Towing has become an essential need in the lives of motorists. Statistics from the AAA show that a car breakdown is experienced in one of every five drivers every day. Many people have used the towing services although most may not know the interesting history of towing. Here is a look at that inspiring history. Towing has existed with the existence of vehicles. However, questions always arise as to how vehicles were towed before the tow truck.
Back in 1916, a driver of one of the best car models at that time, a Ford T, swerved off the road and crashed in a creek in Tennessee. One mechanic, Ernest Holmes happened to be in the neighborhood as this was his home area. He mobilized other men to give a helping hand in getting the car out of the creek which proved to be a very difficult task for the team of men. The only available tools they could use were wood, rope, and bricks. It took eight men several hours to accomplish the task.
When did tow trucks first appear?
Towing has been a thing in one way or another for as long as there have been vehicles that could break down. Before the days of cars, large animals would get hooked up to broken down vehicles, pulling them out of mud, snow, or anywhere else. They would even sometimes help get broken vehicles back home. Of course, there wasn’t any kind of towing service back in those days, and most of the time, the people that would help were simply those with the means and ability to do so who happened to stop by. Often, many of those poor vehicles were abandoned as there were no tools or people with the expertise around to help. Nowadays, tow truck companies are booming, with even small cities having some around. But when did tow trucks as we know it start to appear?
First Tow Truck in the History of Towing
When Ernest Holmes Sr. was called to help pull his friend’s car from a river, it was a real challenge. As there hadn’t been any towing equipment, where could he even start? Two people couldn’t do it alone. Thankfully, Holmes knew the owner of a nearby service station, a man who sent a crew out to the scene, so a total of eight men worked together on the recovery. Using only, wood, bricks, rope, and a whole lot of manpower, this group of men spent hours out by the water pulling the vehicle out one inch at a time. After the grueling process was done, Holmes was exhausted. He knew there had to be a better way.
Ernest Holmes Sr. invented the first tow truck 100 years ago. After the exasperating process of early roadside recovery, Holmes went to work on finding a way to automate what it took eight men hours to accomplish. The first prototype was a failure, as a basic car simply wasn’t stable enough to recover another vehicle. Undeterred, Holmes spend an extensive amount of time and money, eventually building a viable machine. This first tow truck, the Holmes 485, was completed in 1919 and would have cost approximately a quarter of a million dollars in modern figures. But considering all of the time and effort it saved, it quickly paid for itself!
Following the incident, he thought of developing a wrecker which would make such rescues easier in future. Holmes developed the first wrecker prototype but when he put it to test, it failed to get the job done. In 1919 he developed an improved model after realizing that the wrecker needed to be supported y outriggers for stability. When put to test, it took ten men about eight hours to remove a car from a water trap.
Later in the year, a success story was written when a 485 outrigger was designed which could be attached to any vehicle. It was succeeded by the 685 whose cost ($685) made it fail. Another Locomobile coupled with the 485 Holmes’ design was developed in 1913. It was the most expensive tow truck at that time costing $6000. These early towing trucks utilized pulleys and hooks which aimed at reducing the effort used in towing. With the inventions in effect, it could take one man to accomplish what eight men struggled for hours to accomplish. After every few years, newer models of tow trucks could be developed with better equipment allowing the truck driver to have a better experience during towing.
Currently, towing is a high-tech industry experiencing the development of sophisticated and more efficient tow trucks such as the flatbed which is operated solely by electrical switches and hydraulic systems. Modern towing equipment combines better design, safety, and power with better towing techniques. These include hitches wheel lifts, flatbeds, and integrated tow trucks.
What kind of equipment did early tow trucks have?
Early tow trucks used a combination of hooks and pulleys set up in such a way to reduce the amount of work required to move a vehicle. Combined with a proprietary operating system, a single person could do the work of what used to take half a dozen people or more in significantly less time! (See all the parts in an early diagram here) Every few years, a new model would come out with new equipment, such as the “V” Towing Coupler that allowed a tow truck driver to go up to 30 MPH with a hooked-up car without damaging it.
Modern Towing History
Back when tow trucks were still new, most designs played off of what Holmes initially came up with. And of course he didn’t stop at just making the one truck; the Holmes W70 is still the largest wrecker in the world, and could lift up to 70 tons. Many of the essential components, such as cranes, are still used. However, improvements in these essential components also help the tow trucks themselves to run more effectively, and while semi-trucks weren’t a thing back when the first tow trucks were used, a modern heavy-duty tow truck can even lift an overturned semi with a full cargo load.
While many of the early towing innovations are still solid, it’s important that tow truck operators move on with the times as well. And while the original Holmes 485 was an impressive machine for its time, its steam-powered engine wouldn’t stand a chance on towing something as large and heavy as a motorhome. Of course, there aren’t any of these original tow trucks still on the road, but some towing companies don’t use equipment that has updated with the times, preferring to stick with the exact same tow truck they’ve used for decades! And while equipment like a hook and chain is still viable in certain situations, limiting to that technology also limits the type of job the truck can handle.
Much like computers, modern tow trucks can fit a lot more power into a smaller space than the tow trucks decades earlier. But power isn’t everything; equipment and technique are just as if not more important to making sure the job gets done right. Some of these more modern innovations include:
- Wheel lifts lift the wheels off the ground using hydraulic or pneumatic hoists. This is a great option for two-wheel drive cars, as the tires not used for driving can assist in the towing process and your transmission won’t be harmed.
- Flatbed Trailers can get those bigger vehicles where they need to be. Ever wonder how an oversized load or farming tractors that aren’t running get moved? A flatbed has plenty of room for these and other unusual vehicles.
- Integrated Tow Trucks combine a boom lift and a wheel lift on a single truck. This makes it more versatile and gives these tow trucks the ability to handle virtually any kind of residential vehicle without much trouble.
Facts About The History of Tow Trucks
Towing isn’t a new profession
Human beings have been using tow trucks to haul vehicles for more than a century. It was way back in 1916 when a mechanic named Ernest Holmes used towing techniques to recover a Ford Model T that had driven off the road. However, it took 8 hours and six men to get that car back on the road. Holmes eventually designed a tow truck machine in 1919 to make vehicle recovery or hauling a relatively easy task.
Canada is home to the largest tow trucks
There are hundreds of towing companies operating across Canada, where you can find some of the biggest tow trucks in the world. Some of the largest tow trucks come with a big, durable crane at the back. An operator can lift wrecked and disabled vehicles from a considerable distance without causing inconvenience to road users.
A Cadillac was first used as a tow truck
Holmes originally tried to mount a towing machine to the back of his 1913 Cadillac. The car was modified to support a pulley system and crane. However, the system wasn’t powerful and well balanced enough to perform daily towing operations. Holmes didn’t give up and sold his first commercial tow truck, a steam-powered vehicle, for $485. This was the starting point of modern day towing technologies.
Being a tow truck operator isn’t an easy job
Do you think driving a car and a tow truck are relatively similar? Towing isn’t as simple as you might think, though it might look like a fun and easy job when you see someone driving a large tow truck with great ease while carrying heavy loads. A special driver’s licence is required to operate a tow truck. There are towing laws that regulate the industry, which means you can’t just drive a tow truck around without a license or industry knowledge.