July 21: Hey buddy, need a tow?

Everyone has a favorite tow truck, don't they? They don't? You actually mean to sit there and tell me that, not everyone really cares about these "saviours" of the highways and bi-ways. Doesn't everyone look at Towmater from the Cars movies and think what neat vehicles these trucks are in real life? Heck, there was even a recent TV reality show called, Wrecked, which dealt a big towing company in Chicago. Being a car guy many things on four or more wheels and tires interest (fascinate?) me.

Sure, you have the plain Jane trucks that, tour our cities' highways looking for a quick hit (some folks would call these guys crooks). They are usually medium size, similar to this one used by our local police.........

.........but, going beyond that, there are some very interesting rigs on the roads. Ever wonder what can tow the very biggest vehicles?

Something like this would never be seen towing a mere car. No, this monster and the one below......

.......can tow just about anything from a bus (probably a loaded one) to a huge tractor trailer rig or even a fully loaded dump truck. How else did you think that they got moved, when they had a problem? For that matter, even when the very biggest trucks break, there needs to be something even bigger or at least more powerful to come to their rescue and take them back to the shop. For example.......

If you've followed this blog forever, you'll remember the one I did on those huge Terex and Caterpillar mining trucks. Never think that they break down? Guess again, my friend, so they too, need a tow truck that can get them back to the shop. And some of them can get pretty fancy, if you have a proud owner driver......

........and who wouldn't remember seeing this one on the road?

And by this picture below, you can see that there are a few other folks, who find some of these tow trucks interesting and maybe even interesting enough to devote an entire wall to displaying models of them. Hey, I said I was interested in them, not obsessed by them.

But it stands to reason that, if there are huge tow trucks, there must be something at the other end of the spectrum. There might even be a "toe" truck somewhere......

......but, I digress. So, let's see what is at the smaller end of the tow truck realm........

Sure, you'd expect a Mini tow truck, since they have been converted into just about everything that you can imagine and a few that you can't. But what about this Daihatsu Midget (the name says it all).......

......or this one from some other company Pacific rim country........

Now, just imagine what these little fellows are equipped to tow? No, I can't think of anything either, maybe a golf cart, but heck, you could push them.

Tow trucks. Give them respect when you see them, or at least the biggest rigs and remember that size doesn't always equate to power (the exception being the little guys above).........

Until next time.........