When millions of people live on an island and there are limited numbers of ways on and off said island, keeping those thoroughfares open is a prime concern. This 1994 Mack MR688P truck that has a Weldbuilt wrecker unit on it served in the Lincoln Tunnel for many years keeping the road clear and cleaning up accidents in one of the world’s most important tunnels. If the old saw about humans being more evolved from other animals because we can make tools is true than this truck is a rumbling example of it. Designed to be able to work in the tunnel environment which can present its own unique problems, this truck has an ultra short wheelbase, it has big winching and hauling capability in the event that a large truck were to be disabled in the tube, it has a front push bumper and a pair of winch lines to the front so that cars could be lifted up and essentiall bulldozed out of the way, there is a fire hose and umpteen storage areas where tools and other equipment could be stored. This thing is truly gnarly in all the right ways.
Even though the truck is 20 years old, it only has 12,000 actual miles on it which is literally nothing when you think about all the garbage trucks and other rigs that are built off this exact chassis and run for a million miles or just get pounded into dust doing hard short haul work in the city, etc. While there may be 12,000 miles we bet the idling hours on the engine are pretty high because we can pretty much guarantee that when these trucks were on shift they were never shut off so as to be constantly ready to respond to any situation that would come up. The truck has a pair of big hydraulic powered Braden winches. Braden has been around for like 70 years and is one of the best known companies in the heavy duty winch business so those bad boys will be lifting heavy stuff for a long time coming.
The part we dig the most are the two winches on the front of the truck. You can see the red hooks by the truck’s push bumper. We bet those got a lot of use over the years to either lift stuff off the ground or just drag stuff to the side out of the traffic lanes. This is a super handy truck and like my own wrecker Brutus, the business end of the operation was built by New York’s own Weldbuilt who has been in the tow truck business for a long, loooooong time.
What do you think? BangShift approved?
SCROLL DOWN TO SEE PICTURES OF THIS MOTORIZED SWISS ARMY KNIFE –
CLICK HERE TO SEE THE EBAY LISTING FOR THIS AWESOME MACK/WELD-BUILT LINCOLN TUNNEL WRECKER
These wreckers were used by the TBTA (Triborough Bridge & Tunnel Authority) in all 3 of the tunnels & 7 bridges that they were responsible for. The hours should be relatively short as they were not normally on patrol & idling, they were parked at the toll plaza.
The reason for the short wheelbase was so if traffic was blocked traveling in the direction where they were they could drive forward in the wrong direction, then make a U turn in the 2 lanes that were normally available.
When learning to drive in the NYC area one lesson you learned was never, Never, NEVER! stop on a bridge. If you got a flat, this bad boy came up behind you & pushed you off the bridge whether you liked it or not.
This is the 1974 version http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a2/1974_Mack_TBTA_Tow_Truck_%2810058443824%29.jpg
That’s one purposeful looking wrecker. Very cool find.