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Auburn, WA

Suite B, 420 H St NW
Auburn, WA 98001
253-245-5454

Maple Valley, WA

Suite B, 23933 SE 264th Street
Maple Valley, WA 98038
425-310-1010

North Bend, WA

43028 SE North Bend Way
North Bend, WA 98045
425-888-4884

Spokane, WA

Suite B, 5815 W Thorpe Rd
Spokane, WA 99224
509-960-5454

Light vs. Heavy Duty Vehicle Recovery

Light vs. Heavy Duty Vehicle Recovery

Sometimes, a vehicle breaks down and needs a simple tow to the shop or other location. On the other hand, vehicles that flip off the road, roll over, or get stuck in sticky situations might need a recovery service. Team Pro-Tow offers emergency towing services for all situations.

Pro-Tow offers light, medium, and heavy-duty vehicle recovery towing services in Auburn, Spokane, North Bend, Maple Valley, and across Washington State. Our services are for standard passenger vehicles, like your car, and larger vehicles, like semi-truck towing.

Here, we explain more about the difference between light and heavy-duty vehicle recovery towing services.

Light Vehicle Recovery

When a standard passenger car veers off the road and ends up sliding into a ravine, it will need more than regular towing services. An emergency towing company will use special equipment, life a crane-style wrecker, to recover the car from the ravine.

Other factors can be at play here when recovering a vehicle from a non-typical setting. For example, the vehicle might be in an awkward spot and require special rigging and lifting to retrieve. In addition, you’ll want experts to be able to manage any spills from hazardous materials at the scene as well. Although these incidents may require more than your average tow, they are still light recovery towing services, mainly because the vehicle’s weight in these cases would not fall into the heavy-duty category.

Emergency Towing

There are also many other light recovery scenarios for standard passenger vehicles for which you may need emergency towing. These include broken engines, tire punctures and dead batteries. Other examples include locking your keys out of your car or road conditions that force your car to slip or slide a significant distance from the road.

At Pro-Tow, our highly trained professionals are on hand 24/7 to assist with all light recovery emergency towing services! We have the right equipment and the experience to get your car out of any situation.

Heavy-duty Recovery

For semi-truck towing services as well as recovery for other larger vehicles, this is when heavy-duty recovery is needed. The same goes for buses and trailers, farm equipment, heavy-duty machinery, and RVs. In every case, these vehicles require special equipment to retrieve. On top of this, the operators involved in the recovery must be highly trained and experienced in heavy-duty vehicle recovery. That’s because semi-truck towing and other heavy-duty recovery services involve more challenges and specialized equipment than light recovery.

Whatever service you need, Pro-Tow will retrieve your large vehicles safely and ensure the safety of all those involved, including our staff and customers.

Call Pro-Tow today!

Avoid Accidents with These Semi-Truck Winter Driving Tips

Avoid Accidents with These Semi-Truck Winter Driving Tips

When you take your fleet out on the road over the winter months, you could face several different road conditions. In the Pacific Northwest, this unpredictable weather includes wet and heavy snowfalls that can decrease visibility, especially at night. Understanding how to navigate these roads will help you avoid semi-truck accidents, like this semi that found itself wrapped around a tree.

With winter on its way, here we share some essential semi-truck winter driving tips to help keep your drivers safe and trucks on the road.

Monitor Your Tire Pressure

In the winter and colder months, you must monitor your tire pressure. When the temperatures initially drop, your tires can lose a significant amount of pressure. Low tire pressure is a culprit for semi-truck accidents and poor fuel economy.

Slow Down

Driving slowly and carefully should go without saying. But whether you’re dealing with icy, slick roads, wet slush or low visibility due to heavy snowfall (or all of the above), do your best to drive slowly — that means slower than you usually would. Driving slowly and cautiously when going around corners in winter weather is especially important. Also, remember to give yourself more time to get to your destination. This way, you won’t feel as inclined to push the limits in winter driving conditions.

Leave More Space

One of the best semi-truck winter driving tips is to leave more space between you and other drivers when the roads aren’t good. If possible, double or triple the space you normally leave. Adding space between you and the vehicles ahead can be especially helpful if you don’t know the area you’re driving in. When you can anticipate a deep curve or a hill that might be coming up, it will help you prepare for it and avoid accidents.

Furthermore, if you’re in a passenger vehicle, give those semi-trucks lots of room! They take more time to slow down, turn, and accelerate – especially in winter driving conditions. Road safety is everyone’s responsibility.

Call Team Pro-Tow 24/7

If you ever find yourself in an accident, your truck has fallen into a ditch, or you’re stuck in the snow, call Team Pro-Tow! As our name suggests, we’re the pros for hauling big rigs out of tricky situations. We can use a variety of special heavy-duty equipment, as well as highly-trained operators, to help you out!

Give us a call – we are available for emergency towing services 24 hours a day.

Fishing Out a Truck and Trailer

Fishing Out a Truck and Trailer

In this incident, on November 11, 2021, Team Pro-Tow received a dispatch from Washington State Police about a fully loaded trailer that had left the roadway. It went 100 feet off the road and hit a tree down an embankment. Fortunately, we were ready to help with the heavy truck recovery.

There were also reports of poor weather, including winter storms and flood warnings. We took note and included that information in our recovery plans. Then, we set out with an HD rotating crane-style wrecker, HD recovery wrecker, spill response vehicle, special equipment support vehicle, HD tractor and travelling axle, three-axle Landoll trailer and certified emergency recovery personnel. A lot of equipment, but all necessary for an accident recovery such as this one.

Once we arrived, we performed a scene evaluation to decide the best and safest approach to the recovery. Once we had a plan in mind, we set to work.

Heavy Truck Recovery First Up

To start, we performed an overhead crane lift of the separated tractor and brought it back onto the roadway. There, we set it on the Landoll trailer and continued. However, we first noticed engine oil, coolant, and motor vehicle diesel fuel was present. Our Team Pro-Enviro took care of the spill recovery aspect for us. They contained the spill to a practical extent so we could continue.

Next, we began recovering the trailer and its cargo. For roadway safety, we relocated our equipment to the side of the road 200 feet from the incident. We then set up a transportation rigging to transport our equipment back and forth.

It was an arduous task and non-routine. In addition, it took extraordinary time due to safety concerns of the deep and fast-travelling waterway. However, we never rush or skip a step, as safety for ourselves and others is always a top priority.

Accident Recovery Continues with Tractor in Pieces

Once we set up, we moved the trailer approximately 100 feet with minimal cargo escapement. Unfortunately, things didn’t stay easy. The trailer continually fell apart until it came completely apart.

We did non-routine cutting, lifting, loading, and finally securing. Once we loaded the trailer, we transported it to the secure storage yard. The cargo and part of the trailer remained on the side of the road until additional equipment could safely access it. Meanwhile, Pro-Enviro moved in to handle the debris recovery and spill cleanup work.

Calling in for Extra Help

While much of this work involved non-routine approaches, we never left a job half finished. Instead, we subcontracted extra equipment to finish the job. Using an excavator, two roll-off dumpsters, and a large end dump trailer. Then, we excavated the cargo and remaining debris into the containers. Finally, after plenty of paperwork, manifests, and extensive equipment reconditioning, we completed the accident recovery.

24-Hour Emergency Towing

In addition to mobile crane services, we offer out-of-area transport, 21-hour on-site service and roadside repair. Our goal in every situation is to provide safe, top-quality repairs on all makes and models of vehicles. We work promptly to help with heavy truck towing and ensure everything goes smoothly and safely. Whenever you need roadside repairs, towing or support, you can always call and trust Pro-Tow for support.

Learn more about our services at: https://www.pro-tow.com/services/

Salty Semi-Truck Tip Over in Ritzville, WA

Salty Semi-Truck Tip Over in Ritzville, WA

In this incident, on January 15, 2022, a semi-truck hauling a trailer of Sodium Hydroxide got into an accident. The semi-truck tipped over and went off the roadway near Ritzville, WA. Team Pro-Tow responded to help with the semi-truck tip over.

Semi-Truck Recovery Time

For this incident, our team brought along two heavy-duty wreckers. Once we arrived at the scene, we started with a scene assessment to decide the best and safest approach. The main recovery was the tipped-over trailer, which was off the road. We hooked up both heavy-duty wreckers in a sling-like approach around the trailer.

Once that was securely attached, our team could lift the trailer back up and into place. Again, this method was the safest and most practical approach as this minimized any additional damage to the trailer.

Why Two Heavy-Duty Wreckers?

It’s not every semi-truck recovery call that our team brings in heavy-duty wreckers, especially two at a time. But when an incident such as this one involves heavy-duty vehicles, we need the right equipment.

Did you know that the term “heavy-duty wreckers” refer to the equipment once used to salvage cargo from wrecked ships? In this case, we aren’t salvaging cargo (or working with a boat!), but we use heavy-duty wreckers to salvage the semi-truck tip over and avoid any more damage. Our heavy-duty equipment is defined by its boom and winch combination, which allows us to recover vehicles from not-so-easily accessible areas like off-road or in a ditch.

In incidents like this, where a heavy semi-truck and trailer have gone off-road, we bring these tools. Sodium Hydroxide was also involved in this case, a corrosive and hazardous material. Our team needed to work safely and quickly to prevent anything from getting into the nearby soil. Our team Pro-Enviro handled that side of the recovery while we focused on the semi-truck recovery.

You can always trust Pro-Tow to bring the right equipment for any crane lift or heavy accident recovery.

Learn more about our services at: https://www.pro-tow.com/services/

Mashed Potatoes: Semi-Truck Tipped Over in Sumner, WA

Mashed Potatoes: Semi-Truck Tipped Over in Sumner, WA

In this incident, on December 27, 2021, a semi-truck hauling potatoes tipped over in Sumner, WA and rolled into a ditch. During the accident, the potato load also spilled across the road, which also needed cleanup.

Team Pro-Tow was called to the scene to help with the semi-truck recovery. We brought our heavy-duty crane rotator and called our trusty Team Pro-Enviro to help with spill recovery and the potato cleanup.

Semi-Truck Tipped Over to Upright Recovery

Once we arrived at the scene, we started with a scene assessment for the semi-truck recovery. The semi-truck had rolled well into the ditch and was on its side. We decided to hook up the crane to the trailer body and drag it closer to the edge of the ditch. After that, we would focus on the uprighting and recovery stages.

With a plan set, our team got to work. First, we carefully rigged the crane ropes around the semi-truck and began pulling the semi-truck back up the ditch. Once back on solid and level ground, we unhooked the rigging from the front of the trailer. Next, our team set up air cushions along the road and placed them underneath the bottom of the truck. We then re-rigged the semi-truck around the back, intending to pull the unit forward and upright it.

Air Cushions in Semi-Truck Recovery

Air cushion recovery is a specialized service used by towing companies that have experience with heavy-duty trucks and tractor-trailers. We have that experience and more, and we can offer air cushion recovery services.

Typically, the recovery of a semi-truck tipped over starts with uninflated cushions, which are then inflated underneath the damaged or flipped truck to help manage the recovery. In this incident, we used inflated cushions so that when the truck tipped back upright, it wouldn’t damage the tires on impact.

As the semi-truck was brought back onto its wheels, we slowly deflated the cushions and were able to haul away the semi-truck. After we recovered the casualty, our Team Pro-Enviro came in to handle the cleanup process of the fuel leak spill and potatoes.

Another joint team effort in Sumner, WA successfully handled!

Learn more about our services at: https://www.pro-tow.com/services/

Semi-Truck Towing on April Fools Day

Semi-Truck Towing on April Fools Day

On April 1, 2022, Team Pro-Tow responded to an accident involving a semi-truck and trailer, and a bus. Unfortunately, there was significant damage to the semi-truck, including the fuel tank. This job required semi-truck towing and a diesel fuel spill recovery.

Diesel Fuel Spill Recovery on April Fool’s Day

Diesel fuel was all over the roadway, and this was no April Fool’s Day joke! We worked closely with our Pro-Enviro spill response team to conduct a scene assessment and develop an accident and spill recovery plan. Containing the fuel spill and ensuring it didn’t spread was critical before any semi-truck towing could occur.

First, we ensured the leaky tank was no longer spilling fuel. Then, we used absorbents to the spill to dry up the contaminates so they could be swept away and disposed of. When working on a spill recovery, we thoroughly clean all contaminated areas. A thorough cleanup of spilled substances like fuel reduces the risk of pollution, fires, and traffic hazards.

Learn more about effective diesel fuel spill recovery with Pro-Enviro.

Then It’s Time for Semi-Truck Towing

Once the fuel was contained and cleaned, Team Pro-Tow could rig up the casualty and remove it from the scene. First, we detached the truck from the trailer to make the process easier. That way, we could remove each casualty at a time. Then, we towed the truck and trailer to our secure storage yard, filled out the required paperwork and called it a job well done.

Accident Recovery You Can Count On

Pro-Tow offers heavy-truck towing, accident recovery, and emergency towing services throughout Washington State. We have heavy-duty equipment and highly trained and experienced operators that can get your big trucks and equipment out of any mess.

You’ll find Pro-Tow 24-Hour Towing Services in Auburn, Spokane, Maple Valley, and North Bend, but we service the entire state and beyond. Learn more about our services at www.pro-tow.com.