Purchased this 1951 GMC as a project. Not really interested in the tow accessories, But would hate to hack it all up. The story goes; It has always been a tow truck, From northern Ohio, It does have "documented" 56k actual miles, All I know for sure is that it's a Braden winch, looks to have some sort of a pto set up, and 2 levers on the right rear. If anyone can help "date" or identify this it would be helpful. Also... It's up for grabs if anyone may be interested. , may include the entire drive line, chassis, bed, and so on. Thanks for any help!!!
Squirrel, Not sure how you got the pic's to load, But a HUGE "THANKS"!!!!! Been tryin to get them to load for 40 min!!!!! Thanks again!!!!
I cheated...I did the "quote" thing so I got the links to the picasaweb page for each image, then I left clicked on the image and selected "view image", then I copied the URL from the address bar in the browser, and pasted it into the IMG tags to replace the bad links. got it? Anytime you try to use the IMG tags, the link you use has to end in .jpg or it won't work.
The 2 bars in the last pic look like anti-sway bars for a load leveler trailer hitch....not sure they belong with a tow truck
Nice pto driven winch. ,The boom is homemade and stationary no up and down. The boom is mostly scrap,save the blocks and pulleys. The winch probably still works.The 2 bars you have are as already said load leveler bars for a trailer.
The unit is not home made, it just looks like it is. Many small company's built tow truck's starting after WWII. My Dad invented a hitch in 1953 and sold the Patent rights/ Licensing rights to manufacture to Holmes in 55 if I remember correctly. I built tow trucks as a kid working in the shop welding up all the parts with the men. It was a great beginning learning how to work and weld metal. As a teenager I could weld as good as the production welders, and my Dad would put me on the line after school and on Saturday's . School always came first. Your tow truck would have been called a "wrecker". There was a reason for that. Just look at the hitch. If the car wasn't damaged before the wrecker showed up, it sure as hell was when it was towed away. That was the reason for a better mouse trap, IE a new type of hitch. There was also another well designed hitch at the time called an Ortez hitch. Holmes was the biggest manufacturer of tow trucks in the East. They built twenty five units a day and my Dad got a royalty of $1.00 per hitch. Every ninety days he got a check for almost seventeen years. It was an interesting time when it came to tow trucks. Think of the demand. Every small town in North America needed more than one tow truck. As time pasted the quality of the hitches had to improve and that made it a wide open market. I grew up around this environment in the 1950's, and it was an interesting time. My Dad sold the manufacturing plant in the late 50,s, and moved on to rod iron rails. I went to GMI and later learned how to sculptor car bodies in clay. Later I became a Mechanical Engineer. Fifty plus years later I still weld with one of the original welders we used building tow truck way back when. I can't tell what manufacturer your truck would be, but it's most likly period correct. When we built ours they where on new Fords, but company's built them on all the different brands. I'm not sure if any of this babble is of any help to you, but good luck with your project.
i now know about 1000% more about tow trucks than i did before. that was an interesting read johnny sweet, thanks for sharing.
If you decide to take it off the truck, I sure hope you keep it all together, so someone who digs old tow trucks can put it back on the road for all to see. There aren't many left.
damn i wish you were closer. we are gonna start a 47 ford wrecker build this spring. im gonna need the whole shabang!!
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