Cost of towing...on Highway thru Hell show

OT, sort of. Many of you have seen this tv show, but we never see any bills given, or any indication of cost. For example, they retrieved a semi out of the median, they pulled a track hoe out of a mud pit, and Jamie went on a 1200 mile trip with a wrecker to tow back a wrecked road tractor truck. I wonder what kind of expense is involved here. I can?t imagine what such would cost! Just curious. Thanks in advance for your input on this discussion.

My buddy got of the edge of the road just a little and spun out in the soft dirt a wrecker just happened to go by and pulled him out the operator said if he would have had to make a special trip it would have been 450$. I bet some of those big rotator jobs are 20,000$ Or more they don?t pay for those fancy rigs with all those lights and chrome on little 400 and 500 dollar jobs. I saw the one where he hauled the truck back across the country that was probably just a set rate per mile

I have a friend that has a rotator. His minimum charge is $2500.00 and it goes up fast after that. Some of the wrecks on Highway Thru Hell have 3 of those big suckers on one wreck and the sad part is most of what they recover is totaled.

Those situations sound similar to dropping a vehicle or an ice fishing house through thin ice to the bottom of a lake. Leaving it there and walking away is NOT an option anymore.

Yes I noticed that. They had about 4 wreckers on one wreck. Can?t imagine the cost.

Last week had a Tractor trailer truck towed 100 miles $500.00 to hook up and $6:00 per mile one way...This was just a break down parking lot to Truck Shop in Alabama

I know the operators at one of the towing companies that regularly recover and tow on the highway you mention... when insurance companies are paying the bills they are not into any form of money saving venture. After hearing their accounts they have told me, I understood how they afford to buy new towing rigs worth several hundred thousand dollars a piece. They run up bills by the tens of thousands in short order. I don't envy the nature of their work or working hours in the least though. Sometimes towing out submerged vehicles with dead bodies in them. On the lighter side I had to chuckle when one of guys told me they are allowed to hook onto any size or weight truck with load and tow it using only the brakes on the tow truck for getting stopped. The rest of us would get fined so bad if we were doing anything of the kind... they go scott free... go figure?

Regardless of how much they charge, most guys will bellyache that it's way too much, and it should be <$1 a loaded mile.

I was stationed at the Northern terminus (Kamloops Canada) of the "Highway Thru Hell" for the last 25 years of my 40 year career with a major Natural Gas Pipeline company, that owned ,operated and maintained a fleet of Compressors, as well as a 30" and 36 "diameter pipelines.

As a lead on most repairs,(with in Compressor stations) inspections, emergency work and senior relief Power Engineer, I was responsible for the safe,economical, and day to day operation of several Compressors Stations that paralleled the "Coquihalla Highway", pronounced.... Coke-a-halla.

Dramatic movies, and well orchestrated video cameras have named the highway "Highway Thru Hell"

I believe 99.999% of all vehicular accidents have taken place due to DRIVERS not READING and doing as SIGNAGE requests!

Signs are placed along the highway specifically informing DRIVERS as to the requirements, CHAINS MUST BE INSTALLED before ascending and descending the grades in winter conditions!

The Natural Gas Compressor stations along the "Coquihalla Highway", operate and run 25,000 HP General Electric LM2500/CF6s.......15,000 hp LM1500/J79s....18,000 HP Rolls Royce Gas Turbines...All Aero derivatives.

Many wintery nights, usually between 12 midnight and 3:00am (Dec,1,>Feb,29)I would receive a call from a young Compressor station operator with a story that left me scrambling!

We kept a spare 18,000 HP Rolls Royce as well as a spare 25,000 General Electric Gas Generator at the Northern terminus of the "Coquihalla Highway", (Highway Thru Hell)as the pipeline owners guarantied a pressure at the International border not less than 500 PSI...

Many Decembers >February would see 2 billion cubic feet of Natural Gas passing through the Compressor stations when Seattle, Vancouver, etc, etc, dropped below 32deg F.

I once received a call from the a "Gas Controller" asking for more HP! The client on the "Washington State" side of the International border had a major malfunction at a compressor station.

Seattle south to San Francisco was below freezing!

Sation 7 added HP and pinned their station at 50,000HP and was loosing discharge pressure.

Close to the summit of the "Coquihalla Highway", (Highway thru hell) I had two 18,000 HP Rolls Royce Turbines, as well as one General Electric,25,000 HP.

With in sight of the International border we had another 55,000 HP online.

I had spent 11 years in the Gas Turbine R/R shop.
We had a Freightliner Truck, AIR RIDE SUSPENTION and locking differentials. With all drivers chained, Differential locked into Posi drive, and a front tire chained, I would navigate the "Coquihalla Highway", (Highway thru hell) regardless of the snow depth, if I was headed South down the South gradient.

Usually the snow on the South side of the Summit would start to push against the front bumper, as these mtns. are not the Rockies, they receives LOTS of moisture from the Pacific Ocean, colliding with COLD air from the North East..

Here is a picture taken at the Northern terminus (Station 7)of the (Highway thru hell) "Coquihalla Highway"
There was a Gas Turbine that started to consume OIL at the summit of the "Coquihalla Highway". Weather report was bleak...
I made a decision to man the Compressor station at the North end of the pass, and allow a young family operator to spend Christmas with his family.

I retired Dec,30,2011,12:00 Noon....
Bob...




Coquihalla Highway is an extreme freeway located in southern British Columbia, Canada. It?s part of the Highway 5 and is around 200km long. It?s one of the worst roads in all of North America in winters. There were 32 fatal crashes between 2004 and 2013 (according to ICBC). In spring, summer or fall, it's a breeze, but in winter there are at least 400-500 accidents and plenty of fatalities.

Thanks for the interesting information about the compressor stations along "the Coke", I haven't been aware of all that happens there with the natural gas. We travel this route numerous times every year and your evaluation of the road is right on. Accidents are avoidable with due care and attention, unpredictable, however, when snow and ice cover the road. For those that have never traveled this stretch they need to know that given the terrain it is very well engineered. The year we moved, 2014, we drove this route more than a dozen times in both directions. You can safely do 120 km/hr, 75 mi/hr without ever slowing down except for those driving slower in front of you. Due to the nature of this route you cannot afford taking your eyes off the road, not even for two seconds in many places. The only place I feel is the most unsafe would be traveling down "the bear shed hill" at 8.5% grade, trucks are crawling in the slow lane, most cars and pickups are gaining more speed than 120k/hr or 75mi/hr where the road turns going into a snowshed where you only have a limited number of meters/feet to see what's going on. If you come onto an accident scene or major slow down (such as one slow truck passing another slow truck) your chances of getting stopped in time are slim. The Highway Authorities are able to post variable speed limits for going down this hill but they only do this for slippery road surface or bad fog, aside from this hill, signage of caution is really quite good everywhere.

As is usually the case, speed and caution go a long way toward winter travel. One of the more dangerous roads I'd say is just south of me at Red Mountain Pass, usually a miscalculation is deadly and requires a helicopter to recover. When not closed due to a slide it is passed daily by trucks that go slow, out-of-staters usually get found in the spring when they go off the side.