Thanks to OG BangShifter Joe Haber, we were tipped off to the greatest thing that we’ve seen in a good long time. Virtually all of us played with Tonka trucks as kids. Not to go into old man mode, but back in the day they were all steel, rugged as hell, and could actually double as Earth moving equipment if the wheelbarrow or lawn tractor went down. While I never had the rockin’ old wrecker from the Tonka line, I did have dump trucks, front end loaders, and all that good stuff. Hell, those toys are half the reason I am obsessed with big trucks and machines to this day. Happily, Brad Doane has it way worse than I do and as the operator of a towing company, he has the resources to really expound on his love of wreckers. Doane took a Chevy truck that he bought for $700 off the side of the road and transformed it into an honest to God life sized replica of the old Tonka tow truck. This is not some hacky, junk looking thing….it is beautifully accurate right down to the front mounted exhaust stacks, hand cranked winch, and side tiller style steering wheel. This is all time greatness.
The video below gives a profile of Brad, his family, the inspiration for the build and it shows the truck coming together. The best part of the video is actually the in-cab footage showing Brad driving the truck down the road using the small side mounted steering wheel. He built it for use at parades and car shows where kids will surely swarm this thing like a hornet’s nest. We want to drive to Wisconsin right now and drive it ourselves or just look at it up close and weep tears of pure joy.
Look, this thing could have gone 80-directions of wrong, but it didn’t. The thing is an amazingly accurate upscaled version of the toy. From the doors to the windows in the cab, it is all right. We’re out of words. Brad Doane is the man and his truck is 100% BangShift approved. If you don’t dig this thing you need to examine everything about your life.
PRESS PLAY BELOW TO SEE A LIFE SIZED TONKA TRUCK BUILT BY ONE OF THE COOLEST DUDES IN WISCONSIN –
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Cool, Was hoping he built the dump truck I has when I was a kid.
Maybe he has a really REALLY big kid? Big truck, big diapers, big ….!!!!!
So cool, I remember the older kids had that truck,its before my time.
Only a few hours from me Brian, I’ll pick you up at O’Hare. Also from Menomonie, Wi. are Harry Miller, early race car designer and all around genius. Also Luke Heldor, who planted pipe bombs around the US, so when their locations were marked on a map, it would make a smiley face. He got sent to a nice rubber room before he could kill anyone.