WRECKER SERVICE

I meant he gets requested by the owners of the vehicles not the cops, if its a collision and the car owner has no preference they just go with who ever is next in rotation, but I understand what your saying being quick would be beneficial, 2 of the 3 company's are based closed to town while one is about a 20 minute drive form the city limits and no one ever ask for him and I almost think they skip him on rotation sometimes because of it

Sorry for the delay I'm at work so shit posting and driving is hard.

That guy most likely has tow shit for the people who request him or someone they know. Same reasons though he knows how to do shit. Can load it fast and without fucking g it up worse than it is. Not sure how small.town politics play into this.

To give you an idea of where I work ill.tell you where im at. Its fucking huge coverage.

Look up st louis MO on google. I run as far north as florrisant as far south as arnold and as far west as chesterfield. I sometimes do shit farther out than that but that's not a regular thing. I also run IL sometimes if they want me on that side of the river.

Forgot to answer your first question. Getting a used wrecker with a boom,stinger and two winiches will probably be the cheapest way in with you being able to do almost anything. You can do anything with a wrecker but it will.involve getting creative and towing shit not how you should. If nothing breaks then it's no problem.

I would start with local shops and dealers to try and build customer base. Hopefully if you are nice and do good work word of mouth will do the rest since you are in fairly small town. I just have no experience with the small town bullshit.

About to go on a long haul.to pick one up in imperial and take it who knows where so I might not be back for a while.

Do it and put out ads online for a cash for clunkers program.
Low ball everyone $100. Repair and resell what you can, part out what you can't.

Tow Op here.

Not to be a pessimist, but unless you have a considerable amount of experience and know what the fuck your doing, which means a hookup more complicated then a J hook through the wheel, you're going to have a bad time.

First and foremost. Trucks. Whats your budget? A flatbed specced for simple calls will still run close to 100K new and will be beat right to shit doing police calls with any winching or rolling. Used flatbeds that are cheap, say 15K, are going to have hour meters that will be in the 500-600K range and will be absolutely beat to piss, probably with a winch about to explode and a bed with a fucked sub frame.

Wreckers are e-z mode, and anyone who learned in one first, and learned right, will like them infinitely more then a flatbed. I do. The problem, of course, comes down to what kind of wheel lift system you use, and what you can even legally use. IMO, the best wheel lift system is the Vulcan strapless as I think its more versatile then anything else. If you plan to run accidents, then an autoloader is just asking for trouble as they become hard to chain grab. vehicles without risking damage to your own truck.

The best piece of advice I think I can give though, is you know what your trucks limits are and stay within them. Older units are over built as fuck and will tow a metric fuckton more then their designed to. For example, I drive a 3 ton truck, but you can bet I could lift and tow a regular truck from the front if it was an emergency.

The single biggest problem you'll have though, is yourself. You've gotta respond at all hours of the day, not just when you want to. Pissing people off doesn't get you anywhere, and a bad attitude at 3am isn't good either.

When it comes to Police calls, you have to know when to give and take and what they'll let you do without getting someone pissed off. There's a time and a place to stick to your guns and a time and place to just do whatever the cop says. Continued.

OP here, I have towed well over 100 cars usually just by hooking around the A frames or rearend depending on which direction the vehickes was facing BUT there were all junk cars that I purchased and were never on the road again so who know f I fucked anything up although I always tried to be cautious, the guy who is doing the majority of the business in my town now had no tow truck experience prior to buying a truck and opening for business.... as far as I know he never had any formal training , I however would be willing to attend a wreck master school and learn all I could, currently I couldn't afford both a wrecker and a rollback so I assume I would be buying a rollback to start with as its more versatile, and I fell you on the all hours bullshit im not crazy about that but im interested in being self employed im 31 years old, some background in auto business so towing may fit me well, im not sure

On the note of police calls, EVERYONE charges more for them, because, well , you can. Unless its illegal, then waa. You also can't be afraid of backing away from something that is going to cost you a lot of money with no profit. If the cops want you to fish something out of a pond that has no plates or VIN numbers attach, you aren't getting paid for that shit, and you need to drive away unless someone agrees, in writing, to pick up the bill and store it themselves. Remember, your in this to make money, not do things for free.

Equipment is the next big thing. Flatbed and wreckers carry pretty much the same equipment, but with a few differences. Shared equipment is chains of various lengths, largely grade 7, but each truck carries a few smaller grade 8 chains, normally for tiedowns. A few different chain binders, ratchet and break over style, broom, shovel, empty pale, some fluid absorbant in old windshield washer jugs, different lengths of hardwood (Gotta be hard wood) and straps and ratchets.

Unique equipment for my flatbed (That isn't brand specific) would be my chain J hook bridle for hook ups, normal J hooks with chains, several chains with grab and T hooks. Wheel straps, axle straps, flat grabhook straps with T, R, Mini J and grab hooks.

For my wrecker, I keep a full tool kit with a 330 piece wrench set, all kinds of pliers, a roll of duct tape, a smaller 50 piece ratchet set, a set of common 12 point sockets for drive shafts, hammer and some straps.

This is what I keep in my trucks, because I find my area calls for that. You might be different and not need anything close to what I carry. You'll quickly find yourself buying more tools as you run into jobs that require them.

In the end, the only thing best piece of advice I can give is to remember that every call is different, and to never, ever EVER fall into normalcy. Its whats killed countless operators over the years and will continue to do so.

Good luck, hooker.

Orignal.tow bro back again just drove 30miles to pop start a car.

This bro brought up many things I had assumed you might already know. I was wrong for thinking this and I can tell.this dude has towed some shit.

I wish I hadn't recently cleared my phone. I have some good pics of cars in ditches, really cool shit I've towed, and some nasty wrecks. That will have to wait till I'm off and at home on my pc later.

I also wish you best of luck. I do this for no other reason than I like it and I don't have a boss on my ass all day. I grab the truck and am left alone pretty much my whole shift. If someone paid me to do somethingelse that didn't involve standing outside in shit weather for better pay I would switch jobs.

Pic for you fellow tow bro

>Wrecker companies make money from human suffering.
No. Your statement indicates wreckers cause more suffering. Tow companies alleviate suffering by offering a solution. There are those car owners who could think of tow truck operators as causing more suffering.

Such people are:
a. Schadenfreude sociopaths who purposely wanted the wrecked vehicle to remain there to block the road.
b. Sociopaths who want the vehicle to clutter the side of the road and increase problems for other people.
c. Sociopaths who do not want the problem of the wrecked vehicle to be solved. Situations such as insurance and lawsuits typically need the wrecked vehicle to be moved to an examination center.
d. Sociopaths who want the wrecked vehicle to remain there as their "monument" to the world. Really, it's more like a finger poke in the eye, but that's how sociopaths are. If they can't cause others to have misfortune, they at least want others to keep looking at examples of misfortune in hopes of decreasing joy in the daily lives of other people.

Biker wave
>your on a bike
>I'm on a buke
>bikes are cool

Tow bro wave
>your in a tow truck
>I'm in a tow truck
>this rain is shit
>I hope all your calls have keys, steer and roll
>later bro

Yeah, what are exorbitant storage fees compounded daily when some poor bast ardent is inna hospital?
You people are vampires.