Stuck truck

[Mr. Sir]

Last week, my boy got the chip truck stuck in the mud while dumping mulch. He was in a place where I had previously told him NOT to go to, so rather than call me, they tried to pull it out with the bucket truck. They ended up breaking the tow hook bolts (all three of them!) and pulling the bumper off on the driver's side. AND they STILL had to call a wrecker to get it out.
I just got the bill from the towing service. $400! All they did was hook up the cable and winch it about 20 feet onto solid ground. :what: I'll be calling them in the morning to raise cain about the price. Meantime, I told my guy that I'll be taking it out of his check since he knew he wasn't supposed to drive there.

 

[Old Monkey]

That sucks. Out of his paycheck is better than his hide.

 

[Fiddler]

It's unfortunate, but sometimes the only way for some to learn is through their wallet.

 

[stehansen]

My Dad wrecked a buck rake one time. The horses were left unattended and ran away with it and got it hung up on a little bridge. His Dad made him fix it using some other wrecked rakes for parts. Everything was riveted together and all he had to use for tools to take them apart was a hammer and cold chisel. Said it was a great learning experience, not only about taking precautions but about how the stuff was made also.

 

[Al Smith]

You drive equipment long enough you will get it stuck at sometime or another . Try unsticking a stuck dozer sometime .

 

[Old Monkey]

It's unfortunate, but sometimes the only way for some to learn is through their wallet.

Most of my lessons seem to go that way.

 

[Mr. Sir]

I've gotten stuck plenty of times. More than a few required a wrecker to get out, but its NEVER been $400. Typically about $150.

 

[SkwerI]

But tow companies have different rates for different situations, usually along the lines of 'whatever we can get away with'. The person paying the tow bill (you) wasn't on site so the rate gets kicked to the far right column on the chart.

 

[Thor's Hammer]

Yup. If you check out my Yarder thread, you'll see my chipping contractor got himself badly stuck. I called a wrecker company for him, and they quoted me $60 call out charge, and $190 an hour. Took them no more than 1.5 hours to pull him out, but he got a bill for $1200...
They said they had to bring an extra man (who stood and watched) and that they were charging an hour each way travel (even though they were 20 mins away) and that id became a 'special' (ie ripoff) rate job. No wonder they can afford such a flashy wrecker.

 

[Mr. Sir]

Yup, that's why I'll be calling them. I've used this company for years. My guy says he balked at the original price of $450, so the driver "did him a favor" and knocked off $50. :roll:

 

[Mr. Sir]

It took less than 30 minutes to get him out, and it's about 6 minutes travel time each way. They sent a small tow truck first, but that driver took one look at our truck and said he wouldn't even try. So he called for a bigger wrecker. I'm not paying double just because they sent the wrong truck.

 

[stehansen]

My forestry truck was towed for about 22 miles for $250

 

[CurSedVoyce]

Biggest bill I ever had was $500.00. On the way to Klamath Falls just past Lincoln. Took two trucks as we had a full trailer hitched to the truck that was stuck on ice. It was also about 45 minutes to 1 hour out from their station off 99. Now that bill I understood. TG for towing insurance!

 

[Newfie]

This past winter, my plow truck slid off a narrow icy driveway at 10pm fully loaded with sand and buried in 3 feet of snow. Two man crew up a 300' driveway, took an hour and a half to get me back going without a scratch. $120 charge.

 

[SkwerI]

I think I paid about $325 when I had my bucket truck towed from one shop to another about 15 miles away. The guy had to hook an air line up to my air tank to pressurize the brakes so they would release, then we had to move the truck around to where he could hook up to it. That was almost 2 years ago when I was having fuel problems with the old Detroit 8.2.

 

[CurSedVoyce]

Can you guys get towing insurance for the larger trucks like buckets and whotnot?

 

[SkwerI]

Stephen, I wouldn't want to. I'd rather just pay as needed (which isn't very often) than pay out every single month for a 'what if'.

 

[CurSedVoyce]

Just wondered... Pretty cheap on my stuff. I doubted they would be too kind on the larger trucks.

 

[lumberjack]

This little fella set me back $300, and he did a goodly bit more than pull a truck 20'.

 

[stehansen]

That's the size they sent out to tow my bucket truck.

 

[No_Bivy]

if your dudes did not give them the heads up.....and they had to come back twice, I can see that price.

125 to move a truck/chipper here...local

add some funkyness.....$$$$go up

used a tow rig to move a log.....took 45min....cost 300. Similar to LJs rig

 

[Al Smith]

Tom has a guy with a huge wrecker that will haul those trucks from in town to my shop which is 22 miles for 50-75 bucks . I doubt however he would winch one out of the ditch that cheaply .

 

[stehansen]

Those things cost a fortune, I think they work fairly cheap.

 

[woodworkingboy]

At those exorbitant towing rates, it's as if the police made the call to the tow outfit.

 

[Newfie]

At those exorbitant towing rates, it's as if the police made the call to the tow outfit.

That's the truth. Guy got pinched for bad plates,no insurance, no license. $785 for a 10 mile tow and one night storage on a Mack 6-wheeler dump. Tow company said that the police dept in that jurisdiction dictate the tow and storage charges as a condition of the tow contract. If the truck owner had called for the same tow it would have been $300.