Sometimes you just wonder

It isn't like the truck didn't have brakes. Air was being supplied to the truck's tanks to ensure that the truck COULD stop if he needed to, just like if it was driving under its own power. I have no doubt that the F350 could move the truck, because when I drove wreckers we'd send the little F350 wrecker out to do pull-starts as long as the truck had enough air to release the brakes. My only concern would be whether or not they disconnected the drive shaft. If not, that's a great way to burn up the transmission.

 

How do you like the 6k autocrane?

I picked one up on a 11ft. service body with a radial compressor for....well let's just say it was cheap enough.

Kid decided he wanted it...I don't care I just wanted use of the crane. Found him a '03 f450 to put it on but haven't got it done.

 

thats funny !...in the early 80s i saw a couple dart drivers tow one tracter trailer with another tracter trailer from fargo nd to grand forks nd with a chain ....at nite ...engine on truck being pulled was running tho .

 

Of all my toys and tools my 11ft auto crane bed and 6006 are the best money I ever spent. If trucking don't work out I can always go back to that. Mines an old cable rig but she will still hang a 3406B model cat with no trouble

 

Saw a container hauler in the middle of the day pulling another one down Hwy 225 in Pasadena, TX with a stout chain about a month ago. It didn't look the least bit safe to me but I guess they made it to where they were going because I didn't see either truck on the side of the road when I came back the other way.

I've been pulled out of a snow packed parking lot on a military base in WA by an old dodge pickup and a chain and also towed a couple blocks into a Sams club AND backed into the dock to drop my trailer to get unloaded when my fuel filter froze up in Montana a few years ago by a little Mistsubishi wrecker. Never went on highway like that in a big truck but when I was young and had no money a got a few chain tows back to the house so I could get my hooptie fixed and running again.

 

I don't want any part of the safe/smart question either. And of course I respect that attitude. But, your mechanic and his friend were lucky. Very risky business, and if something had happened, like a family broke down around a corner, or something slipped in your juryrig and the truck lost it's brakes, anything like that? You'd both have been way up the well known creek, and not paddling, not to mention the innocents out there. Got away with it, so it's all over now, but...tell them to go buy some lottery tickets.

 

i wont go into details but i have done worse....lol

60 miles is a long way to go like that but he said it took them over 2 hours so figure 30mph average. I think my choice would have been to only pull lit like that to a safe area big parking lot or something and put a radiator and fan clutch in there vrs dragging it 60 miles like that. iv done both radiators and fan clutches in parking lots before neither are that bad to do.

 

Only way you're going to lose the brakes is if the air compressor in the bed of the pickup quits working or the air line to the truck drags the ground and rubs a hole which dumps the air. In either case, the spring brakes would come on and stop the truck once the pressure got low enough for the valves to pop so it is really a moot point. The only really "unsafe" aspect of what was done is the lack of proper following distance allowed by a 20 or even 30 foot tow strap...but then again some of the clowns I see driving don't leave half that distance at highway speed when they AREN'T being towed, so again, not really all that dangerous by comparison.

 

the OP said a long chain and a piece of pipe sounds reasonably safe to me.

 

It is amazing that some "owner operators" are so cash strapped they can't afford a tow. What if he broke down in a city or area where he had to get towed?