question on Holmes wrecker

[maddawg308]

Does anyone here have experience using a Holmes-style wrecker? Not sure the mechanics of an older tow truck, having grown up almost entirely in the rollback tow truck era. Can anyone explain to me the purpose of the black-strap looking thing that hung down in the rear of the older tow trucks and wreckers, and how it would properly be hooked up to a towed vehicle? The military Holmes wreckers, what was there a weight limit to what it could tow like that?

 

[Floridianson]

Like the one in my avatar? lower sling back up to car with bumper till sling is about midway on bumper. Get the two hook chains and hook to car undercarrage and the outher ends to the hooks that are on the outside bottom both sides of sling. Wind up sling and run.

 

[Recovry4x4]

You can't begin to imagine all of the things you can do with a split boom such as the Holmes 480. Dual winches and you can winch from the rear, sides or both sides. Split booms are an incredibly versatile machine. James, your is a 750 right? Split boom?

 

[Floridianson]

Yes Sir

 

[Silverback]

Stay away from the Holmes 550, way too many problems, the 480, 650 and 750 are excellent units, too many cool things you can do with split booms. You can raise and lower the booms as you need, off road recovery with one anchoring the wrecker, the other used to recover the vehicle, Holmes also made extensions for the booms, but you really had to be aware of how much weight you were lifting to keep from folding the extension. The rear slings are great for cars with solid bumpers, as in not fiberglass or plastic front ends. We always carried a couple of 4x4's 2-3' long to use as braces under the sling bar to keep from damaging front valance panels and such. You did have to be careful when using the sling system, especially when it was wet, if you had to hit the brakes hard the car or truck would sometimes "climb" or slide up the sling, if you had your "J: hooks under instead of over you could drop the vehicle when you accelerated again.

 

[Recovry4x4]

My first exposure to the 480 went like this. A friend brought one home from work so we could remove a powerpack from a 71 Chevy truck rolling chassis sitting on 40" tires. Slung it as tight as we could but we lacked about 4" of height to get the job done. Mike look around and spyed a tree on the opposite side of the truck. He swung that boom out over the side and tied the cable off low on the tree and cranked that side winch. It cinched up and proceeded to lift the other side of the truck right up, chassis rolled right out. Yeah, I love the little 480.