Ottawa is currently under attack.
The weatherman has lost his noodle and decided to dump a foot of white stuff
on our poor heads. The snowfall started yesterday night and has kept a
steady pace all day. I was at work today when one of our tow truck
contractors got a little stuck in our icy parking lot.
Seems he didn't notice the cement island in the middle of the lot and drove
his flatbed up on top of it. The front axle (solid piece) rose up on the
island, stopping the road train abruptly. This flatbed is a GMC topkick with
a GVWR of about 30K lbs. It's not your regular tow truck. He had a ford F150
in tow behind it, which almost jumped off the wheel lift of the tow truck
when it all came to a halt.
Anyways, he was blocking traffic in a major way, so a few of the guys at
work decided to intervene. After trying the usual ideas, like sand and salt,
it became quite clear that the big blue GMC wasn't moving.
Valdez to the rescue. I hooked up to the tow truck using his J hook, which
was slipped into the mountings on the back of the flatbed. I pulled but
nothing happened. It didn't even move. I drove forward about a foot, and
backed up a bit to try and give him a bit of a tug, just wee little thump on
the end of the chain that might dislodge the beast, and not an instant
later, I am sitting in the drivers' seat, covered in broken glass. The slip
attach on the back of the tow truck had bent and the chain had come flying
at the rover. Not with a whole lot of force, just enough to get flung at the
windshield with enough force to give it a nice big spider. Great. I had the
little fragments of glass on me. The chain didn't come near to actually
coming through the glass, but it sure got my attention.
The tow truck offered to pay for the glass, I wasn't too concerned as I knew
I had a spare, but it just annoyed and scared me. I'm never ever using chain
in any kind of recovery operation ever ever again. It wasn't even a tug,
just a little thump and the thing came flying at me with an alarming amount
of force. Could have been ugly had I given it some real power, not just a
halfhearted try. What really ticks me off is the only reason I used the
chain is because the tow truck operator offered it to me. Ordinarily I would
have used the winch or a tow strap. That was really dumb on my part.
Anyways, after that it was clear I was going to need traction and the winch.
The problem is, in the middle of a snowstorm, there isn't much in the way of
traction. Luckily this is the first snowfall, and there was a concrete curb
not far away that I could use as a "wheel chock". I drove around it and got
into winching position, pulled out the cable and put the snatch block in
line. Hooked the snatch block to a steel cable strap and wrapped that around
the frame of the truck.
Valdez groaned and was quite unhappy to be stuck, front tires butted up
against 6" of concrete with the winch whirring away, trying to get this
monster of a tow truck off the island. The cables groaned and I felt the
tail end get very light as the pull got harder and harder. The winch (with
snatchblock) was starting to stall and I could hear the motor slowing down
to near-stall, with two wraps of cable on the drum, with a pulley in line to
boot. This truck was not going to move.
The first try failed. I had to try it again as the front tires eventually
jumped the curb and I was plowing into the flower garden of the next door
gas station parking lot. I got out, moved some snow out of the way to get
some good traction with the front tires, and tried it again. This time it
worked. The winch was about to stall and bystanders thought 'Dez's rear axle
was going to lift right off the ground when, ever so slowly, the tow truck
started to slide back on the island and finally was able to back up.
So, if anyone in Ottawa needs a tow truck, one of the drivers for Capital
Towing owes me a damn big favor. He told me after that he was sure he was
going to have a heavy truck recovery company, which charges about 250$ for a
routine call. Maybe I should start undercutting them ;-)
J-L
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