Massive military wrecker makes good and lands in Towing Hall of Fame

This is about a big, military wrecker that wound up on an Autocar truck in the International Towing & Recovery Hall of Fame in Chattanooga, Tenn. The late Donnie Cruse and Terry Humeline restored it and Donnie’s brother Ken drove it — with the unique Holmes W70 wrecker made for hauling heavy military vehicles — to the towing museum.

Donnie and Ken operated Cruse Heavy Towing in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. They started Wreckmaster, a business that developed the towing industry’s first training and certification curriculum. Donnie’s love of tow truck history led to restoring the W70.

The W70 evolved from Kenworth’s 580 wrecker, which was a 6 x 6 10-ton military unit that the United States Army tested at Ft. Young, Calif. in 1943. The Kenworth 580 carried a Holmes wrecker unit with booms that extended from the normal 14 1/2 ft. all the way out to 18 1/2 ft. This reduced the wrecker’s lift capacity from 31,000 to 20,000 lbs.

However, with the twin booms joined together at the rear, the lifting and carrying capacity of the W70 wrecker was increased to 16,000 lbs. Its towing capacity also went up to 68,500 lbs. Due to the high placement of its engine, the 580 could ford 40 inches of water and its 150-gallon fuel tank gave it a range of 400 miles on paved roads with no load.

Around 1951-1952 Holmes made four W70 wreckers for additional military testing. They each mounted on different types of military trucks and had a 70,000-lb. towing capacity. Each unit was tested at the Aberdeen Proving Grounds. The W70 is the largest mechanical wrecker ever made. The civilian model Holmes 850 wrecker was known as “the monster of towing” for many years and was considered by most towing professionals to be the ultimate heavy-duty wrecker. The W70 dwarfs the Holmes 850! It’s titantic!

The military-style Holmes W70 was the first wrecker to have a power take-off with a chain-driven power swing, a boom and an extension. Its winch cable drum capacity is 500 ft. of 7/8-inch wire. The operator has to use eight levers and two speed-winches to control the wrecker from behind the cab. The booms can be power-extended by lowering them. Then, the quick placement of a hook extends the boom as it is power elevated. The W70 designation means it’s a 70-ton unit. Sadly, the W70 prototypes didn’t meet military needs and only the four units were ever made. Most MV collectors will never see one.

In 1960, a man named Earl Shade bought the W70 that’s in the museum. He purchased it at a government auction for $10,000 and installed it on a 1961 Autocar chassis. Shade ultimately sold the truck and wrecker to Howard Furnkas. It was the first professionally made piece of towing equipment Furnkas ever owned. Hank Preston was the next owner. He was working for Fullerton Auto Parts & Truck Parts and used the massive recovery unit to provide wrecker services on the new I-95 Interstate from Baltimore north to the Delaware line (now the John F. Kennedy Memorial Highway).

Jack Hitt was the next owner of the truck. It’s believed he added four square tube-style bolster legs in place of the original round ones. Square tube technology had not been available prior to this time. Hitt used it to stabilize the mast to handle the wrecker’s power. Its ability to power swing under load was a feature not offered in the Holmes 850.

Around 1990, Donnie Cruse and Terry Humeline were traveling through Rockville, Md. on WreckMaster business and stopped at Jack Hitt Towing to see his huge wrecker. Hitt said they could buy the wrecker when he was ready to sell it. When Hitt passed away the truck went to auction. Cruse and Humeline heard about it, but were scheduled to be out of town on the auction date. The night before, Cruse contacted Hitt’s son and made a deal.

The W70 was still on the military chassis, had the correct five-speed main transmission and four-speed auxiliary transmission. The 180-hp Cummins diesel ran well and sounded like older trucks because of its straight-pipe exhaust setup. Over the next few weeks Eric Staudinger towed the truck to Hagerstown, Md., where Terry made arrangements with David Kline of D & D Truck Repair to store it for a while. Then, Bill Carpenter towed it to Crane’s Towing in Corning, N.Y., where a restoration finally began.

Initially, the restoration was viewed as a 400-hour project. “I thought that would do the job,” said Cruse. “But that was our first mistake; the time for the restoration exceeded 2,400 hours. The second mistake was thinking that it would be unveiled at the 2001 Florida Tow Show. The third mistake was thinking it could make an appearance at Terry’s Towing Hall of Fame induction in August of 2001. The restoration took on a life of its own as the unit was disassembled and readied for its new life as “the flagship of towing.”

The restoration wound up costing more than $100,000. Donnie and Terry decided ownership of the truck should go to the towing industry and sold shares in the W70. Later, it was decided to give the truck to the museum www.internationaltowingmuseum.org, where it is today.