There's some pretty impressive tow trucks out there. Biggest one I've worked with was a rotator on a five axle Western Star chassis. Yep, five axles; three in back, two steerable axles on the front. IIRC, the boom on that truck could LIFT a loaded semi trailer, let alone the unloaded one we had it lift. A rotator is essentially a crane crossed with a tow truck; large boom of large tonnage capacity, along with the usual back end lift.
On that particular job the semi had a blowout, parked on the shoulder to wait for the service truck and then had the shoulder collapse under the tail of the trailer. The trailer went over the embankment, thankfully not pulling the tractor with it, the king pin sheared off. There was about a 30' steep drop followed by about 200' of hillside.
Of course, the trailer didn't stop until the bottom, rolling most of the way, finally coming to a stop on it's roof. Actually worked out better that way, we were able to set a snatch block to a tree at the base of the drop and drag the trailer up the hillside. Unloading was a chore; we used pallets with Gaylords(gigantic cardboard box, usually stapled or nailed to the pallet, approx 4x4x4') and had to unload each pallet off the trailer one by one. Once the trailer was empty we flipped it and lifted it up the drop off, where it was loaded onto a lowboy.
I wish I would have had a camera with me, and the time to actually take pictures. Loading the trailer onto the lowboy was cool to watch. The truck operator lifted it up pretty much as high as he could with the boom then rotated 180 degrees to lower it onto the lowboy they parked next to the truck. They had to close the rest of the road when they lifted(we'd been working with one lane and a set of flagmen) so the lowboy had a spot to park, but they only had to shut the road down for about 10 minutes.
On that particular job the semi had a blowout, parked on the shoulder to wait for the service truck and then had the shoulder collapse under the tail of the trailer. The trailer went over the embankment, thankfully not pulling the tractor with it, the king pin sheared off. There was about a 30' steep drop followed by about 200' of hillside.
Of course, the trailer didn't stop until the bottom, rolling most of the way, finally coming to a stop on it's roof. Actually worked out better that way, we were able to set a snatch block to a tree at the base of the drop and drag the trailer up the hillside. Unloading was a chore; we used pallets with Gaylords(gigantic cardboard box, usually stapled or nailed to the pallet, approx 4x4x4') and had to unload each pallet off the trailer one by one. Once the trailer was empty we flipped it and lifted it up the drop off, where it was loaded onto a lowboy.
I wish I would have had a camera with me, and the time to actually take pictures. Loading the trailer onto the lowboy was cool to watch. The truck operator lifted it up pretty much as high as he could with the boom then rotated 180 degrees to lower it onto the lowboy they parked next to the truck. They had to close the rest of the road when they lifted(we'd been working with one lane and a set of flagmen) so the lowboy had a spot to park, but they only had to shut the road down for about 10 minutes.
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