When I was growing up in Sydney my dad owned a number of tow trucks.
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We owned a pre-war Ford V8 'jailbar, a three ton and five ton pre-war Dodge.
Later on we had in the fleet a couple of early 60s Dodge three tonners and a 60s International.
The business was called G&G Towing and operated out of the Sydney suburb of Tempe.
In later years dad travelled the State towing for the now defunct Ajax Insurance.
Many tow truck operators in those days chased the accidents and used the speedy Ford F100 V8 as their vehicle of choice.
Tatnells of St Peters (now famous in Speedway over generations) was one such firm.
Maybe that's where they learnt their speedway skills?
The tow trucks of the day had cranes on them.
You would place wooden poles under the car you wanted to tow, attaching them via a chain around the rear axle, before connecting the poles to the truck crane via an 'A' bar, and lifting the vehicle usually by a manual winch.
If the car couldn't be towed we carried an axle and set of wheels that were put under the car's rear for towing.
Pretty primitive stuff, and you ended up with wood splinters in your hands if you didn't wear gloves from the wooden poles.
What a difference today sophisticated tow trucks are.
In actual fact they are not really tow trucks (you may see a genuine tow truck used to tow heavy vehicles).
They are flat tops with a rear tray that drop down to accept a vehicle which is winched on by an electric winch. They carry the vehicle not tow it.
Licencing laws are much tougher these days and the race to an accident after listening in illegally on a Police radio are well and truly gone.
Police who tipped of their 'favourite' tow truck operator are also a thing of history, for good reason.
If my dad was to return today he would find a different world to the one he left. 'Where have all the tow trucks gone? Long time passing'.
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