Original subtitles

Nothing but ice on the highway.

DAVE PETTITT (NARRATES): This time on Heavy Rescue, 401...

Come on outta there, you...

..the County crew struggles to get a grip...

This is not good.

..an urgent rescue...

You good there, Mouse?

..fires up Duncan...

Just hold 'em tight!

Still a bit of weight we gotta tackle.

..and Kevin scraps...

OK, let's go!

..with a nasty load.

No choice, we gotta go.

(GROANS) Oh, god!

Just as the day is winding down,

an unexpected blast of snow hits the highways across the GTA.

The snow is coming down.

We'll see what the night brings us.

South-west of Toronto, near Hamilton,

OPP Constable Max Bartram looks for drivers caught off-guard.

I'm looking for anybody with improper lighting systems,

and people not driving for the conditions.

It's probably only a matter of time.

And just after 7pm...

So, now, we're en route to a motor vehicle collision,

and now we're getting pelted.

When it's snowing,

we've got to drive to the conditions ourselves,

so, we get there as soon as we can, but we've got to get there safely.

(TENSE MUSIC)

Hey, there.

Just a spin-out.

But that's all this young guy said.

He just was travelling, and the road's pretty slick.

What happened here?

OK, and you're not injured or anything?

It's up to Constable Bartram

to manage the scene and minimise the delay.

I'm blocking the lane to allow the tow truck

to hook up the vehicle there.

These ramps get slippery,

and excessive speed is not a good recipe

for getting where you're going.

I'm gonna go open up the lane now.

The first call of the night was minor,

but the weather isn't stopping.

Driving is a complex task, and your attention needs

to be on the task at hand.

We'll see what happens as the night goes on.

20 miles south,

a much bigger problem has shut down Highway 6.

I want to try to drag it, right?

Yeah.

Clearing the truck and over 60,000 pounds

of scrap metal is up to Kevin Richardson.

Quite a bit of damage here.

You see all the aluminium down there.

It's fully loaded,

so, we're gonna have our work cut out for us.

This stuff's heavy.

Altogether, you're probably pushing 125,000, easy.

That's a lot of weight to deal with.

Wow!

That's brutal.

It's gonna be chaos.

(THEME MUSIC)

On North America's busiest highway, closure...

is not an option.

Some load that went out, down the ditch.

Kevin's not just staring down a huge job.

I'm gonna snug this up.

After working for his friend last winter,

this will be his first major recovery

for a new boss.

(GRUNTING)

I made one more move,

even though I don't like to make change,

but sometimes you have to.

I started with a tow company, On Route Heavy Tow.

I lucked out.

I got a 50-tonne brand-new rotator,

and it's actually, actually really good.

Tonight, Kevin will be putting the new truck to the test.

It's just a mess now. These trailers are so heavy, right?

The scrap hauler was turning north onto Highway 6 when it fishtailed,

and the weight inside slammed it down on the road.

At least the driver's OK, that's the main thing,

and now it's just a mess for us to clean up.

We'll run a snatch block.

Yeah, double one line, like I said where we're gonna go.

Double up, and to the trailer.

Yeah.

He'll be relying on fellow operator, Adam Barczak,

new to working with Kevin and still new to running a rotator.

Double up here, so hold that.

I'll put a snatch block on.

Working with Kevin is pretty good,

because, uh, Kevin comes with over 20 years of experience.

He knows what he's doing, so, he's also our mentor.

Give it a little bit of height, not too much, yeah.

Sit it up a bit, OK?

Yeah.

And more help has just arrived.

My other driver here is Mike.

Veteran heavy op Mike Spotto.

How ya doing, Mike?

Let's have a look.

Do you want to get your truck in the front?

You guys can split the truck as they unload it.

Watch yourself, guys.

The trucking company has their own equipment,

and wants to remove the 60,000 pounds

of metal themselves

while the trailer is still on its side.

Want to just put it in there for now, in the ditch, right?

Just...

It's hard to get inside the trailer to actually grab it out.

You guys don't have a bobcat?

Good?

At the same time, Kevin and crew will start removing

and up-righting the tractor.

Flip the truck, get it out of here.

That way, we speed up the process.

OK, pull!

OK.

You good? Alright?

Done deal.

OK. Alright.

Tighten this one up a bit.

Yeah.

That's what we wanted.

Yeah.

(METAL CREAKING)

OK, keep it tight now, Ad, just loosen it with Mike.

There we go.

(LAUGHING) Thing of beauty.

Not bad for a rookie, eh?

Not bad!

But down at the trailer end, it's not so beautiful.

(SNAPPING)

Whoa, whoa! (WHISTLES)

So, Pete called the mechanic...

The whole job is at a standstill.

They just blew a hydraulic line on the crane.

Oh, no.

Wow.

Brutal.

200 miles south-west, the storm has pushed into Windsor,

leaving a trail of casualties.

Yeah, we got two wreckers on scene, waiting for one more.

And Derek and Dennis Didone are hard at work

on an icy stretch of the 401 in Lakeshore.

We got two tractor-trailers,

both jack-knifed into the ditch together.

It's gonna wanna pull back, right?

We've got one that's severely jack-knifed,

the other one is pretty much sideways down

into the ditch.

It's a tough pull.

Loaded trailer of 42,000 pounds,

mired down in the mud, the front axle's pretty mangled.

Slipping all over the place.

You just sliding?

Yes.

Because of the icy roads, it's hard to get that bite.

So, I'm gonna raise my boom up,

and hopefully that'll cause my truck

to bite down into the road a little bit better

so, we can take the jack-knife out.

OK, easy.

OK.

There we go.

There ya go.

(TENSE MUSIC)

I think you better hold there.

I'll move to the back and just grab onto that trailer

and get it over.

They're making progress, but with the trailer still teetering

on the slope, it's not fast enough.

We've got traffic about a foot off the front of our bumpers.

Traffic is building, along with the ice.

You can feel the wind of the truck.

It's too quick, especially on icy roads like that.

They need to get off this road.

And help has just arrived.

What do we got going on?

Rotator op, Eric Godard.

Hey, Senior.

From the sounds of it, they could use some help.

So, I'm just gonna see what I can do to give them a hand.

What's your plan for the recovery?

You just gonna let it flop down?

Why? You wanna catch it?

Well, do whatever you want.

Don't matter to me.

I just wanna make sure I'm on the same page, is all.

Just a year ago, Eric was working with this crew for the first time.

Coxon, his employer of 30 years,

was absorbed into the Didones' County Towing.

(CHUCKLING)

Shook the snow off it, anyhow.

Really just continuing to mesh with the crew,

and getting to know the guys still.

Keep moving forward.

We need another chain on there for the straight...

OK, I'll get one off my truck.

What he wants to accomplish is basically putting

the trailer up on the highway...

so the trailer is not gonna slide back into the ditch.

Derek will pull sideways on low lines to the trailer...

Alright, watch the back here.

Let's do it.

..while Dennis winches on the front axle of the tractor.

(CRANKING)

Come on.

The ice refuses to give up.

Be careful. The legs are moving.

With the snow and the ice on the highway,

teeth alone aren't enough to hold it still.

That other leg's barely touching.

Watch yourself!

It's a little frustrating when you can't get a truck to bite.

When you're pulling somewhat off to the side,

and you're putting all the weight on one leg,

it just makes it more difficult.

Just be careful.

We've definitely got a problem here.

We could pull this thing all day, but the teeth aren't biting enough.

Come on!

Come on!

(TENSE MUSIC)

Come on!

Come on!

On the 401 in Lakeshore...

Come on!

..Derek Didone is pulling on a semi that's pulling back.

The weight shouldn't really be a problem.

With the equipment we've got here, we're good power-wise to do the job.

I can't see!

..but Eric has spotted a problem.

You're on the lip, you almost gotta lift it.

You're on the lip of the asphalt.

Where Senior is standing with his truck,

he really can't see the same thing I can see from where I'm standing.

The tyres are up against the actual side of the shoulder

of the highway where it begins.

They need to get them up over the lip.

So, you gonna lift it up and get it over?

And Eric has the tool for the job.

Go ahead and get set up.

I'm set up. I'm ready.

When you're trying to pull like this,

it just makes it more difficult.

That's why a rotator is nice.

It's set up, and then you can take your boom

and change your angles wherever you want.

We're gonna pick things up and put things down.

So, I'm gonna go ahead and give it a lift,

and place the trailer up on the road.

That one goes here.

This one goes to you, buddy.

Two lines, one on each side of that trailer,

so, we can control it, because we don't know

where the weight is.

Easy!

There you go, Eric.

That'll do 'er.

There we go.

Done.

OK, let's get hooked up.

Now that we got this tractor-trailer out of the way,

we're gonna turn our focus onto the second one.

I'll pull on this,

and I'll pull down there and help you bring it up.

OK.

It's a little more further down in the ditch.

It's gonna be a little more tricky.

Nothing but ice on the highway.

As that snow blows across the highway,

it just turns the highway right into a skating rink.

And traffic in the adjacent lane is not letting up.

Every minute you're out there is another risk that we're taking

for ourselves and everybody else going by us.

The real important thing is just getting the road open.

South of Hamilton, in Caledonia...

Now, what do you got for rigging?

Whatever you want.

..Kevin's working on a new plan for the scrap metal trailer.

You're able to roll it all the way over, right?

If not, you lose the integrity, once you've split

the truck from the trailer.

With the tractor removed, Kevin won't have the leverage

to roll the trailer upright with the heavy load inside.

The crew needs to empty it.

Now.

That intersection, it's a heavy volume,

so, OPP was starting to get a little anxious,

kept asking how much longer, how much longer.

So, Kevin's come up with the quickest possible solution.

But it won't be pretty.

What I was gonna do right now

is gonna try to just flip it ourselves

and dump it.

We're gonna dump the load, save time.

Alright. OK?

Cops want the highway open, this'll speed it up.

Let's get the hell out of here, man.

So, the challenge now we have is it's a lot of weight to deal with.

Ballpark it roughly.

40?

40,000?

Still a bit of weight we gotta tackle, right?

So...

Oh, yeah.

Even just the trailer will be some weight.

The remaining load, plus trailer, still totals over 70,000 pounds.

So, we're gonna over-rig it.

I'll just do it slowly.

OK.

Both rotators will run two lines

to the ends of the trailer to lift and tilt it,

spilling the metal out onto the shoulder.

OK, Adam, let's go. Let's get you hooked up.

And one of those rotators

will be run by the greenest member of the crew.

Right now, I'm a little bit nervous.

I've never done one like this before.

I don't wanna wreck this truck as well, right?

Put your back wheels right here.

OK, guide me.

I don't know what's gonna happen.

That's good, Ad.

Let's lift it right from where ya are.

Boom 'er out, Adam.

Boom out? Boom it out.

This is a lot of pressure. Hold on!

You got control of it anyways.

We'll just do it nice and slow.

Hopefully.

OK, hang on, guys.

(METAL CLANGING)

OK?

Don't worry about the top one.

The top one will tighten up once the bottom comes up.

Watch it, guys.

(METAL CREAKING)

Bottom!

Top a little bit.

It's important to have both rotators working

at the same time.

Nice and smooth, that way

nobody's getting ahead of each other.

Holy...

OK, bottom one a little bit.

Just a little bit.

Nothing's coming out.

Nothing's even coming out.

Keep your lines tight, Adam!

I'm thinking, "What the hell?

"Why isn't this load coming out?"

Keep your lines tight, Ad!

You don't wanna shock your boom.

I can't believe nothing's coming out.

Big open roof, but the load was not budging.

Hold on a sec!

Whoa!

I've never experienced that happening.

It's not gonna come out.

That should slide already.

Gravity does not wanna work with us.

Hold it!

(INTENSE MUSIC)

(SIGHING)

Nothing but ice on the highway.

It's cold, buddy.

On the 401 east of Windsor, conditions are getting worse.

The County crew is racing to free the second jack-knife

planted deep in the ditch.

I'm just gonna grab the...

basically grab the trailer,

and make sure the trailer keeps coming up.

Just gonna help Senior.

He's gonna go ahead and pull the tractor up and out.

It's a simple plan, but there's a wild card.

There's a seal on the trailer that can't be broke,

so, you don't know where the weight is.

If the load shifted on impact,

the weight could drag down the trailer.

We're gonna take a chance.

That being said, I guess, it could be a great call

unless it ends up on its side.

Hey, Senior!

Let's do it!

Heads up, guys.

(CREAKING)

Come on.

Come on out of there, you.

Coming in!

I'm trying to keep the angle of the pull down

so, I don't actually flip the trailer over.

The last thing we'd want to see happen

is to get the trailer up to the road and have the thing fall over.

Are you kidding me?

Hold on!

So, I've got myself in a bit of a pickle here.

Not where I wanna be!

It's all I got.

I gotta move again if I'm gonna keep pulling.

But there's no time to reposition.

Hold on, I got ya, hold on.

OK, do this.

If he can direct the line from a low point on the rotator...

Hook this somewhere on the back of the truck.

..he might be able to move the boom but maintain a safe pulling angle.

OK.

This ain't gonna be the prettiest, but it'll help.

OK.

All's I'm really looking to do now

is just get the thing back onto the highway.

She'll go. Keep coming in.

There ya go.

OK.

Well, looks like we're finally winning.

I think we got it licked, so that's the important part.

Things went really well.

OK.

Go ahead! Up!

The cops are happy the roadway's open,

and we're gonna count it as a win.

OK, take it out of gear and put the window up,

make sure the brakes are off.

The road gets opened.

Just gonna go up to the next exit and we'll stop, alright?

Took a lot, but everybody worked good tonight.

Go ahead, go ahead!

After a year with his new crew, Eric is ready

for what the new winter will bring.

Everything seems to be going really well,

better than I've expected.

I'm looking forward to seeing what the future holds.

Get this thing outta here.

Alright, I'm heading out.

(HORN HONKS)

They packed it in so much, it ain't coming out.

Back on Highway 6 in Caledonia...

Those beams are so packed in, so, now we're gonna

try and pick it straight up.

..Kevin has still not been able to empty the trailer onto the road.

OK, ready?

I'm gonna pick it up a bit.

OK, Adam, start tightening up your bottom one.

So, he wants to give gravity a push.

Instead of tilting, the two rotators will lift

all 70,000 pounds straight up into the air...

Sketchy.

We'll be alright.

..to dislodge the scrap for salvaging.

OK, let's go up, Adam!

OK, want me to pick the ass up... Oh, holy!

OK, bottom down.

Release it. Bottom down.

OK, OK, let me pick mine.

Just gonna do it nice and easy.

Hold on, hold on, don't do anything.

Adam, bottom.

I'll just go this way, guys.

Right here, stay right here. Stay right here.

Stay right here. Your truck's fine.

It's the first job I've ever done it like this.

A loaded trailer, upside down, hanging in the air.

Yeah, here it goes.

Lift it up a little bit more.

Keep lifting.

Just do it little by little.

Coming off the ground.

Leg's coming off the ground a little bit, Kev.

I don't like when my outriggers are floating,

because I know I'm dealing with a lot of weight.

I'm floating.

Hang on.

Just boom straight up.

Yeah? OK.

Boom straight up.

You've got to hold the back end, too.

Yeah. Go up.

Go. Keep going.

Trust me. Go, go, go.

You're pushing your trucks to the limits there.

He was concerned, so, it was good to have Mike to coach Adam.

Starting to float again!

Keep on your remote.

Keep on your remote.

OK.

(GRUNTS) Come on!

Shake it loose.

(METAL CLATTERING)

It's coming out now.

There it comes.

Ah-ha! There it is!

Thank god!

(LAUGHS)

Hold on, stop!

Whoa! Stop!

Start grabbing it, bud!

The trucking company's replacement excavator

has arrived to help clear the scrap.

Just grab a little bit here.

It's coming out.

That should come out already.

But not all of it is breaking free.

The load is still stuck in my end,

so, all the weight is on my wrecker right now.

I'm lifting the whole load.

See? It's stuck.

Everything in the front is stuck.

Hold it! Let me do it!

There we go.

Come on, I wish it would drop!

It's still not empty,

but after five hours on this highway...

That should be enough to get some of the weight out, right?

..Kevin is gambling that it's empty enough to upright.

Adam, you gotta swing towards the front of your truck.

First, they need to move it away from the mound of scrap metal,

right over Adam's rotator.

Go right over top of the truck.

No choice. We gotta go.

OK, boom in, Kev, and you swing it.

The load was stuck in there pretty good,

so, I just said, "You know what,

"let's get that trailer swung and get it over to the other side."

I'm just worried about the load coming out,

and it's gonna hit his truck.

Hopefully, nothing damages Adam's truck.

OK, pick it up, then, Adam.

Come on!

OK, swing over, Kev!

Whoa!

Come on, rotate it!

A portion of the trailer was hanging over my truck.

OK, rotate this way. OK.

Gotta go. Gotta go.

(SIGHS)

And if that load came out and hit my truck,

I would be answering a few questions.

Easy. Nice and easy!

(INTENSE MUSIC)

Hold on!

(TENSE MUSIC)

Hold on!

OK, rotate this way.

OK. Gotta go, gotta go.

In the northbound lanes of Highway 6...

Easy. That's nice and easy!

..Adam must swing the trailer over his rotator

without the remaining scrap letting go.

OK, over! Drag it over.

Bring it down.

Boom down!

Adam, boom down!

Boom down, boom down!

OK, rotate it!

Swing it, swing it!

Swing, swing, swing!

Swing!

Keep swinging, he's booming down.

Keep swinging, keep swinging.

Keep swinging.

Oh, god!

(DRAMATIC MUSIC)

It didn't hit your truck, did it?

It didn't hit the truck. Oh.

Just missed. It hit.

What? Hit the strobe light.

Oh, it did get the light.

Sorry, Adam.

I got lucky. It was just one light.

Not bad. (LAUGHS)

Well, load's out.

It didn't hit the body.

It didn't damage the paint, so, we got very lucky there.

Let's get this thing flipped and out of here.

Rotate over a bit, Adam, we'll put it down.

We're gonna flip it right from over here.

Don't wanna boom down. It's gonna swing into the truck.

(RUMBLING)

Perfect.

There you go.

Now, getting the trailer onto its wheels

will require a finesse move by both rotator ops.

Adam's never done a mid-air roll...

Yeah, we got a chain right here, perfect.

So, I figure, let's get one under his belt.

OK, Adam, tighten this up to pick it up.

When it comes to a mid-air roll, I'm nervous about it.

I always wanted to do one, and this is my chance to do it.

Alright, man. We're good.

Each rotator has a lift line and a catch line rigged

to one end of the trailer.

They have to lift,

and then smoothly transition to catch in unison.

Pick it up, we'll see where it goes, OK?

Let's see what's gonna happen.

You're lifting and rotating at the same time.

Tighten your other line, Adam, you're loose!

As you pull the down cable up, you have to release the top line.

You're loose on the lift.

It's extremely difficult,

but I have two great guys working with me on this.

Lift up the catch.

Keep going.

Leave the catch... Here we go.

OK, here we go. Catch is good!

Pick up the far side.

It's alright. It's OK.

Let out on the catch.

We'll get it straight, and then we'll rotate it, OK?

Yeah. Yeah.

Start swinging.

Together, together, man!

Together.

You're good, Adam. OK, drop it right there?

Whoa. Whoa.

We're down.

Finally.

Perfect. (CHUCKLES)

That was pretty cool.

That went nicely. I liked it.

We did excellent job on the rolling it.

That was a lot of pressure.

I'm gonna put these chains back.

Kevin is a great mentor.

It felt great doing it.

You did fantastic!

I told you, not bad for a rookie!

This job was a big job for me.

It's all about teamwork at the end of the day, you know?

The boys did a great job.

Now we're gonna get this equipment out of here,

we're gonna deliver the truck back to the yard.

You got enough guys? Yeah, we're good.

OK. Yep.

Thanks, guys!

See ya, yeah.

We're ready to go.

The company is looking after the clean-up.

You know, it's been a long night...

That was packed in, man!

Big time.

See ya on the next one?

Next one. Thank you, guys.

So, yeah, we're outta here.

It's just a relief to get that trailer out of the way.

At the eastern end of the 401,

a new day opens a new chapter for Cornwall Towing...

Go and get our baby.

Yeah.

..one that Duncan Cooper and his dad, Al,

have been eager to see.

There we go.

Today's the day.

We're finally picking up the rotator.

How you doing, Gilbert?

I'm good. Nice to see ya.

Good to see ya.

It's a little heavy to spin the tyres,

but she's good to go.

Duncan took over the family business five years ago.

Then, two years ago, he came to his father with an idea.

There's 525 horsepower sitting right there.

Dunc and I sat down together,

and he says, "Dad, you do think we can build another truck?"

Everything has to be fish-plated,

drilled out, and put on the frame.

So, we chose one of our older trucks,

and we refurbished it.

It's a 25-tonne sliding rotator.

This machine is building on

to the legacy that my grandfather started.

After some final adjustments from the mechanic,

Duncan is officially adding the rotator to Cornwall's fleet.

She'll make some noise now.

(ENGINE ROARS)

Sounds lovely.

Sounds like it's powerful.

Tell you what, we worked a lot of hours together

on that machine.

Thanks a lot, Gilbert!

(HORN TOOTS)

She runs awesome!

And soon, Duncan might get the chance to put 'er to work.

Supposed to freeze rain tonight.

Hopefully we'll go out.

Ready to rock and roll tonight.

We started getting some freezing rain,

and now it's just basically a skating rink.

Just a few hours later, the rotator is back on the road.

We got called out for a brand-new fire truck

that slipped on some ice,

and now it's rolled over on its side.

Duncan's heading west toward the town of Iroquois

and an urgent job.

The truck is a tanker,

so, it has 3,000 gallons of water in it.

I received a call from Bill's Towing.

Bill's a very, very good friend of mine.

For Bill Ewing, this recovery is personal.

I used to be a member of the fire department here.

Hopefully we can get it out.

You're wondering what you're getting into,

how bad is it.

You can see the glare off the road from the ice.

I just finished putting this truck together.

The last place I want to be is in the ditch with it.

Ooh.

Yeah.

This is not good.

Looks like a deep ditch!

I'll get out and have a look.

Yeah, OK.

I was looking at it, and I was thinking to myself,

"Boy, he's in there pretty good."

This is what we don't wanna see with a fire truck.

For Bill, you know, this hits close to home,

because he was the deputy fire chief.

He's part of that group, he knows the guy.

He got a brand-new machine, and here it is, upside-down.

Alright, what do we got?

Is that the point where it drains, or where?

It drains out the front there.

The weight of the water inside will make the job tougher,

but Duncan and Bill need to be gentle.

The biggest challenge here is not to put a scratch on it,

'cause the overall condition of the truck looks pretty good.

We're gonna have to handle this very carefully

in order not to cause any secondary damage.

I know one thing.

Just like any other piece of equipment that's brand-new,

it's very expensive.

A hell of a pull, Bill!

Yeah.

I'll go grab my gloves there, Mouse, and give you a hand.

On an icy side road in Iroquois, Duncan, Bill, and crew

are plotting out their delicate rescue.

You got it off, Bill?

Yep!

Oh, good.

Just disconnected the drive shaft.

It came in sort of slow, and down,

so it, I mean, probably broke a mirror

and some scratched paint, but we don't wanna damage it.

We'll get you into position here first.

Good there!

All my job really is to do is just to hold the front end

from sliding back in.

Just give 'er just a little pull there.

Just wanna make sure the chain's happy.

Operator Steve 'Mouse' Carson will run Bill's wrecker.

We put Bill's truck up front.

We rigged up to pull down on the front axle.

I'll put the bigger guy, the rotator, on the back.

So, the new addition to Duncan's fleet

will handle the heavy lifting.

We got the rotator on it.

I'm pretty excited about this first roll-over.

My ice digger's in? Yep.

Careful you don't fall, now, Bill.

Hey, yeah, there you go, perfect.

Good.

All brand-new aluminium wheels on there,

so, you definitely don't want to put a chain,

so, we're trying to use as soft rigging as we can.

Got it?

We're gonna swing the boom out.

Top one? Top one.

OK. OK.

It's a heavy pull.

Yeah, it's in a tank, so, the tank is full of water.

OK, we're ready to go here.

Are you set? Yeah!

OK.

I'll start a little bit, and then Mouse'll give me help, OK?

OK, out.

Come on, baby.

(TENSE MUSIC)

Easy, Mouse.

Yup.

Is she ever wedged in there, eh?

Yeah.

You're dealing with weight down in a hole.

We're definitely giving it a workout.

Very heavy.

Come on!

(CREAKING)

(WATER DRAINING)

Whoa.

Good.

OK, let the water run out of it for a bit, guys!

As the truck rolls upward,

the water has reached a position to flow out the valve.

Lighten up the load.

We pulled the plug to drain the water out,

so, when it rolls over, it just goes on the ground.

It's just gonna make it worse for you,

because it's gonna come back in under.

Losing the weight will ease the roll,

but water will add to the mud, making the next phase even tougher.

It's a lot of resistance.

It's a bit of a gamble, but it's really the only option

we have right now.

Yeah, that'll take a few minutes to finish draining.

Well, let it drain, 'cause it's probably got

10,000 pounds of water in it still.

Oh, yeah.

It's hard to pull something

that's buried in mud out of the ditch.

Just hold 'er for now.

But the mud is just the first problem.

The fire truck itself makes the lift a challenge.

They're not really designed to be pulled out.

Like, a lot of times, tractor-trailer is a lot easier,

more things to hook onto, more things to grab.

These guys are more delicate.

So, on the back end, they've rigged around the wheels,

but the winch lines could still dig

into the body as they wrench the truck up the bank.

We've got to really think outside the box here

in order not to cause any secondary damage.

I want to criss-cross 'em,

so, I wanna put that hook on that side,

this one on this side, so it like...

Yeah, criss-crosses, yeah. ..baskets around the tyres.

It's good!

There's a chance it can slide up the tyres and hit the body,

but now they can't slide around the tyres.

It's impossible.

Alright, let's try this.

It's trying to move, eh?

It's trying to.

Ooh.

Not much there, eh, Bill?

No.

Is she even coming sideways at all?

Nah.

The ditch is really steep, and you're trying to pull it up,

you got all the mud, and it's just...

it's making more resistance.

Come on!

If we do too much,

we're apt to pop them right off the rims.

I gotta get this thing to come up.

The freezing rain's not letting up.

I'm thinking to myself, "We've got to get this truck out of here.

"We have to get it out of here now."

They need to add a more secure rigging point than the rims.

I gotta get a chain in around the walking beam somehow,

and then that way, we're not pulling the rubber off the tyres, OK?

Yeah. Yeah.

The only option is on the suspension,

buried deep in the mud.

Send that down there. Yeah.

I'll go get two more D-rings.

Wonderful.

OK, we're ready to go here.

Ahh.

Ooh.

What do you think? Maxed out?

The tyre's right in mud.

(DRAMATIC MUSIC)

(SIGHS)

Just we got so much mud here trying to drag, eh?

The low side was right, right down buried in the mud.

Pull!

I don't know about this, Billy.

Come on.

It's stuck.

It's stuck.

It's a big box.

It's all aluminium.

There's really not much to grab on,

and it doesn't take much to kink it or destroy it.

Just hold fire.

Come right over with a big sling.

We get on the walking beam here.

Yeah?

With your big sling.

Yup.

We'll just go from the other side right around.

Yeah, new plan.

So, we had to change our game plan.

Bill said, "Let's just put the strapping

"and the lines right over the side."

Instead of pulling directly on the suspension beam,

they'll rig a strap to it from the other side...

Get right up on top.

..and pull over the top of the vehicle.

OK.

Put some blocking in there to distribute the weight,

and hopefully it doesn't damage the box.

In? Yeah, in!

Try that out!

Try that out!

With Mouse holding onto the front,

the pull is all up to Duncan and the new rotator.

Everything settling alright?

Yeah.

Look at that, eh?

The right angle's a dangle going.

Yeah, just man your station up there, Mouse.

She's strong for a little truck, eh?

Yeah!

OK.

We've still got some learning curves with it, but we're getting there.

Straps all look good, Bill?

Yeah, she's looking good!

Started lifting, and we figured it was coming up,

so, let's keep at 'er.

You good there, Mouse?

Just hold 'em tight, OK?

OK!

Now we're talking, eh?

I don't think we're getting much closer now.

No, I don't think so, Dunc.

Can try.

Now, all that's left is to pull the front end

onto the road and get out of the rain.

Alright, can you grab the chain there?

Absolutely ecstatic how well this thing works.

Awesome, man, just awesome.

Look at that!

(TRIUMPHANT MUSIC)

Perfect!

I was very happy.

There was for sure no secondary damage caused by us.

The new rotator's first job is a win,

and not just for the crew that's on scene.

Dad was a very, very key component.

He did most of the install on the wrecker.

He did most of the work to the truck.

I called him afterwards, and I told him,

"You should see how well that machine you built works."

You got 'er!

I'd say we can release those brakes, Billy.

That made me feel pretty proud.

Nothing to it.

(THEME MUSIC)

Captioned by Ai-Media ai-media.tv