I didn’t know there was a towing and recovery hall of fame, but there it is in the place where first tow truck was built:
Did you know the first tow truck was built in Chattanooga in 1916? Did you know the fastest tow truck ran a timed lap of Talladega Superspeedway at 109 mph? And did you know there are more than 200 recovery names in the Hall of Fame? (Don’t be surprised if you don’t recognize any of them.)
Be prepared to hang around the museum much longer than you thought, admiring the rigs and impressive collection of tow truck toys, as well. Admission is $10 for adults (discounts available for AAA members), but be prepared to spend some time in the truck-themed gift shop at the end of the self-guided tour.
There are fascinating old tow trucks and lots of stories there – worth the visit for any truck fan!
Check out the amazing torque of a Mercedes Unimog. The Mercedes Unimog pictured below is similar to the one owned and operated by Madrid Towing, which is used to rescue stranded off road vehicles, abandoned cars, and more:
Most off-road vehicles have crawl ratios—extra gearing to increase forward thrust—between 30 and about 100. But the Mercedes Unimog, with its “Super Crawler” gear, has an absurd crawl ratio over 3000. That means two things: unstoppable crawling power, and a hilariously low top speed.
Madrid Towing knows the ins and outs of towing vehicles of all kinds, and has the trucks to handle the towing, as well. But sometimes, you want or need to safely tow your own stuff behind your own vehicle.
When that occurs, you’ll need to get your vehicle fixed up, and part of that is knowing how much it can safely tow and how you can fix it up to handle more, if needed:
Hauling heavy loads or towing a heavy trailer are complicated tasks; in fact, they are more complicated than they look. Key to safe towing or hauling is knowing your vehicle’s weight limitations and having your vehicle properly equipped.
Heavy loads or a heavy trailer can make the back of your vehicle sag, and that can seriously impact safety by shifting your vehicle’s center of gravity and making it more difficult to control. To compensate for sagging, many automakers and aftermarket parts manufacturers offer load-leveling systems.
Don’t make the mistake of just hooking up a load to your car, SUV, or truck and driving off. Make sure everything is right to prevent catastrophic results. It’s worth the extra time and effort. And read the whole post at the link below for more info on fixing up your tow vehicle.
The Donner pass through the Sierra Nevada mountain range is not for the weak. It’s also apparently not for the strong, as even the indefatigable Jeep four-liter engine couldn’t save this Cherokee from being consumed by old-man winter.
Two feet of fresh powder, a Cummins swapped 1925 tow truck, and some mountain climbing fun in the winter!
It’s shameful, really, how excited I am about ten-seconds of grainy vertical video. But sweet crusty rusty goodness check out this Cummins-swapped 1925 tow truck!
Drive off a cliff and survive, then get to see a helicopter tow your truck:
The Sea Cliff Bridge sounds like the worst possible thing to drive off, but apparently two Australian teens managed to walk away after their Toyota Hilux went smashing through a guardrail at the end of November.
The 17-year-old driver lost control of the truck, crossed the road into oncoming traffic, smashed through a guardrail and only stopped short of the ocean because the vehicle was caught by trees. The 18-year-old passenger used a knife to cut the boys free and they were able to climb up the cliff to the road to flag down help, 9News reported last month.
“The use of a helicopter to retrieve the vehicle meant there was no impact to road users and the whole operation took around 10 minutes,” reports the Illawarra Mercury.
It remains unclear as to who footed what must have been a tremendous “towing fee” to get the truck back, but all I really want to know is if the truck started again.
This sure looks like a sweet truck with a powerful engine for heavy duty diesel towing:
Enter this hoss, the 2016 GMC Canyon SLT 4×4. It’s built to be comfortable, with a luxurious leather interior, fancy multimedia system, all-wheel drive, a forward collision warning system and a Bose stereo. But it’s also built to work — my test vehicle was equipped with the turbocharged 2.8-liter Duramax diesel, making just 181 horsepower but a very healthy 369 pounds-feet of torque. That puts it at a horsepower deficit versus the optional 3.6-liter V-6 (181 hp versus 305 hp in the V-6), but it has a big advantage in low-end torque (369 versus 269 pounds-feet for the V-6). That means more grunt off the line, andthat means the ability to tow a decent load without sacrificing drivability. With the diesel engine and four-wheel drive, the Canyon can haul 7,600 pounds, easily the weight of a good-sized camper, a racecar on a trailer or a pair of personal watercraft.
Gotta admit, this is a great way to tow a car in a hurry in a tight space.
The worst thing in automotive existence is people who double-park their cars for extended amounts of time. Not only are you managing to block a road, which is a place where people can drive cars thus denying them the world’s greatest pleasure, but you’re doing it with a car. It’s like some twisted, modern form of cannibalism. A moral tragedy all around, really.
And that’s what makes this tow truck so brilliant. Not only does it remove the offending cars, but it also does it gently and quickly. It doesn’t drag the drive wheels, thus messing up the mechanicals, and it doesn’t take forever, either. It just clears the road for what it was meant for – driving.
Less than a minute to pick it up and take it away. And no tie down chains needed, to boot.
Towing companies are often called up when an owner of private property wants to remove an unwanted vehicle from his property.
Junk car removal is important to property owners. Besides being an eyesore, there are safety issues to consider, as well. Leaking fluids, fire danger, or even the danger of a child being trapped in the car must be considered. The removal of a vehicle (called a private property impound, or PPI) can only happen if the vehicle in question is on private property.
Examples of this activity include:
Junk, abandoned or unwanted car left at a rental home or apartment complex when the owner of the vehicle has moved on.
The owner/manager of an apartment complex would tag or boot cars that meet these requirements:
No license plate
Are inoperable
Belong to someone who doesn’t reside at that particular property
Property management companies and/or their security company normally monitor this type of activity. And are the ones normally calling for a tow truck. Once a tow company is called, the owner, manager or security for the property must meet the tow driver to sign the impound authorization form. The removal of the car can then take place.
What happens after the vehicle is removed?
Immediately after removing a car, the tow company must call local law enforcement. The towing company reports the impound, thus avoiding the owner of the car filing a stolen vehicle report. The tow company then must within 24 hours run the vin number of the car thru the local MVD department. Once they have determined the owner/lien holder’s name, they then mail that person a mechanic lien letter notice.
Why use a professional tow company?
The benefits of using a professional tow company is that the removal is done at no cost to the property owner. The benefits for the property owner: Junk car removal from their property is free,. All liability is on the tow company once the car is removed from their private property.
Finally, Madrid Towing will execute the removal regardless of the condition of the unwanted car.
Towing a car or vehicle is tricky work. Load balance, hook up type, brakes, and more enter into a successful tow. Be sure to call a professional to get the job done right–and safely.
There are a variety of reasons that require hooking one vehicle up to another. Maybe there was an accident, the car won’t start, it’s stuck, or maybe you just need to transport it and don’t want to submit the car to highway miles. Regardless of the purpose or destination, there’s a right way and a wrong way to pull something.
This is not a step-by-step guide of how to properly tow something. Rather, it’s more an anti-tutorial. These are a few tips of how not to tow a car.
Don’t tow a car, truck, boat, or anything else like this.
