Yakima is 4 hours from me...
Did you see the second truck? B model Mack. When I was 17 I had learned how to tow big rigs cause my boss/high school shop teacher had a gas station shop tow service. He said if I could drive that he'd let me drive the new Peterbuilt.... took a couple days but found an old truck driver who explained how. One stick is gear and the other is low/high, first is easy start in low, then shift second stick to high, now is where it gets complecated he says... use two hands, one to shift first to second the other goes through the steering wheel to other stick to shift from high to low ( or was it other way), and shift both same time, no clutch or it'll never work! I'll be go to heck if it didn't work!
Boss said I failed driving test because I let go of steering wheel. although I had an arm through it and chest on it... OK let me see you drive it? I never figured it out he said and we parked it and he taght me how to hook up with the new Peterbuilt! Brand dam new Peterbuilt and he has me hook up to a brand new mid size Chevy tow truck? Anyway did well no damage and drove around small NJ town streets.
My first tow was a wrecked semi, took 2 hours to remove truck from trailer using two tow trucks and the big rig Peterbuilt. Luckily other guys had more towing experiance. Then why aren't you driving the Pete I said? Because the boss likes it more then his wife and daughter and we need our jobs... second D'oh! Nothing left of truck, not a single axle would roll, driver was dead and cut out... hit a bridge at bottom of hill. I extended the boom and picked up the freightliner, chained it off to back of tow truck with an 8x8 board to hold it away from tow truck, used second winch to pull it in, police escort to tow storage yard to find boss shaking his head saying never seen that done? Why didn't you use the flatbed?' D,oh! What flatbed? As he pointed to a flatbed buried 20 cars deep in the yard... he says OK now how are you going to get trailer? No problem I said! Worried all the way back why he said that took an an hour to figure out how to chain up a semi trailer to a tow truck and tow it! Another police escort as trailer was wrecked and twice as wide, but 8-10 hours after wreck it had been unloaded. WIth overtime I made $120 that day in 1977..., tow bill with unloading and storage was $2800... Man I had fun in younger days.
Next 2 years I was the only one to drive the Pete. Worked full time but was on 24/7 call for that truck.
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by Six_Shooter
Bookmarks