aa-fords.com

Nice looking truck. A guy can never have too many old tow trucks!

Hi There

Aftermarket equipment manufacturers of dump beds, towing equipment etc will use or specify a PTO that will power their equipment at engine idle or just slightly above. High RPM operation is rough on the transmission/PTO, engine as well as the equipment.

hi there Give me an e-mail address and I will send you a picture of a a 30's vintage wrecker that was built with a extended cab built using a coupe. The truck recently re-surfaced after being in storage (sitting behind a shed).

I have a lot of vintage pic's of early wreckers etc. Is the wrecker piece you are looking for bolt onto the end of the main boom assembly and has a floating sheave at the end? E-mail me at pfuerst1@comcast.net

FYI Manley did not manufacture any truck bodies, only the wrecker crane and towing equipment related accessories. The wreckers were usually mounted in or on what ever was available at the time. Two good reference books are The World history of the Towing and Recovery industry by John Hawkins and Wre...

I am in Northern California near San Francisco. I am going out to a quarry to look at some chassis etc in the next few weeks and will let you know what is available

Are you still looking for a 30-31 frame??

Peter

JTW I have some "old" potographs of your truck when it was hanging out behind Tuban Ford in Mountain View. Drop me a line at pfuerst1@comcast.net

Perhaps I can answer Chris's original question. YES, they did just pick a car up and let it hang out there. That's the reason many of the old tow truck had the tow cranes mounted way back over the rear axle and used either a winch or a block and tackle to raise the car to tow. Later as things became...

This may help to answer two long threads for AA trucks, how to go fast and how to stop it. I did the 1990 Great Race and the previous year (or maybe two years prior) Pick-A-Part, a vehicle dismantler/salvage pool company in the LA area, ran a 1929 AA truck in the race. It had some modifications that...

Building a set is my other/next option if I can't find a set. Would really like a set of originals!
Model A and AA u-bolts are different, the AA's are thicker and about 7/8" longer to comensate for two more spring leafs.

Peter

I have a feb 29 AA truck and need a pair of front spring U-bolts.

I have been through several 28-29 chassis looking for a good set of motor mounts, ones that do not have numerous cracks, particularly on the right side mount and haven't found a good set yet. Maybe thats why they changed the mounts from the open style to the closed version with extra support for 30....

Looks like an interesting project. I would say that you have a tow truck rather than a boom truck. The crane appears to be the frame gear parts from a Holmes 250 and a fair amount of angle iron. The boom itself is from a 3 ton Weaver. It was/is very common to cut the end of frame off to reduce the o...