mitch504
Senior Member
A lot of people around here have or rent wrecker booms that attach to the fifth wheel of a tractor. I do it a little differently. I use a towbar.The only people I have ever seen use a heavy duty truck towbar are me and the military. The towbar I use is military surplus and weighs over 200 lbs. I bought 2 at the same auction. In a splendid example of why you should pay attention at auctions, I bought the first one for $50 as the only bidder; then gave $5 for the second, also as the lone bidder.
It works very well, and the towed truck just follows the lead like a well trained puppy.
It is very easy to adapt to a CH mack, as the tow points on these are just shackles through the end of the frame. With other trucks you may have to fabricate brackets. I have the bumper removed on this one as it was bent around the shackles, but you normally don't have to remove the bumper. If you are going to pull the truck a long distance you must remove the driveshaft, or leave the engine idling, to keep the trans. bearings oiled.
In the example pictured I had just pulled the burgundy truck 80 miles with the white Mack. I prefer to use a tandem dump truck as a tow vehicle because the light rear end of a set-forward Mack single-axle tractor doesn't feel as good pulling 8 tons, with no weight transfer; but, it does it with no problem.
It works very well, and the towed truck just follows the lead like a well trained puppy.
It is very easy to adapt to a CH mack, as the tow points on these are just shackles through the end of the frame. With other trucks you may have to fabricate brackets. I have the bumper removed on this one as it was bent around the shackles, but you normally don't have to remove the bumper. If you are going to pull the truck a long distance you must remove the driveshaft, or leave the engine idling, to keep the trans. bearings oiled.
In the example pictured I had just pulled the burgundy truck 80 miles with the white Mack. I prefer to use a tandem dump truck as a tow vehicle because the light rear end of a set-forward Mack single-axle tractor doesn't feel as good pulling 8 tons, with no weight transfer; but, it does it with no problem.