3 feet or so off the ground I had also split the boom and run a line across the road to a block then to his truck frame just behind his cab this was keeping me up right and also it kept his truck from tipping I pulled some more ..it finally started to move,his truck, so then I had to start pulling myself up out of the hole that I had gouged out behind me and back up on to the road surface while still pulling him...to do that ,of course with all that going on I couldn't just drive it out so I took the other boom winch line run it up through a block that I had shackled on the big top I-beam behind the cab and hooked in to a tree down the road in front of me so while standing on the running board one leg in the cab on the clutch pedal pulling the three winch lever's operating the three winch separately but at the same time I finally got myself and the other truck back up on the road surface...wow...and it only took 6 1/2 hours and a tank of gas to get it done....about the same amount of time the county workers spent cleaning up the mud and fixing the ditch the next day.........anyways sorry for rambling but that's all I have left of my tow rig is the memories....... Sent from my QTASUN1 using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
I enjoyed the story. Ive got a 66 F 600 that I bought in the fall of 72. it had a 2 way PTO and a 40000 pound winch. a farmer got a big tractor stuck in a quicksand hole. It was a 806 farmall. They had a bigger farmall and tried to pull it out and got it stuck but it wasn't buried like the 806. So We took the old ford there. chained the front bumper to a tree and strung out the cable and added chain until we could reach the bigger tractor. Then I got close enough to the other tractor and hooked a snatch block to it and tried to double winch it. I just slid backwards. So we hooked the big tractor to the front bumper and still failed just drug the truck and tractor both backwards. so we went and borrowed another snatch block. And than has the tractor hooked to the truck spin his tires and bury than into the ground. And than the really stuck tractor began to move. When we finally got it out about ten yards of mud and dirt came out also. they had chained logs to the rear tires and those chains where pinched so tight they wouldn't come unhooked. So we had to go get cutting torches and cut the chains. And that was thirty years ago and I still haven't received a penny in payment.
But you have the satisfaction of overcoming a challenge and having helped a neighbor in need....Priceless! Ray
I suppose so. But back then doing stuff like that was how I made my living. Doing good deeds doesn't feed your family. You cannot give away what you do for a living. You can be certain that farmer didn't give away part of his crop. That skinflint hired a marginal hand that who drove that tractor into that quicksand bog. He was and still is a deadbeat.
Ya Old Wolf I know what you are talking about...when I had my old wrecker it wasn't for hire ....well I didn't have to rely on it for income....and of course friends usually ride for free ????....but I couldn't believe how many calls I would get from guy's, and a gal or two,and usually on a Friday and Saturday nights, from people that I didn't even know and I had a unlisted number and it wasn't on the truck ether.....it did have a sticker on the dash you know the one..."Cash - Grass or Ass Nobody Ride For Free" ....but hey you really got to watch out there to...... Sent from my QTASUN1 using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
My old 1965 F350 runs a Holms 440.....and is powered by that old reliable 390....and there are pictures somewhere...of funny things it's hauled...
My Dad's old wrecker. Originally a gas powered fuel oil truck. My Dad and his brother, Clarence, designed and built the tow apparatus the first time for an earlier wrecker that used a 1958 Ford dump truck as a starting point. When they moved it to this truck, they expanded the front of the bed to make it longer and also provide more room for tow dollies, etc.. After a number of years of service, my Dad converted the wrecker to diesel power using the whole drive train from a donor truck he got from another brother, Robert. In over thirty years of providing wrecker service from his service station, my Dad never met a tow he couldn't handle in one way or another. The boom was designed such that the base could be relocated much closer to the rear and made the truck more of a crane which could be used to more easily retrieve cars that ran off a bridge... yep, that happened every once in a while! In diesel form is was not fast but it could pull anything we hooked to it! Memories. Dad let me tow any number of club members' hot rods anywhere for any reason at no charge.
those tilt cab trucks made servicing the engine really easy. I drove a few of them it takes getting used to. You have to drive what seems to be closer to the center line or you passenger wheels will be on the burm.
Heres the old 66 F600 Ford. the 33o had a freeze plug rust out. and I didnt realize it had lost its coolant. the electric temp guage don't work unless the sender is in contact with coolant. So I need to put a engine in it.40,000 pound highway winch and drill stem gin poles. I also used a wrecker sling on the rear. I could haul one on the bed and tow a second vehicle.
A bit over the top, but worth a look. You just got to love old style ingenuity or a Cadillac flathead to save the day...
I have a 1964 Chevy C60 with an Ashton wrecker body, 30,000 lbs Tulsa winch. Hand crank winch to raise or lower the boom or extend it another 12 feet. heaviest thing I towed with it was a 76 Peterbuilt King Cab. That 292 sm420 2 speed rear end little bastard will move a house. Denny
I see a lot of interesting stuff in that picture. There is a part of a turntable on the back right above the rearend. tire chains on it. with the extra engine way out front it wouldn't rear up as easily. My old 66 ford when picking up a heavy car would rear up until the dovetail touched the ground. you can walk under the front axle when it does that. I also se part of a boiler in the picture. maybe there is a steam engine & sawmill there?
One of my favorites, and it's still in operation! We towed my Zupanel out with it last fall, and a '53 Cadillac coupe DeVille the year before that!
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