South African Cowboy Tow Trucks

[akku]

So the wrecker thread reminded me of something I meant to share here... Down in South Africa I see a lot of these "cowboy tows" about and I find them kinda oddly appealing. They are usually very brightly coloured, lots of graphics, Wiiiiiide wheels and often parked up in little groups near highway intersections with guys chilling out and listening to loud music. Usually based on 90s or 00s larger frame Japanese king cabs, but I've seen 70s and 80s Japanese trucks with home made extensions and some older American or Aussie stuff as well.

They have a darker side though. My locals tut tut at me for finding them cool. So what happens is when there is an accident or breakdown these guys race off to recover the cars. They take them to a compound where the owner is required to pay a significant fee to get their car back. They also have their own territories and sometimes other tow trucks stray into it and then there is violence. Not everyone agrees where the territories start and end so also an opportunity for violence.

You will see cars in SA with a sticker which says "DO NOT TOW" to try avoid this.

Some call them cowboys, gypsies or gangsters

I still find the trucks kinda cool.

Google suggests...

















































































This Cortina is an outlier













And this Mini is a promo vehicle or someone's idea of a joke....

[Rich]

I had a feeling this thread would deliver some excellent photos I could get on board with. 😎

[stealthstylz]

These are badass. I imagine the top speed must be affected massively by the little tyres.

[generallee]

As soon as I saw the first pic I thought of stealthstylz, they are wicked.

I want one...

[misteralz]

Were these the inspiration for the wreckers in Mad Max, or are they an Aussie thing as well?

[akku]

Jan 17, 2024 21:15:00 GMT misteralz said:

Were these the inspiration for the wreckers in Mad Max, or are they an Aussie thing as well?

I'm going to imagine the Aussies have some wild stuff in the outback....

[ducklooker]

I like those!
Quite purposeful things really.

[unclemike]

To answer some questions and give more info about towing in SA. In South Africa they are called an "aasvoel"(vulture). Do the tyres make them slower, not at all, every truck i drove was very quick and they have to be as your livelyhood revolves around being first on scene and working hard to get the job. The wheels being wider offer better stability however they do lack traction in the wet because of the power of these trucks, this wide wheel style stems from the oldskool styling where guys used to run wide tyes on there cars. These trucks don't always run the original engines, many have swaps suck as the isuzu pickup may run the stock 320 v6 or have a chev v8 in or the nissan pickups may run the stock 3.0v6/3.3v6 or have a vq swap, as for the flatbed trucks this is a lighter weight option.

Many companies are often enough affiliated with gangsters in some way or another which explains the shear violence within the industry. Territories are strict and there are heavy consequences for crossing into another territory to "standoff" at a crash scene.

[unclemike]