That's a sweet truck, what's the details on the rollback? I mentioned before that I have an old HD rollback, you'll find it's handy as a shirt pocket.
I used mine today to move a few things a friend bought from an auction, it makes loading a snap. I moved a 24' flatbed body, and then went back and got a huge steel rack made from 10" I-beam. Everybody else was standing around waiting for the Lull, and I just backed up and grabbed my stuff and took off.
I don't run it as a wrecker, but I have friends who have them (10k bodies on F650s to stay under CDL), and I'll occasionally go help one of them out. My 24k bed amazes them. I recovered an inverted sideways car from across a canal the other day by just running my bed out over it and rolling the car (an old Crown Vic, no lightweight) onto the tip of the bed, with half the car hanging off the back and an axle on each side. I just lifted the bed and drove forward and set it in the road. The 2 car haulers on scene said their beds would have never handled it, my old girl ignored it.
Thanks Mitch, it's a 26' industrial rollback with a wood (oak) deck. I will be honest, I haven't looked over the truck for 10 straight minutes yet since I got it home Sunday 9-29-13. I work a crazy full time job (just for the steady income and benefits, and to keep my wife off my ***,) and it has been extremely, overwhelmingly busy for me to say the least. I don't need to work 60 hrs.+ anymore; those days are behind me. I have a lot going on for myself these days, as a Flatbed Body dealer for pickups and work trucks, and buying/selling heavy duty components and trucks as a whole on the weekends. I have to have a talk with the employers after the winter season winds down and see if they'll allow me to cut back to a 3-4 day work week to just keep the insurance active so I can go to the next level. Just nice to have a "guaranteed" cash flow, and those medical benefits are kind of handy now and again too.
The story on this truck is, I remember watching it go down the road with the original owner for years with all kinds of industrial machines and towmotors on it, then one day it showed up in a field in town with a for sale sign. I looked it over, but at the moment I wasn't ready to spend 10K for it. Shortly thereafter, a "buddy" bought it for the historical factor. He was going to remove and sell the rollback, hack the truck all up to just play with it, etc. He never did a thing to it except make a few moves for himself, all he did positively to it was change the oil and coolant, a good thing. Luckily he isn't that ambitious. I know what he paid for it, considerably less than 10K, so that was helpful to me. I sold a truck Saturday (the day before,) and immediately called him up and leaned on him a little, saying I will buy that KW in an hour and if he's not interested in my offer, then there will be another Autocar in my yard by tomorrow afternoon as I am an impulse spender. He squirmed for a couple hours, but it's sitting here now and that's all that counts. He was trying to hold out for 10K to make a killing, but there was no way he'd get it with all the little stuff it needs to get it in shape to use.
He ran it with a bad wheel seal and it's the first thing I need to address, then the exhaust off the turbo, and then the Ramsey winch hydraulic line needs to be r & r'd to use the truck. My wife's registering it today. I have to get on that truck hard the next few weekends to get it ready to use without fail.
What's unique about the way the rollback works (as you know with yours too,) is you can gain another 4-5 feet of length to haul something around 30' or so by just leaving the bed back away from the headache rack. He (last owner,) sold and hauled a bunch of roof trusses that were 32' long by doing that. I would have secured the front of the bed with a chain to be safe as he didn't....but everybody's different. That's a handy dandy feature in itself.
I cannot tell you how many times I have called people to move something, that were either too busy, too drunk, too lazy or too uninterested to help me out. Just recently as a month ago, I aquired a 20 ft. storage body that needed to be moved from it's location to here, a lousy 50 miles. I messed around with 2 guys for 2 weeks, trying to convince them it's easy access to get the body...easy to unload. That drove me crazy, ended up hiring a kid with a car carrier for $85.00/hr. that did a good job, but it cost me $250.00 for the move. I am happy to say, those days are now officially OVER, lol.
That recovery deal you just told me about was pretty neat. As you said, your truck ingored the job, as the lightweights stood there watching you work with ease. I'm thinking I will get a LOT of little odds and ends with this truck as I get more exposure. Everybody always passes here and sees my collection as I am on the main drag, so word will get around that Lowboy is up to something.....hahahahaha.
I love auctions. Last spring I'd have bought a couple items at an auction I was at had I owned this truck, but I had no way to move the things I wanted and didn't want to get invloved with begging people to do it.
Plans include a brand new front bumper, remove lettering asap, another stack (dual exhaust), put all shiny aluminum Budd wheels all the way around on it, replace every rusted utility light, add more lights, and enjoy having a classic KW rollback to go out and make a couple bucks with, and have some fun at truck shows as well. I got with the paperwork, a notebook with all the stuff the guy before this guy did to the truck, and I'm happy that is shows a lot of the major things were done already. New clutch, pressure plate, throwout bearing, springs, etc. Now all I have is all the small TLC stuff left.
I started off in 1978 driving truck in a B-61 Mack, my brother bought a brand new 1979 W900 to run coast to coast with which I did with him, so that was the second truck I drove as a young guy. I have a special place in my heart for them,(W900A KW's) always had.
