My Dad had an auto salvage from the late ‘60s till he died in 010. His first wrecker was a Studebaker pickup with a homemade boom! Ran the winch with a starter and flywheel!
In the mid ‘70s he bought an F350 with a Holmes double boom. You could separate them and swing out over the side for winching and picking up wrecks. We did the 24 hr towing/recovery and later bought an F600 with a flatbed rollback bed.
The big money wasn’t in towing, but storage of wrecks afterwards. Maybe $50 for hauling it in, but $30 a day until the insurance would decide on what was gonna be done with it. Usually a week for the adjuster to come look at it, maybe another week or two until a repair shop or insurance salvage came and picked it up.
Back when cars had bumpers it wasn’t a big deal, but nowadays you’ve gotta get under the wheels or have a flatbed. Plastic and glass ain’t got no place you can hook to.
The Old Man was hell for loading the rollback up with aluminum, iron or copper to haul in for scrap. We’d load her up in the afternoon to haul in in the morning. I was working 3rd shift and I’d always help him get stuff gathered up and loaded. I don’t know how many damn times he’d get a call and shove everything off on the ground to go pick one up. Next day, I was back loading the damn scrap!
I tried to tell him I’d pay the towing price just to avoid the extra work, but he’d just laugh.
I sure don’t miss getting outta bed at 2 or 3 in the morning to go out in the damn blizzard because some drunk missed the turn. That’s for the younger people!
7mm
