2 or 4??

[okiebryan]

I think he was referring to clearing parking lots with the mention of the trailer and skid steer and that a 4x2 wouldn't pull the payload.

I am not licensed by odot but have helped many people every time we have a bad storm. OCPD will usually run lights for me depending on the location, and I have never taken a dime from anyone. Took a few phone numbers, but I just always enjoyed helping out. I also made sure to use the proper equipment: tow strap rated well beyond the payloads I would handle, shackles, and proper attachment hardware for every make and model. During the really bad snow and ice tow truck drivers have turned down helping people do to being to busy or not willing to make the pull for safety reasons. I once pulled a car that slide off of 44 junction right by the western heritage museum and was stuck clear down at the bottom of the bar ditch. Tow truck driver said he wouldn't do it. I drove down into the ditch and pulled the guy all the way around the museum and onto 63rd street to get him home, free o charge and no damage done.

If a wrecker driver refused a recovery, it was most likely because he judged it to be unsafe given the current conditions. Sometimes that car in the ditch needs to stay there until the roads clear up. While I'm glad that you didn't damage the casualty that time, what financial responsibility do you carry in the event that your "recovery" does damage the car or cause a secondary accident?

In 2009, we ran a support vehicle (4x4 Expedition with FULL insurance just like the wreckers) to give people a ride home when we were too busy or it was too dangerous to do the recovery right then. Got them home, didn't charge for this, then recovered the car in the middle of the night when there was little to no traffic and visibility was better and delivered the car to their house.

 

[B96brig4CC]

If a wrecker driver refused a recovery, it was most likely because he judged it to be unsafe given the current conditions. Sometimes that car in the ditch needs to stay there until the roads clear up. While I'm glad that you didn't damage the casualty that time, what financial responsibility do you carry in the event that your "recovery" does damage the car or cause a secondary accident?

In 2009, we ran a support vehicle (4x4 Expedition with FULL insurance just like the wreckers) to give people a ride home when we were too busy or it was too dangerous to do the recovery right then. Got them home, didn't charge for this, then recovered the car in the middle of the night when there was little to no traffic and visibility was better and delivered the car to their house.

I understand what your saying and agree 100%. If the vehicle I was helping was going to be an issue of damage due to ground effects or any thing else that would make recovery impossible without damage, then I would have them make the call...."do you want me to get you back on the road even though A,B, or C may get damaged?" I wouldn't even mess with the cars that would be unsafe to continue down the road due to poor tires or whatever. I was just sick of people making money off of people that just needed a hand getting back on the road. If I couldn't make a solid connection on the frame or on a tow point than it was a push by hand to get them going or a ride to where they needed to go.

Props to you for offering such great service and a ride if it was not safe to recover. I wish more people looked at situations to lend a hand instead of make the almighty buck.

 

[kd5rjz]

I've also pulled and winched out many people in Tulsa. The problem here is that Storey's will absolutely rape you if TPD lets them get their hands on your car. I don't charge people and tell people it's their problem if something breaks. Most of the recoveries I've done during the snow are nothing compared to what we'll do on a summer weekend offroading.

 

[PUMPKIN]

I take it you're referring to pulling people out of snow? So then, I take it you are licensed by the DPS and have commercial towing insurance? Or are you just one of these yahoos who think it's ok to take business away from people who have invested in equipment, insurance, and training employees to do the job right with controlled use of a winch and the manufacturer approved hookup method? Who will pay when you damage a vehicle with your towstrap (or worse, chain) and yank method? Or who pays when you cause someone to get injured while blocking a traffic lane with no emergency lighting?

Do you also practice dentistry, cosmetology and law without a license?

If I've made an inaccurate assumption, please accept my apologies.

you should read the entire post before you go on a rant. I pulled a trailer and a skid steer and cleared snow. I don't have time to pull people out of the ditch. Thanks though....

 

[briarcreekguy]

I have owned a couple of 4 wheel drive vehicles, a 78 dodge power wagon, a Jeep Grand Wagoneer and a 90 mode Suzuki Samurai, bone stock. The Suzuki was the best of the bunch for going in 4 wheel drive, it only made 65 horse power, so you couldn't really get in trouble spinning the tires, light enough it didn't bog down on soft soil where a larger truck would sink, axles only 10 feet apart so it was hard to high center. It got 25 miles to the gallon. The down side, 60 to 65 was the max highway speed on flat ground with no headwind, and when it got older parts were expensive. I bought it new and drove it for over ten years before something in the electronics died and I sold it cheap. It would go most places in two wheel drive, and when the going got tough just kick in the 4 wheel drive and keep on going. I wish I had kept it and put in a Toyota 22r motor in it.

 

[sklfco]

Bbwwwwaaaa! You city boys impress me with your intimate knowledge of how a 2wd is superior to a 4wd.

You don't have a freeking clue about actually living in an area where a 4WD is used almost every day in the course of business.

Bring your 2wd street legal toy to my area on a dry day, and I'll put up a thousand dollar bet that you can't keep up with my Toyota Tacoma on the first challenge.
Then we will factor in a wet day, then a snow day.

Come prepared to make my new year much more profitable. cash is the only thing acceptable.

Funny story your telling. I have taken an old beat up pinto into places you would have great difficulty walking to after getting out of that Jap Toy. Besides anyone who truly does does business that far in on a daily basis knows for a FACT that you go in on 2wd and only use 4 to get out, everyone else is just playing and has friends/support along to help.

 

[Blinocac200sx]

1,2,3,4 what matters most is the driver.

 

[Cowman]

I have fed cows professionally for over 36 winters. I used to go where you should not be able too with a 4x2 truck with chains. As I am older I like the 4x4. No longer have to chain up in the snow, cold and wind. Regards

 

[okiebryan]

Police call rates are regulated by the state. They charge what they are allowed to charge. How is that rape? It's a real sore spot with me that we have to send an $80K truck that burns $4/gal fuel with a trained driver and all the right equipment, not to mention $$$$$$ insurance, then people expect us to lay in the snow and winch them out for $40.

Telling someone if something breaks, it's their problem in no way relieves you from liability if you break something. Go ahead, ask me how I know this.

The bottom line is that if you are not licensed by Oklahoma DPS, then you are violating the law by offering recovery services to another person. That law is in place to protect the public from not only people damaging others' property and not carrying the insurance to cover the claim, but from secondary accidents caused by working in the roadway without emergency lighting in inclement conditions.

Justify it all you want, but if you do this you are taking food off someone else's table and violating state statutes at the same time. Carry the right insurance (costs $1000/mo/truck) and get DPS licensed if you want to be a wrecker operator. Oh, and buy a wrecker.

 

[kd5rjz]

I've also pulled wreckers out, and even an OHP suv that was stuck on SH33 that wreckers couldn't/wouldn't get to. I'm just winching, not loading them in the back of my Jeep, so I'm not exactly competing with what wreckers were designed to do. I imagine half the cars getting towed at the police rate are just getting auctioned from the impound a month later anyways...