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Old fashioned wreckers

Mastiff

Mastiff

1/2 ton status
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I live near some off road trails, plus some washes that people get stuck in a lot. I was thinking it would be fun to get an old wrecker, beef it up a little for off road, and have a little side gig rescuing people. I know no real towing businesses mess with the old fashioned tow bar wreckers anymore, but is it still a thing? Anyone know how far back I'd have to go? Mostly just thinking about this right now. A quick search on Autotrader and Ebay didn't show any light duty stuff like I'm thinking of.
 
if me and offroad recovery go find a holmes 480 2line split boom . lots of options with 2 lines and booms that can split apart and swing around almost kissing the cab .

if you have never done recovery work or towed you should read up a bit . watch videos like matts offroad recovery on youtube . also tow matter . bsf recovery .
 

Sold - I decided to keep.

Holmes unit has a Ramsey 8000# winch, tested and working. I have a brand new solenoid cover for it as well. Century hydraulic in/out- up/down with hyd Ramsey 8000# winch. I was not able to test this. I also have one sling, and an old set of J-hooks that will go with whichever unit sells first.
ck5.com ck5.com
 
This is kind of what I had in my head going into this, though I know next to nothing about towing. At this point I'd probably be after a more recent base truck too, maybe a ~20 year old F250/350 or something like that.

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Keep in mind there is generally two bed wheelbase's to chose from. Stock long bed is 54" cab to center line of rear axle, most of the older beds are going to be for a cab and chassis wheelbase of 60" cab to axle.
 
I worked for a shop in the early 90’s that had a 78 Chevy 4x4 wrecker with a Holmes 600 unit on it and we worked that thing like there was no tomorrow - it held up great ! Had a Ramsey hydraulic PTO winch that was stout.
Off road recovery is a tough job and requires a lot of wisdom and fore thought on how to stage the wrecker and what’s best for the truck being recovered. And the insurance is STEEP !
 
@tarussell not to sure on a holems 600 on a chevy 4x4 unless it was a med duty with a 4x4 kit . the 500 was max for a 1ton and most didnt even put them on .

the ramsey winch must of been a add on and used as a drag line winch .

unless this whole thing was a mutt truck then all options out the door .

and 1,000% on the off road world and insurance . few years ago 1/2 of the companys stopped doing tow insurance and sent the towing world in a tail spin and at min doubled the price of the insurance prem if you could still find a place to take you on .
 
sweetk30 said:
@tarussell not to sure on a holems 600 on a chevy 4x4 unless it was a med duty with a 4x4 kit . the 500 was max for a 1ton and most didnt even put them on .

the ramsey winch must of been a add on and used as a drag line winch .

unless this whole thing was a mutt truck then all options out the door .

and 1,000% on the off road world and insurance . few years ago 1/2 of the companys stopped doing tow insurance and sent the towing world in a tail spin and at min doubled the price of the insurance prem if you could still find a place to take you on .
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Ha,ha - you ain’t kidding on the pieced together part !
It was a combination of many different wrecker boom & winch parts and the bed was fab’d up entirely out of 1/2” deck ( doubled up at critical areas ) and 3/16” sides but looked like it came from an outfitter ( the Dude that made it had some talent ).
It was awfully heavy and way overkill - had to be careful off road due to the ass-end weight but it also helped with traction and pulling.
And to your point once again the H-600 unit and that earth mover of a winch did end up splitting the passenger side frame rail in two after a while - under really heavy pulls with the boom lowered for a straight pull and 8x8 dunnage cribbed up behind the dual rear tires it would lift the front of the truck about two feet and hold it there to let tension do its thing against the suction of the mud on the stuck vehicle getting released.
Well, eventually the frame on the wrecker buckled and ripped like a fault line but that wasn’t the end - they put it on the rack and between chain binders , port-a-powers and the “hot-wrench” got it back welded up and plated inside and out ( other side too for good measure…) and used that thing for another five years.
That truck was treated respectfully ( to make it last as long as it did ) but was expected to work it ass off and it did do a lot of that !
I don’t believe that it would have passed D.O.T. Inspections and annual certs in this day and age with all the miss-matched components on that thing. Come to think of it our shop was pretty tight with the D.O.T. inspections office - I guess the “good ole boy” rule was in effect and nobody ever questioned it…. It was a simpler time….good memories…
 
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It was a fun dream for a minute, but I think impractical and I don't have the skills. I can pull people out of the wash with the K5. It's fun anyway, but some people charge as much as $75 under the table. People up on the trails will have to find someone else. ;)
 
Mastiff said:
It was a fun dream for a minute, but I think impractical and I don't have the skills. I can pull people out of the wash with the K5. It's fun anyway, but some people charge as much as $75 under the table. People up on the trails will have to find someone else. ;)
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The going rate in the late 80’s & early 90’s was $75.00 an hour minimum one hour and the clock started once the wrecker left the paved road. We were very efficient and wasted no time getting to the area and recovering it and towing out if needed.
Also, if there were other stuck trucks on the trails we would assist at no charge just to keep up good relations with the off road community.
Most of our calls were vehicles with serious issues beyond just being extremely stuck - ball joints broke, springs broke, truck’s totally submerged - things like that; it was a lot of work most of the time.
 
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