Stick in the Mud

You might think just because you have a four wheel drive that you are invincible in the winter. You might think that because you rig weighs twenty to thirty five thousand bounds that you can’t get stuck in heavy snow. You might even think that if you are driving a vehicle with tank treads like a bulldozer, that nothing will get in your way or stop you from moving forward in unfavorable conditions.

Not true.

This bulldozer operator had just enough confidence in his vehicle to get it stuck nice and deep.

Lucky for him Big Rig Towing had a solution and got him out of a sticky situation.

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Ice Pack

When you carrying 6000 lbs of meet you want to make sure it’s good and cold in the back. When you think that meat can begin to rot in less than 3 hours when not refrigerated, I guess going off the road into a snow bank isn’t such a bad idea.

Unfortunately for the great crew at Big Rig Towing the entire rig had to be shoveled out before it could be towed out.

A couple of hours of heavy snow hauling did the trick and got this busted rig back to the shop for repairs.

Luckily none of the beef was spoiled just a few blisters and a couple of sore backs.

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A Penny For Your Thoughts

Just so you know, a penny laid on a railway track cannot derail a train. The possibility of that happening is none existent. A big object like a car or a very large boulder could send a train off track but most derailments are actually caused by breaks or fissures in the rail or defects in the wheels.

While Big Rig Towing is noted most for the recovery of large transport trucks it can also be an asset in any situation where heavy loads need leverage to be put right.

As in this train car derailment, when 168,000 lbs comes of its rails, you need a little more than your average tow truck to do the job.

Don’t try this at home. If you have something that needs towed, lifted or adjusted that weighs more than your family car, best choice is to call an expert in heavy lifting and towing.

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The Ditch

Sometimes it is almost impossible to see where the road ends and the ditch begins. Add blowing snow to the mix and the equation becomes even harder to puzzle out. Under extreme conditions it is a testament to the drivers of big rigs that more don’t end up in the ditch.

When temperatures go below -30 ending up in the ditch, whether its day or night, presents a whole new set of problems. Not just for the driver of the rig but for the tow truck operators as well. Keeping warm and safer while working with thousands of pounds of frozen steel is a difficult process.

Because the human body is mostly made up of water and we know that water freezes at -32 c getting stuck in the ditch on a -40 night becomes more of a rescue than a tow.

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Rock and Roll

During the recent flooding in Calgary not just homes were flooded but a huge number of vehicles were left stranded and ruined by the rising water.

These two 6500 pound rock trucks were two of the many big vehicles that needed to be rolled onto flatbeds and towed to repaired after water destroyed their engines.

Big Rig Towing gets calls for any number of recovery and towing situations. This tow proved to be one that was less dangerous than some but not without its challenges because of the size of these huge trucks.

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Man on a Wire

Not all Big Rig Towing jobs are the recovery of crashed or stuck rigs. Sometimes it’s as simple as a big snow fall.

When a parked rig gets a large amount of snow on its roof it can’t just take off down the road. If the truck gets up to speed and a few hundred pounds of snow comes flying off, it could cause damage to vehicles following or worse, sending a trailing vehicle into an oncoming lane.

Not all solutions have to be complicated hookups or rotator coordinated events either.

This snow removal campaign was remedied by hooking up a volunteer shoveller to the rotator and hoisting them on top of the rig to get rid of its snowy burden.

I know someone who won’t be shovelling the walk after work.

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Rotator

photo 4A tow truck rotator is essentially a big crane mounted to the deck of the tow truck and can be used for everything from lifting heavy machinery fallen from rigs that have flipped over or for removing a load from a rig that needs less weight so it can be towed. It can also lift heavy equipment from one place to another to assist in getting cargo off one rig onto another.

Big Rig Towing has a number of rotator tow trucks and an can boast they have the only 75 ton rotator in Southern Alberta. Especially once the weather gets cold the highways become more treacherous. An expert rotator operator can make all the difference in getting your towing situation resolved quickly and safely.

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Two Cranes are Better Than One

Big Rig Towing was called to the far reaches of Northern Alberta, and contracted Jamie Davis Towing to assist in a touchy recovery.

Near Fort McMurray, on what is commonly referred to as the Highway Thru Hell, this heat exchanger was separated from its rig and ended up in the ditch. The exchanger unit weighs 60,000 pounds and is worth a staggering $1,000,000.00!

It took two large rotators worked in tandem to seamlessly recover this precious cargo without further damage.

After two day of planning, examining and hard work the exchanger was flawlessly loaded onto a trailer and sent back to the manufacturer for repairs.

The expertise of both these companies and operators saved the exchanger from incurring any more damage and saved the happy client thousands more in repair.

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The Slider

I don’t care what anybody says when 70,000 pounds starts to slide sideways and is out of control, run!!

This heavy piece of equipment was being loaded onto a trailer when it decided to get a little gnarly.

Big Rig Towing used its heavy crane to hoist it back into position and kept it stable until it could be fully loaded and tied down.

Moving heavy equipment is a job for the professionals. When they say don’t try this at home they mean don’t try this at all if you don’t know what you’re doing

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