Tow trucks have existed in one form or another nearly as long as there have been broken-down cars. In fact, early cars were often unreliable. With rough roads and inexperienced drivers, it is no wonder that the tow truck has been around almost as long as the automobile.

Before the first tow trucks were designed, there was the “auto ambulance.” Simply a long iron bar with two wheels at one end and a hitch at the other end, the broken-down end of the car would be attached to this simple mechanism. Then the auto ambulance and the automobile would be hitched to a horse or another vehicle.

Gottlieb Daimler, a German automaker, is said to have designed the first tow truck in the late 1890’s, although several other amateur automakers also lay stake to that claim. In America, the first commercially available tow truck is said to be the 1917 Holmes truck. As the legend goes, in 1913 a Cadillac driver helped his friend retrieve a car using three poles, a pulley, and a chain hooked to the frame of his car. This took several hours and caused the Cadillac driver to come up with a better way to tow cars. Ernest Holmes, Sr., the driver of the Cadillac, patented his invention and began manufacturing and selling tow trucks. Today, Holmes remains an important manufacturer of tow trucks, and most modern tow trucks still use Holmes’ basic design.

Another famous manufacturer of tow trucks, Mack Trucks, was founded in 1900 in Brooklyn, New York. Many other manufacturers, including Chevrolet, Diamond T, Dodge, Federal, Ford, GMC, International, Jeep, Nash, Studebaker, and White had a role in the development of early tow trucks. In fact, Ford and several other manufacturers offered “towing packages” as additions to their regular line of vehicles, costing just a little more than their non-towing counterparts. Many other “tow trucks” were improvised designs with towing machinery built on top of passenger cars or trucks.

World War II saw an enormous increase in the number of tow trucks on the road. In fact, the Holmes Company alone supplied over seven thousand tow trucks during the war to Allied troops around the world; many of these same trucks made it back to the homefront where they were used to tow ordinary cars and trucks instead of tanks and armored vehicles. Some of these 1940’s trucks even lasted in daily use as late as the 1970’s before they were replaced with newer trucks.

Like passenger vehicles, early tow trucks lacked the horsepower we would consider adequate today. As the modern tow truck developed, it necessarily became larger and more powerful to handle towing modern vehicles. By the 1940’s, tow trucks were able to pull up to 15 tons. By 1960, a towing capacity of 30 tons became possible. Newer features include hydraulics, first used by Holmes in 1953 on their trucks and soon adapted by other major tow truck manufacturers. Other developments include a swivel mechanism to allow disabled vehicles to be pulled from any angle, making it easier to tow vehicles stuck in tight spots.

Today, tow trucks are a ubiquitous feature on the highway, often passing by unnoticed. Still, early tow trucks remain prized by collectors who restore them to their former glory.

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Category: Automotive
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