I'll bet this thing turned a few heads when it was cruising down the road 80 years ago. I saw this story on "Big Bertha" on The Old Motor site. They asked if someone could identify it and after 6 years someone said it could be a 1930-33 GMC. It was so wide that it could seat 4 people including one to the left of the driver. LOL. What do you old truck experts think? From The Old Motor: Not all mystery vehicles get identified here on The Old Motor, but in time a large number of them do and “Big Bertha” is one of them. A photo of this behemoth was posted here six years ago, and recently all of the trucks make up has been identified. Mike Heimes provided many of the details – “My Uncle Louie Prinzing owned the Browncroft Garage located on Atlantic Avenue in Rochester, New York. The truck was built by Buddy Barg and McDonald Welding in Webster, New York. The cab was designed to sit four p***engers, one to the left of the driver and two to his right. I believe it was built on a Mack ch***is because it had a Tri-plex transmission with two shifters. One stick was for a five-speed transmission, and the other stick was for hi-low range and the overdrive. The tubing on the back of the boom of the truck could be unhooked and put down to use as outriggers and the tubes behind the cab could also be used for the same purpose. It was equipped with a generator to run the big lights for nighttime recovery. I think It was sold to someone in Albany. When driven there they burned up the transmission as they didn’t know how to shift the hi-low and overdrive gears”. Mike reported after someone posted this picture and linked to The Old Motor on the forum on the Antique Truck Historical Society website: “It is very difficult to decipher what kind of truck is under all of Big Bertha’s “gingerbread”. This wrecker has more home-grown modifications than just about any truck I’ve seen. But under all of that “bling”, I think you will find a 1930 to ’33 GMC Model “T” with the same specifications as offered on the T-41 to T-61 models. Look closely at the rounded radiator, and you can just barely make out the round GMC emblem, and the cab is the same, they even both have the oval rear window....
The first wreckers were built by the garage owners from Locomobiles, Packards, and other huge luxury cars. Lots of "custom" tow trucks around, but they tend to be more accessorized than customized.
Looks like one of those crazy "rodent rods" that are slowly fading from popularity! The man who built that was a trendsetter, way before it was popular. KK
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