Cost of Towing a Loaded Truck & Trailer?

Talk about Fla., they impounded my flatbed at the Pompano produce market(should have never left it there,listened to a"buddy"), they dragged it to an empty lot with no security whatsoever, they didn't even tow it, just tractored it and they charged me 700$ and that was 25yrs ago. At least it didn't wind up in a watermelon patch, lol.

 

That sucks, and I will say was excessive especially 25 years ago. Towing from private property is a grey area, many states don't regulate it like they do police towing, it is a patchwork of local rules and rates.

PPI as it is called is a necessary service, it protects the rights of land owners, but the way most PPI companies operate is shady at best. Most towing companies shy away from that work because of the bad taste it leaves, so the few that are willing to do it have little competition to keep rates down.

Just look at the tv show South Beach Tow, I hate that show. It is an embarrassment to the towing industry, yet to many people that is the first image they think of when thinking about towers, not the person that comes and rescues your wife or daughter when they are broke down on the shoulder of the road.

 

When I got towed in Youngstown, OH area to a nearby shop 40 miles they charged me $1200. They had to tow truck and loaded trailer separately. Due to the repair shop lack of know of electrical repairs, I ended up towing the tractor back to my Chicago area shop - 450 miles, additional $3500 for that too. I moved the trailer with a rental truck. I should have done it at the very beginning and I would have borrowed a tow bar to tow it myslef.

 

I guess I was trying to point out that if you need a wrecker, your going to pay what they charge you? They will not give you your truck till the bill is paid in full.

No negotiation.

 

I would have done it for $900, that would leave you $100 for a few concessions at a Bears game.

 

My last one was $900 for about 60 miles. But they used a separate tractor to take the trailer. Dude said you can't go 3 deep in Washington hooked up. And we went through a super coop in route.

I will say I hope you get someone that is knowledgeable in towing / recovery. Cause I think you could damage your tractor pretty easily, towing it improperly.

 

Absolutely! Well trained tow operators are very important because it is very easy to screw up something.

As they say a good operator isn't cheap and a cheap operator isn't good!

$900 for a split is a good rate. Many states don't allow towing a combination and require splitting, or limit the towing of combinations to the nearest safe place to split it.

Imagine being a fuel hauler, can't drop many of those trailers when loaded so it takes a second wrecker to support the trailer to do a tractor swap, or when allowable to tow the combo we would tow them along their route to off-load the fuel.

 

Sounds like I wasn't to far off

 

If you had truck towed only I'm curious what you did with your trailer? I'm sure I'll face this someday. I guess you had the load rescued and hauled by someone else maybe?