3 minute read
My Baby
My BaBy Star of the Fleet
By Jim “Buck” Sorrenti
Jim “Buck” Sorrenti, a longtime editor of American Towman, has been our field editor for the past 10 years. He is a freelance writer and photographer with more than 40 years of experience covering motorcycle, hot rod, truck and towing culture. He writes weekly for TowIndustryWeek.com.
Donnie Woolard started Woolard’s Automotive Towing and Transport, located in Washington, North Carolina, in 1976. The company is family owned and operated by Donnie’s son Mike and Mike’s wife Janet. Mike has worked in the business his entire life and took over running the business in 2003.
Woolard’s offers accident recovery, cleanup, 24 hour towing, a diesel truck repair center with an 8-bay service garage and a well-trained staff of operators and mechanics. They also offer towing and hauling services for both local and long distance projects and provide escorts for over-sized loads with an assortment of trailers capable of hauling equipment from forklifts to dozers and cranes.
Their fleet of heavy- and mediumduty wreckers can tow and/or recover any size vehicle. It consists of four heavy tandem rollbacks, two Landolls, three detach lowboys, one service
truck, one ERT (emergency response truck equipped with air cushions etc.) and the awesome twin-steer rotator featured here.
This beauty is a 2016 Century 1150 50-ton five winch rotator mounted on a 2015 Kenworth T600 twin-steer powered by a 550 Cat with an 18-speed Eaton trans.
It is equipped with dual 2-speed planetary 50,000-pound boom winches, dual 22,000-pound turret winches and a 50,000-pound drag winch to handle any and all lifting and pulling chores. It has an SDU-4 underlift for towing.
“Its biggest asset is its rotating feature. We have small narrow roads in our area and this truck’s ability to rotate 360 degrees allows us to work from all sides without needing more than one lane,” stated Mike.
Mike’s beauty is equipped with everything from chains, straps to a cutting torch and running water and also includes the Raptor Wireless Remote Control System. This is a proportional control system that uses joystick controllers to precisely operate the boom and winch functions with a display screen that shows a variety of information including load sensing. This wireless system gives Mike total control while keeping him out of harm’s way during recoveries.
Chowan Grafix in Edenton, NC did the graphics. They are a local sign shop that offers custom screen printing, embroidery, channel letters, vehicle lettering and graphics. Mike said, “It got 2nd place at the NC tow show in 2017. We try to participate in all the local parades we can. The paint design is actually a wrap. We had an idea and took about five different designs and this was what came out.”
Mike said, “This truck has outdone itself since we bought it a few years back and continues to. Its most memorable job was when we removed a guy from being pinned for two hours.”
Tech Highlights
Chassis: 2015 Kenworth T600 twin-steer Wrecker body: 2016 Century 1150 50-ton Engine: 550 Cat Trans: Eaton 18-Speed Winches: Dual Planetary Two-Speed 50,000lb, Dual 22,000lb. Turret, 50,000lb. Drag Built by: Miller Industries Equipment: Raptor Wireless Remote Control System Extras: Cutting torch and running water Graphics: Wrap by Chowan Grafix in Edenton, NC
On Aug 14th 2020 Mike was called to recover a dead haul refuse truck loaded with dead chickens. The unit was stretched across the roadway and the rotator was able to work this recovery/cleanup from one lane.
