Matt Z posted these shots of an old Ford tow truck. It was clearly used to push as well as tow, given that massive front push…device. I’m not sure what that thing is made of, but it’s pretty impressive. Just the thing to get a cantankerous old car with a feeble 6 volt battery running; why bother with jumper cables?
I’m also not sure of its exact vintage, as the 1941 – 1947s all looked mighty similar. Maybe someone here will know.
Here’s the view from the front, or what it would look like as it approached your rear bumper. A bit gnarly, to say the least.
The sign painted on the door says “Dieman’s Land O Lake Mtr. Co.”. Since I don’t see a V8 badge, this truck quite likely has the 226 CID flathead six, which was new in 1941 and was actually more powerful than the venerable flathead V8, with 90 hp compared to the V8’s 85 hp.
That six cylinder engine was originally designed for what was to be the original Mercury, in Edsel Ford’s vision, at least according to one source. It may seem counter-intuitive to have a slightly higher priced brand with a six, but the market for mid-priced sixes was quite large at the time. That plan was scotched, by Henry, one assumes, and so the six became an alternative power plant for the Ford, and a superior one at that, running smoother with a better torque curve and none of the V8’s tendency to overheat. Just the thing for a tow and push truck.
That body style was actually built from 1942-’47.
Push bumpers were often simply common bumpers stacked up to create a larger area.
The soft pad was probably improvised from whatever was available. Carpet, conveyor belt?
With its twin swing-out booms we’re tempted to assume this is Holmes equipment. May not be though, could be from Weld-Built or some other manufacturer.
A lot of these push bars were either welded scrap metal or a welded metal bracket to hold 2x8s. For protection against damaging bumpers, we’d cut up old tires and flatten them against either the metal or the wood. Flattening what was originally a round tire created small pockets of rubber that gave a surprisingly good cushion. It was easy to push start cars without any hookup or damage – back when cars could still be push started.
In other words, you made a 1973 5 mph bumper!
When men were men, and push bumpers were built, not bought.
back when cars could still be push started and had bumpers, not a plastic cover over maybe something.
This truck came from a town called Land O’ Lakes, Wi, just south of where I took the picture, which was in Bruce Crossing, Mi. One of the early families in Land O’ Lakes ran a service station called Dickman’s Garage, and I’m assuming this was their tow truck.
I think the attached picture is of Dickman’s Garage in the right time period.
Here it is today: https://goo.gl/maps/EboTsUwNbrVHQ25d7
If you’d like to read more about the small town of Land O’ Lakes, take a look at their historical society’s website: http://landolakeshistory.org/
Ah, the long lost older brother of Mater. Now I’d like to see this one go up against the angry combine.
We used cut up tires, too. If you had either a cooperative car owner, or a second employee to drive the car, pushing a car back to the shop was about the easiest, safest way to get the job done. The bumpers back then could take it, pushing was far safer than a flat tow using a rope or chain, and for a relatively short distance on local roads, it saved time overall compared to hooking and unhooking the wrecker apparatus. Many shops including ours had a pickup with a push bumper, so we used it instead of our big, lumbering wrecker which was large enough for bus or truck towing. I suppose pushing a car now would be illegal, and probably would destroy the transaxle. It worked well for us back then, anyway.
This looks like an easy restoration…..
_NOT_ but well worth the effort IMO .
We had a few old tow trucks in the early 1970’s, my favorite as the Chevy, is had two bit Advance Design bumpers on the front and one day the upper one simply fell off and was run over by the guy driving it .
-Nate
NY City parking enforcement tow trucks in the 80s and early 90s had push bumpers made of steel plate with sheet rubber bolted on. I think that was fairly common until the early 80s.
It’s hard to tell from the photo but it looks like the bumper is covered in an old conveyor belt.
Post war those trucks had chrome grilles wartime just pressed steel zero trim.
There was a “big” truck version of the six too.
Yes, I’m not enthusiastic enough to look it up and post specifics. lol