Overload of the Day

[MG84]

After reading all 111 pages of this thread I must contribute to its greatness...

A few I’ve seen, don’t have pictures though:

Driving down I-81, Class A motor home piloted by a couple of blue hairs. Dragging a tow bar and the wiring harness for the lights, no safety chains. The car they had been towing obviously had been lost miles ago.

On a 4 lane there was a bunch of smoke and oil on the highway along with a terribly loud ratcheting/grinding noise. They pulled off into a Home Depot parking lot (where I decided I probably needed to go too.) Was a 20’ uhaul truck towing a 2 wheel type car dolly. On the dolly was a Ford escape or similar small SUV, you guessed it, it was AWD with the front tires fastened to the dolly and the rear tires on the ground. The carnage was massive, rear drive shaft and much or the transmission (transfer case?) was on the ground. Lady driving the U haul standing there looking dumbfounded as to what happened.

Pulled out of Lowes one day and next to me at the light was a mid-2000s Ford Focus hatchback, towing a 16’ tandem axle trailer with a full lift of Plywood on it (2500lbs). 1 1/4” receiver, no safety chains, lights or trailer brakes of course.

I’ve got some of my own, with pics, but I’m not sure if I want to post them. IDK, maybe I will, we’re all friends here right? Lol

 

[92U 3406]

I was headed out west from Edmonton a few years back. Looked across the highway at the eastbound side and seen a little Chevy Aveo pulling what I estimated to be a 12 foot tandem enclosed trailer. Chevy rates the Aveo at around 1000 lbs for towing and that trailer empty weighs in at roughly double that. Probably would have burnt that car up had it not been the middle of winter at the time.

 

[92U 3406]

From wayyyy back in the early years of Youtube:

 

[MG84]

From wayyyy back in the early years of Youtube:

That one is a classic.

 

[Truck Shop]

From wayyyy back in the early years of Youtube:

Nothing like a Rolling Sh!t House out of control.

 

[Truck Shop]

The carnage was massive, rear drive shaft and much or the transmission (transfer case?) was on the ground. Lady driving the U haul standing there looking

A friend that works at a Freightliner dealer was on his way to work one Monday morning on I-84.
He spots a driveline with yoke attached, stops heaves in the pickup. Gets to work goes into the
service department to tell them he had a driveshaft in the back of the company sales pickup.
The service manager points to a Cascadia setting in the shop, {I believe it belongs to that truck}.
A towing company towed it in for a engine de-rate emission issue.

But they didn't remove the driveshaft, exploded the DT12 AMT gearbox and many other parts and pieces.
Only $28,000 to fix.

 

[MG84]

A friend that works at a Freightliner dealer was on his way to work one Monday morning on I-84.
He spots a driveline with yoke attached, stops heaves in the pickup. Gets to work goes into the
service department to tell them he had a driveshaft in the back of the company sales pickup.
The service manager points to a Cascadia setting in the shop, {I believe it belongs to that truck}.
A towing company towed it in for a engine de-rate emission issue.

But they didn't remove the driveshaft, exploded the DT12 AMT gearbox and many other parts and pieces.
Only $28,000 to fix.

Wow. The lady in my story I can sort of see with the level of ignorance the general public has to automobiles, but anyone in the towing industry should know better.

 

[Truck Shop]

but anyone in the towing industry should know better.

You would think so-but in this day and age just because someone is called/named as a TECH doesn't mean
they are a mechanic. Same with drivers the CDL in ones wallet doesn't mean they are a driver, on paper only.

 

[Birken Vogt]

I went out and looked at a truck on the side of the road once, nope can't fix it here, tow to dealer. Call tow company and have them tow it to Sacramento. Tell them to disconnect the drive shaft I said.

Come to find out, they did not disconnect the drive shaft. Tow driver said not necessary. I'll tell you what's necessary, do what you are told and being paid by the hour to do. This one had an Allison and nothing bad ever came of it AFAIK but I was not happy. Allison did a demo of how fast planetary gear sets can go from towing without engine running. When the engine is running, even in neutral the Allison will select different clutch packs still in neutral to be sure the rotating parts speed is under control but without the TCM in control it is a free ride. Roadrangers also get no lube w/o input shaft turning.

Bottom line is, tow driver gets paid by the hour. Also I left this one in a wide pull out with tons of room to crawl under or use creeper if necessary.

 

[Truck Shop]

The AMT's can only be moved a very short distance with driveshaft in-place. Even has a sticker saying
remove shaft on the drivers visor. The DT12 complete is now a little over 20K for replacement. When I
say short distance-200' very slowly.

 

[MG84]

Honestly there aren’t many things I feel good about towing wheels down without removing the driveshaft, even if mfg says its ok. This talk of towing and flat towing reminds me of a couple more stories:

Back in the early 90s we had a fence contractor building some fence for us on our farm in NC. He was an older black gentleman and was very good at what he did, in fact some of the designs and techniques I use today were ones I learned from him. His equipment consisted of a long bed mid 80s 2wd F150 and a Ford 3600 tractor with a post driver on the back, no trailer. Tractor had a tow bar on the front and he flat towed it everywhere. He’d just leave it running to lube the transmission. Probably not super safe with the weight of it and no brakes but it seemed to work, times were different back in then.

Another flat towing story, this one mine, and it almost ended in disaster.
When I was in college I didn’t have a trailer. I wanted to bring my trail rig back with me so I could go wheeling with the local 4wd club. Borrowed a 2wheel tow dolly, loaded my ‘79 F-150 on it, hooked up to my F250 and away we went for the 80mi interstate drive back to school. Now mind you, my ‘79 had 36” super swampers, spool in the rear end, super soft suspension, etc. It became really belligerent at highway speeds on the tow dolly, which didn’t have any brakes. Kept it about 55mph where it was happy until I picked up a little speed on a big hill when I wasn’t paying attention. Hill wasn’t super steep but long, probably a couple miles. Tried to slow down and it started wagging much worse, almost to being out of control. Ordinarily if a trailer started wagging I’d apply trailer brakes and it straighten out, but no brakes on the dolly. I knew the only hope was to ‘pull’ it straight so I got into the left lane, dropped down to 4th and put it on the floor. White knuckle grip on the wheel, praying no one pulls out in front of me, 85mph speedo was buried by the time I made it to the bottom. Started up the next grade, everything settled down, got slowed down and took the next exit. Enough of that, took the service road the rest of the way at about 30mph. After that incident I built a tow bar and just flat towed it, worked much better, straight and smooth.

 

[Bluox]

Most everyone around here tows tractors backwards unless the steering axle is smashed.
Bad Bob

 

[gwhammy]

I got my dump truck bed from a special road district around a town near me. Tail gate has a ball welded on top, guy that worked there used to load the truck and hook the backhoe behind it to work in the 7 mile radius of the town. Had a gooseneck hitch welded on the back of the bucket and raised the front tires up when towing. Took gravel roads and it worked for several years. I get asked all the time about the ball on top of the bed.

 

[Truck Shop]

Most everyone around here tows tractors backwards unless the steering axle is smashed.
Bad Bob

That's how I do it when I can, but on a freeway or certain times you just have to drop the line and tow from
the front. Only real trouble towing from back is the fairing especially in a windy situation, those can get damaged.

 

[MG84]

I got my dump truck bed from a special road district around a town near me. Tail gate has a ball welded on top, guy that worked there used to load the truck and hook the backhoe behind it to work in the 7 mile radius of the town. Had a gooseneck hitch welded on the back of the bucket and raised the front tires up when towing. Took gravel roads and it worked for several years. I get asked all the time about the ball on top of the bed.

When I was a kid I remember often seeing backhoes backed onto a short trailer behind dump trucks. They would then extend the boom and rest it in the truck bed, or maybe just above the floor of the truck bed. Usually was a short tilt deck pintle hitch trailer behind a S/A dump. Maybe my memory is shot but I swear even seeing NCDOT doing it. Come to think of it that could be why the tailgate of my ‘88 F700 is beat to hell with tooth marks in it, thats where it came from. I guess if you put the bucket all the way to the back close to the pintle it doesn’t swing THAT much when turning.

 

[Willie B]

In my youth there were few excavators in the area. One bought a new Case Construction King, I think a 530 model, a little skipper compared to my 580 Super N. The early ones were very basic gear drive machines with no torque converter. I've seen him & others hook the loader bucket over the tailgate of the truck with front wheels off the ground to move it. I don't remember him owning a trailer.

Another guy I know did that many years later with a John Deere 500 hoe, ruined the transmission.

 

[Paystar]

You would think so-but in this day and age just because someone is called/named as a TECH doesn't mean
they are a mechanic. Same with drivers the CDL in ones wallet doesn't mean they are a driver, on paper only.

I got a big laugh from some managers at the mine I work at. I'm a trainer there and we were discussing all the issues with the ore truck drivers and I said "The problem isn't the trucks, it's the seat cover." They all looked at me stunned and asked "what would the seat cover have to do with anything?"

So I had to explain to them.....there are truck drivers and there are seat covers. We have seat covers.

 

[92U 3406]

That one is a classic.

I like how the one guy just stands there and watches like he's seen that level of stupid before.

 

[Truck Shop]

Truth be known of just how much damage is done by tow companies, on class eight. Front sump oil
pans and plastic bumpers. We've had three pans broke over the years. It's tough to gain enough
stinger clearance with a wheel lift and doesn't matter who builds it. I have 5" high ramps for front
tires and the custom built forks only have one inch to clear axle going underneath. Once forked the
oil pan is only 2 1/4 inches off the stinger, and that's a bunch compared to most towing companies
I've talked to, their usually only one inch and less. The other issue having enough types of forks to
hook to anything. Hooking to a Kenworth with AG400L and autochains-not going to happen unless
you have a proper custom made set of frame forks to grab it by the after frame right near the flap
hanger mounts. It's one time you need a old Holmes 750 with sling those can still shine in some
instances. A real tow operator isn't a greasy repo bum. In order to be on WSP law enforcement tow
calls you have to complete tow operator training coarse.

 

[Birken Vogt]

A real tow operator isn't a greasy repo bum. In order to be on WSP law enforcement tow calls you have to complete tow operator training coarse.

How many people are left still working in the former category, let alone the latter. To do towing properly, you have to actually have experience and know things, and in this day and age those are precious commodities.