Tow Trucks, Wreckers and Car Hauler Discussion

[HotRodPC]

By the way. So today I talked to the owner. He's finally got with the commerical insurance adjuster on my Self Loader. Prolly going to be 2 or 3 weeks, but they worked some #'s around to where they can actually fix that truck. The frame rails aren't bent. All the front suspension and axle will be replaced, all the body chassis mounts are going to be replaced, front wheels and tires will be replaced. Where they're cutting the price is on the bed. All the hydros and boom were in good shape. All that's damaged on the bed, is the sheet metal bed itself. So the sheet metal portion of the bed can be gotten from Jerr Dan. I guess it's what they'll call a blem that was not completed because it didn't meet quality control. A bad weld seem or something like that, that the body shop can weld and make perfect.

 

[Stewzer55]

Well thats good for you, at least it sounds that way.

 

[HotRodPC]

Maybe, Maybe not. I'm not going back if they've haven't changed their paramaters for the motor clubs. Doing all those $35 tows and having an average tow bill of $42, uhhhhhhh hellllllll NO. I won't go back to that ****. Giving away 15 miles per tow and then you have to drive back too, potentially driving 30 miles for a damn $35, Kiss my ass. And many of those are in downtown traffic. If I can't get any out of town tows where I can drive 70mph and make some money or some rotation calls, NO. Won't go back. I'm all for taking the good with the bad, but when they're all bad. NO.

 

[Stewzer55]

I can't blame you, can't be getting fuct all the time.

 

[HotRodPC]

There is a little money to be made with motorclubs, but if you don't choose your zip codes wisely and do something stupid like put a 20 mile radius on your destination of your yard, you'll never make money. You're better off keeping the trucks parked. It's common to take 6-7 and sometimes even more ****** cheap tows to get a good money maker, but for real, when your avg call is $42 that's just piss poor stupidity and very bad management. And get this, to get the average that high, I was dropping dollies on 20% of the tows which adds $20 to the tow. Honestly, it's not worth $20 to me to drop dollies when I only see $7 of it. Sure I can do it in less than 10 minutes, but I've also got to put the ****** back away and lock them back down too. Not to mention drive slower too. My back is worth more than that. And what pissed me off even worse, is we have 3 rollback drivers sitting on their ass, and the manager would send me to do it, just to be able to add the $20 to the call for dropping dollies and that's how you get your average up to $42? In short without the dolly up charges I had to do, our avg tow bill was probably only $38. Helll NO !!!

 

[ScottyB]

I made out ok. Remember, my after hours stuff is double time so I had 6 hours of that last night. 2.5 hours of that for Monday.

 

[HotRodPC]

I made out ok. Remember, my after hours stuff is double time so I had 6 hours of that last night. 2.5 hours of that for Monday.

Oh you did OK then. I'd almost prefer to get paid hourly. I'm just about thinking what I might end up doing now is go to work for a company pull Coparts. No drama, no ********. Just give me a truck, I'll take off about 6 or 7 am and go get 2 out of towns, then pick up 6-8 more locals 2 at a time and be done between 4 and 6 pm for the day and only work M-F with weekends off. I'll do the ***** life style for awhile.

Many claim you can't make any money doing Copart either. The company won't make alot but who cares? As long as I get my cut that's their business what they make profit. Those turn out like **** too especially if you Copart dispatcher don't know what the hell they're doing and sometimes it just sucks anyway. You don't always get 2 close together and you don't to control who has car accidents and who doesn't. And then you get the ones where you go out of town and told 1 will tow and 1 will not, so you get your no tow first on deck just to get to the towable to find out it's NOT towable. Well, by god if I drove 60, 80, 90 miles out of town to get 2 so I get paid for both, they're both coming back 1 way or another if I have to drag the bitch back on its rooftop it's coming back with me. hahaha, that's why I was a sought after Copart driver at one time. EVERYTHING came back. If it fit it shipped, and if it didn't I made it fit. I've pulled bumper and fenders off wheels with my bed, I've chained axles in place under vehicles and drug them back sideways dog tracking out the ass, swapped wheels, brought them back with the motor running to protect the transmission, unlock hubs, pull floating axles, whatever the hell it takes, its coming back. But it takes time to jack with that **** and it could mean one or 2 less locals when you back into town. Of course I'll punt a $32.50 towin and keep the $78-$92 out of town towin. So many guys come back with 1, Ohhhh I couldn't get it cuz..... Not this guy !!! That's my fukin money I'd be leaving. Now for a local, I will call into dispatch and say hey, get me another towable I'll grab it on my way in, and then get me another towable to go with one that won't tow, I've already paid for it and set it outside their yard so if they close I can still get it tonight, but I don't waste time on something unless it justified or paying more money.

 

[HotRodPC]

Oh, and the other good thing about Copart, if your dispatcher likes you and KNOW you're one of the better drivers, they'll give you the threebies too. 2 car truck, but if you can get a motorcycle or jetski to strap to the headache rack, then you'll get those too and they pay the same as a car. I once got a quad. Motorcyle up front, Jeep Grand Cherokee, then strapped another motorcylce to the back of the Cherokee, and of course my towable didn't tow.... UNTIL I got done with it. Used my bed with a J hook chain and pulled the bumper off the wheels on both side and drug it backwards. Couldn't drop the driveshaft, the motor was pushed back, crossmebers bent, transfer case was broke, so the driveshaft needed to be cut out to tow it with rear wheels down. Drug it bakerds for over 80 miles at 84mph.

Then that time I got a threebie, the plan was to put this Jet Ski in the back of the pick up. See all the parts in the bed? And didn't know it was coming with a trailer too, and the broken trailer had to go with it since the insurance co paid on that too. Towed this 90 miles, though I did stop about every 30 miles and checked on the trailer to make sure it was still holding up since I could not see it in my mirrors. I was a bit scared that bitch was going to come apart and could just see someone swerving to miss it and crash if it came loose. Used the JetSki itself as the solid member to hold the trailer together and strapped the hell out of that trailer. It made it !!!

 

[89Suburban]

I always wanted to try pulling double trailers.

 

[ScottyB]

Hell son, that's better than the factory welds!!!

 

[HotRodPC]

Hell son, that's better than the factory welds!!!

Obviously so. It held together and the ski paid the same as a car, so probably an $89 payment since it was out of town. All total, I probably made close to a $100 on that run for 4-5 hours total out there and back. I had the ski anchored tight at the front half of the trailer and at the back half of the trailer so I knew the ski would at least hold the 2 parts together so long as the thin metal left didn't break in 2. That trailer was sitting on the ground at the break when I got there to pick it up. I had considered just folding the trailer in half at the break and putting it in the back of the truck, but with all the truck parts debris in the bed, there was not room for the trailer and the ski. So that's what I did. Lifted the trailer on blocks at the break, then tightened down the ski, and added the 2 ratchet straps then kicked the block out from under and that's what I had, and said fugg it, let's roll !!!

 

[Stewzer55]

I got a tow truck ride today. I think the starter took a dump, 5 mile tow, quick load/unload and I gave the driver a $5 tip because it was all I had.

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[HotRodPC]

I'm sure he was happy with that. If I got $5 from every tow I did, I'd make $50-$90 a day in tips.

 

[Stewzer55]

Yeah, especially with me being an AAA tow, and wearing a suit, I bet he wasn't expecting ****.

 

[HotRodPC]

Actually, of all the Motorclubs, AAA customers are more likely to tip than any of them. I've gotten more tips off doing AAA tows than any other motorclub.