Icy and snowy roads mean stuck school buses when our school district does not call off school. We have a little old wrecker that is still up to the task of dragging a stuck bus out of a ditch. It is a 1969 International. It may set 6 or 7 months without being called into service. Yet it starts every time and gets the job done.
Sweet!
Even the small handicap bus sitting next to it is almost twice as long as the little wrecker. You should see it hooked up to one of our full size, 70 passenger diesel buses. The mechanics keep gas stabilizer in the fuel tank so the ethanol doesn't "gum up the works", when it sits long periods of time.
Nice!!! What kind of winch setup does it have?
It has a Tulsa, PTO operated winch, but I am not sure which model. Notice that the stubby wrecker boom only extends about 1 or 2 ft past the rear of the truck bed. It can lift a heck of a load since it picks it almost straight up from just behind the rear axle. The front push bumper is built very heavy to add weight to the front end. Truck has, I think, a 345, V8 engine. Not all that many 45 year old trucks still out earning their keep, year after year. Our shop crew is pretty proud of this old rig. I wish they would put a new coat of paint on it and shine it up a little.
The local school district here had a truck very similar to that one they ran for years. 10 years or so ago they updated to another IH with fiberglass hood and 466 diesel. You don't see it very often
When I was 18, I worked for a tree outfit that had an International A-frame winch truck with a big block gasser. We'd use it for loading logs onto the dump truck. We'd cable the logs slightly off balance and winch up the log until the light end was wedged into the A-frame. The heavy end would come up and then we'd back it up to the dump truck and place the log in the bed. My knees would feel like they were going to come apart from working the clutch for the winch and the all the jockeying around.
Those old IH trucks were tough rigs .Brings back memories as I was broke in with a 1968 IH 2000 series single axil wrecker with 270 cummins , Tulsa 100 winch & home made bed similar to mowingmans . We drug in everything with that truck . Looked like this . http://www.truckpaper.com/listingsdetail/detail.aspx?OHID=4025509 Take care of the old IH mowingman , she looks good .
Tow mater!