Museum Update: 1935 Chevrolet Tow Truck

Type: 1 ½ ton towtruck

Nickname: “The Chev”

Color: Blue

Photo: The character in our “Santa Clause” photo is Brian Storer. He was a faithful employee of Burien Towing his entire life, as he was raised in the family business. Brian owned his own Santa Suit and enjoyed posing for this photo to add a Christmas photo to our company calendar. Brian died July 24th, 2008 in an airplane accident. His animated and jolly character is forever remembered at Burien Towing.

Specifications: 6 Cylinder, 3 speed transmission, hydraulic brakes

Tow Unit: Manley Wrecker #107 Crane with Auxiliary Winch

Biography: Originally purchased in 1935 by Benson Chevrolet in Franklin, Hew Hampshire (America’s oldest Chevrolet dealer) the cab and chassis were fitted with a dump bed and sold. One year later, the customer decided he wanted the new 1936 Chevrolet that came with hydraulic brakes as opposed to the mechanical brakes on the 1935. He headed back to the dealership and traded it in. Upon returning to Benson Chevrolet, the dump bed was removed from the truck and it was replaced with a Manley Wrecker unit, making it into a tow truck. It was then used for towing until it retired and went into storage in the 1970’s.

Restoration: Burien Towing found the truck in Maine and purchased it in working condition from a classic car dealer in 1999 to add to its rapidly expanding collection of antique tow trucks. As soon as the truck arrived in Burien it was obvious that the wood deck on the truck needed some work so it was placed in the Burien Towing warehouse to begin restoration. Only minimal restoration was required as the cab and chassis were purchased in good condition.

To bring it up to show quality the tow unit was removed and the bed was dismantled. The lumber was refinished by Burien Towing employees. After the truck was reassembled, custom gold leaf lettering was added to the doors by Dunn Auto Graphics. An original 1935 Washington truck lisence plate was also purchased and restored to look new. Finally, a Weaver Auto Ambulance was added to the bed of the truck just as it may have been used in the era the Chev was operating. The auto amubulance is a dolly system that is placed under the axle of the truck in tow to lift the wheels off the ground. Since the truck was completed, Burien Towing has taken it to several local parades and car shows, including the Burien 4th of July Parade among others.

To view the full version of this page go to our Museum Page and click on 1935 Chevrolet. This is the first museum page to be completed. More updates to our other antique tow truck pages are coming soon!

Lumber Recovery on I-5: No Job Too Big

When other towing companies from the Seattle-Tacoma area refused to accept the job of cleaning up debris from a major accident scene Friday night, crews from Airport Towing went to work.

Heavy duty tow trucks were called to an accident scene on I-5 in SeaTac this weekend that involved an overturned semi truck and a 53 foot long trailer full of milled alder. The tow truck operators were unable to upright the truck with the load attached, so they cut it loose and abandoned it in the median. The off ramp was shut down until DOT crews could push the loose materials out of the roadway with a frontloader and the truck was hauled away. After one lane was reopened, the insurance agent on scene of the major incident was told she had to find someone who could finish the job.

With thousands of board feet of lumber on the ground, she called Airport Towing to finish the job other companies refused to do. Trucks were dispatched to the scene immediately and Airport Towing made a quick assessment of what equipment would be needed to handle the complicated task. One heavy duty tow truck responded immediately along with a large 3 axle carrier and a forklift. Other equipment used was a second flatbed, an additional forklift, two tow trucks for traffic control, and nine personnell.

What made the job increasingly complicated was most of the stacks of lumber had broken apart and were loose on the ground. All but three bundles had to be carried by hand out of the median and up to the pavement where they were neatly restacked and lifted by forklift onto flatbed tow trucks. The three surviving bundles were only half broken apart and were able to be lifted by a large wrecker. Specialized recovery straps were used to choke the load together and bring it up onto the roadway as individual sections.

The load recovery was so labor intensive it required 83 man hours of labor with a total on scene time of over 12 hours. Crews from Airport Towing are confident that if they had been given the opportunity to manage the accident recovery from the beginning, the load could have been manipulated or the truck uprighted in a way that would have cut down on the efforts that followed to recover the load.

DOT crews praised Airport Towing for their efforts on scene as they worked through the night and into the next morning. “You guys do good work,” stated a DOT worker on scene at the time of the incident recovery. Airport Towing once again proved themselves capable of handling large and complicated emergency incidents and  made sure to continue working on scene until all lumber and debris were completely recovered.