The Jamie Davis Towing Discussion Thread

We have 50 ton winches on the one i drive in the winter for my friend.

 

I would love to see the data plate from that truck. There is not a production rotator or heavy wrecker on the North American market with a 50 ton boom winch. 50,000 pounds are even pushing it and are usually reserved for drag winches.

 

12.5 foot of stick isn't much either. The specs posted were not intended to be anything other than to prove to someone that there were in fact police departments and other rotation standards that required rotators. The Florida RISC specs are a minimum standard and are over a decade old. Modern tow trucks have really advanced. As a side note, the RISC spec that calls for 150" past tailboard also calls for a hook height of 21' which would surely require more than 12.5' of extention.

The Jerr-Dan rotators I sell have 41 foot of reach and are rated at 60 ton capacity. They come standard with dual 50k boom winches and have an optional 35 or 50k drag and 35k auxiliary boom mounted winches to make a total of up to a 5 winch package. These specs are typical across all major manufacturers of towing equipment including NRC and Miller.

 

Correct about those minimum standards being pathetic. Mind you most places in the USA have lighter trucks as the majority of them, and not our cliffs to drag a truck back up. By the way ramsey makes a really nice 100,000 lb winch that holds over 450 feet of cable. Install it as a side puller on your trucks in the future. You will love it!!!
Once you have had a side puller you will kick yourself for not having put it on since day one.
By the way jerr dan is not a popular brand up here. It maybe popular in some areas, but around here it is about as common to see as are chicken teeth.

 

I wouldn't imagine Jerr-Dan to be very popular outside of the US. We don't have a big export market. If I recall correctly we only have two Canadian distributors to serve the whole country. If I had to guess I would think NRC is most popular among Canadian towers that can afford newer equipment since it is domestic and doesn't have to be imported, followed by Miller brands Century and Vulcan since they are just so overwhelmingly available worldwide and sell at a much lower price point compared to Jerr-Dan and NRC. Perhaps Meteo, another Canadian brand, is gaining popularity as well. They are becoming more popular here in the States due to their low price point. The quality isn't there yet but the price is right.

Among the towers that are more rural and can't afford $600,000 or more USD for a truck the older Holmes 750 and converted oil field winch trucks along with homemade equipment make up much of the fleet. And there is nothing wrong with that. The wrecker in my avatar was my dad's and in service until 1985, built on a 60 something Diamond Reo with a 50,000 Garwood winch. It was homemade and served him, as well as two previous owners, well. It is what I learned how to drive, rig and winch on. Made me a heck of an operator when I got my first hydraulic unit. Nothing like learning on a single line fixed stick mechanical wrecker. Makes you really appreciate modern wreckers.

As for the 100k side puller, I agree side pullers are an excellent tool -especially on a stick boom, although personally I wouldn't bother with anything larger than 50k. The wire rope would be as thick as my forearm and hard to work by yourself if you were to size it right for the capacity of that winch. As it is even a 50k winch typically only uses 7/8" cable which has a safe working load limit of 22,400 single line, meaning you need tackle to even think of getting the most out of that winch. It would be only a little more tackle to make the 50k perform the same as a 100k, and easier to setup by yourself. Of course it all depends on if you can anchor the truck or share the load with a deadman, we can have the biggest and baddest truck in the world but without good ground anchor it will just slide around and accomplish nothing.

I love learning from other parts of the world, so if you have any job photos please share them to this thread. Most of us watching are current or former operators and love this sort of thing. We would love to see how it is done in BC in the real world -not just the tv show!

 

New season starting Sunday Jan. 6th......Oh and you would think after putting all that money in that old Peterbilt Jaime would have gone the extra mile and put a new seat in while he was at it. Oh well I guess having another $80,000 Tundra was more important. Yeah poor tow truck companies my a!@.

 

Didn’t last years filming (season) just end I know heavy rescue 401 starts Jan 6

 

I'm not in any way sticking up for a tow operator but, in this case the Tundra is sponsored.

 

Ok. Never thought about that.

 

3 things stuck out. #1 Brandon looks and acts like a man now. #2 Glad to see Colin back. #3 You got to be kidding me Jaime Davis. If you showed up to tow me with that 50 year old p.o.s. truck "MIGHTY MO" I would tell you get the hell out of here I'm calling Al Quiring.