This wrecker is name "UGLY" It's a Oshkosh with a custom wrecker and crane body designed and built by my grandfather Mark DiGiovanni From Guaranteed Motors in Brunswick New Jresey. It was the" Wrecker of the month" in overdrive magazine August 1978 issue. Link below is the article from that magazine. public.fotki.com/modeltrucks25thscale/truck_magazines/truck-and-trucking-/1978-overdrive-magazine/08-overdrive-magazi/august-1978-wrecker.html
I am one who thinks this is a beautiful truck. It's classic Oshkosh. I love the boom logo. Guaranteed. You're guaranteed it'll pull you out or break...one or the other.
Built by GUARANTEED MOTORS-- by a master tow operator---almost all of the company vehicles were built in-house....and indispensable for removing difficult wrecks off of the area highways.
UGLY will always be my favorite winch truck...Its former owner said when it goes to work it'll either unstick it, or pull into two pieces...If memory serves, it was originally built for cement mixer service...
There is NO such thing as a (CEMENT) Mixer! Cement is a powder transported in a Bulker style tanker. What you meant to say is a (CONCRETE MIXER). So many people call Concrete cement but they are not even close to being the same thing. Cement is a powder such as Portland Cement that goes in to the mix with aggergate and chemicals to create a final product called CONCRETE.
@@dandunning4409 Correct, so the rotating drum in the cement mixer is mixing that cement with gravel, sand and water resulting in concrete just as I said...
I've always thought that these are the weirdest looking trucks. You've got ten feet of hood in front of you, which of course is normal, but the steering axle is directly under you like a cabover.
Doubtful.........Ugly has been rescued by some of my friends in the Business in Ct,restored and placed into their working fleet . Look up Nelco,................
Instead of low cab forward, it high cab backwards, gotta suck to access the clutch, drop the front suspension to get the trans out?? Or is it mounted on a cradle like some buses, just undo the drive shaft and engine/ trans come out together? Very curious
WINCH truck....Look under the rear..... HUGE rear hydraulic spade. This was built in the Guaranteed shops for heavy pulling,they had a bunch of 750,850, and big hydraulics to do the TOWING. They also had a least two Silent Cranes that worked the Wrecks. They were the GO TO company if you had a BIG problem and the Giovanni's were ahead of the time in the business. Immaulate fleet in white.
@@LetsFNgo , I stand corrected. I think they built more than one truck though. I recall reading somewhere that Steve Avella mentioned that their truck " UGLY " had a twin out there. Avella's truck also had a 6-71 Detroit Diesel and not a Caterpillar.
This is an extreme example but typically when a front axle is set back it allows for a smaller turning radius as well improved weight distribution for heavy loads.
Hate the ultra short wheelbase on what appears to be the later model C's. The 60's look like the front axle is a couple of feet further foreard. Is the super short wheelbase for better maneuvering or to clear the oil pan ?
In the case of an old sling style wrecker it would be to get weight distribution right. If this thing was in fact originally built to tow cement trucks, especially front dumper cement trucks it would be an absolute necessity to get proper weight balance. Modern heavy wreckers carry the load directly on the rear axles, sling trucks carry it behind them.
@@coreyschmidt1647 I don't follow your logic on the sling wreckers. There is not more weight out in front of the "fulcrum" (the rear axles) in this case. There is actually less. Putting the axle in the normal location would actually increase the "counterweight effect" to some extent (because the axle is quite heavy). The front axle was set back for maneuverability, and if the truck was originally a ready-mix truck as some here have said, that would make perfect sense. Ready-mix trucks often need to be able to maneuver in tight places. To illustrate that, back in the 90s, Mack made a front-discharge ready-mix truck that had a much longer wheelbase than similar trucks made by any other maker, and most companies that purchased these trucks ended up HATING the things for that reason (oh, and they also hated them because Mack decided not to equip them with a two-speed transfer case, resulting in very poor ability to crawl through soft soil or up steep slopes, and that mistake was unforgivable and amazingly stupid, but that's another topic).
@@ericl2969 well you're wrong on the piviot point. Modern wreckers have the rear axle as the piviot point. Sling wreckers do not since one end of the sling Carrie's weight at the very back of the wrecker, nearly 2 feet behind the centerline of the rear axle, the other end is carried by the boom mounted well ahead of the axle, so now your center of gravity for load on the sling is half way between the centerline of the rear axle and the rear of the truck, putting it roughly a foot behind the rear axle. On a modern wrecker the boom Carries the entire load on the boom thus making the rear axle the center of gravity for your carried load. And the setback is all about distribution of weight, not making the nose of the truck weigh more. With the axle where it is it can carry upwards of 20,000 of weight when loaded, but for every inch you move the axle foreward about 100 pounds of weight gets shifted from the steer axle to the drives, not only making for illegal axle loading but also making a truck that will keep going straight no matter which direction you turn the steering wheel.
@@coreyschmidt1647 I might be misunderstanding what you call a sling, but it sounds like you are misunderstanding the physics of levers. Within a rigid system, in this case a boom or any rigid device that is attached to the frame, it doesn't matter where the boom attaches in terms of the final result of where the load is effectively applied relative to the fulcrum. Now, it DOES matter in terms of engineering for strength of the various parts, but ultimately not in regard to the affect of that rearward weight in terms of leverage within the whole system. And I did not say that the axle placement toward the rear makes the nose weigh more. I said the opposite, and I thought that you were saying it made the nose weigh more (but must have misunderstood your reasoning). In any case, Oshkosh DID design this model as concrete truck, and it may be true that getting the front axle to share more of the carried load was a design goal, as this was before it was common to add extra axles for that purpose.
@@ericl2969 ok I understand what you're getting at, but weight loading on truck frames isnt as straightforward as you think. Where the boom mounts absolutely matters as far as weight distribution, and when you're towing weight distribution is the name of the game. To simplify the difference between a modern wrecker with an axle lift and this one with a sling lift I'll put it like this. The sling lift is like having a bumper mounted trailer hitch on a pickup truck towing a heavy load, an axle lift is like towing the same load with a gooseneck hitch mounted in the center of the bed of the pickup. If you have any questions feel free to ask, I've got nearly 20 years experience hauling heavy equipment, and over a decade of heavy wrecker experience. And I'm one of the few people under 40 that still know how to run the oldschool winch only wreckers like the one in this video.
This wrecker is name "UGLY" It's a Oshkosh with a custom wrecker and crane body designed and built by my grandfather Mark DiGiovanni From Guaranteed Motors in Brunswick New Jresey. It was the" Wrecker of the month" in overdrive magazine August 1978 issue. Link below is the article from that magazine.
public.fotki.com/modeltrucks25thscale/truck_magazines/truck-and-trucking-/1978-overdrive-magazine/08-overdrive-magazi/august-1978-wrecker.html
This is what we call in the industry an "absolute unit".
This truck gives a whole new meaning to the term set back front axle.
Trukluver It really can't go back any further.
sheeit, that thing has a shorter wheelbase than our f350!
@@Commissar0617 better turning radius though
For that time you need to change the Earth's rotation.
I am one who thinks this is a beautiful truck. It's classic Oshkosh. I love the boom logo. Guaranteed. You're guaranteed it'll pull you out or break...one or the other.
Haha, very true.
That tow truck is not ugly.
It is beautiful.
New Motto for the company
"When you absolutely, positively have to pull Hell off its foundation"
lol
Built by GUARANTEED MOTORS-- by a master tow operator---almost all of the company vehicles were built in-house....and indispensable for removing difficult wrecks off of the area highways.
A truck only a mother could love....
Or to be more specific, a MotherTrucker.
Holy cow ! That thing is a beast !
Look at that beautiful truck.
a thing of beauty .
Jersey Boys rock!Beautiful rig
I used to drive an Oshkosh wrecker for train derailments.
UGLY will always be my favorite winch truck...Its former owner said when it goes to work it'll either unstick it, or pull into two pieces...If memory serves, it was originally built for cement mixer service...
+1Truckman It's a looker for sure. So ugly that it is a beautiful!
@@Dailydieseldose315 I'm a big fan of ugly trucks...That's why I drive one...They have character...
There is NO such thing as a (CEMENT) Mixer! Cement is a powder transported in a Bulker style tanker. What you meant to say is a (CONCRETE MIXER). So many people call Concrete cement but they are not even close to being the same thing. Cement is a powder such as Portland Cement that goes in to the mix with aggergate and chemicals to create a final product called CONCRETE.
@@dandunning4409 Correct, so the rotating drum in the cement mixer is mixing that cement with gravel, sand and water resulting in concrete just as I said...
@@1Truckman There is no such thing as a (CEMENT) Mixer. It's a (CONCRETE) Mixer!!!!
I've never seen this type of wrecker/truck in my life, interesting design 🤔. I'll read up on it. Thank you.
now thats a set back axle
Beautiful beast
Look at those spring packs! 😮
surprised this puppy is not a tri axle but it sure looks heavy duty. All wheel drive Oshkosh for those big ditches.
Wouldn't be so bad getting stuck if this guy was coming to the rescue. Beautiful truck. Thanks
mike maclean There must be an unwritten rule that tow trucks have to look cool.
I wonder why they call it big ugly? That's one of the nicest looking Rigs I seen in a long time!
Beauty is always in the eye of the beholder.
The infamous “Ugly”, s New Jersey towing legend.
very cool truck! would love to know its history, and yeah its ugly and cool at same time. Beautiful restoration! Thanks
"Hold on while I swing my ENTIRE ENGINE over your Civic"
I've always thought that these are the weirdest looking trucks. You've got ten feet of hood in front of you, which of course is normal, but the steering axle is directly under you like a cabover.
small turning radius
Yeah, I know why. I still think they look weird though.
Wow that semi is like a cabover & conventional cab mix.
for normal axle you have most trucks...for set back you have Autocar or Brockway...for REALLY Set back you have Oshkosh
Nice truck, could use a lighting upgrade, like LED light bar and other lights on front, sides and rear for better visibility
that old chassis would make a damn nice dump truck!!
Love the N.j. Teepee
Sticker she serviced the
New Jersey s famous
NJ Tp upper case than lower
what a strange truck
Back in the late seventies, I drove one of these with a concrete mixer behind the cab.
amazing truck
What a truck! Very unique. First I've seen one with a front end like that. North Brunswick nj is right by me
reweydewy Maybe you'll catch it in action someday.
Doubtful.........Ugly has been rescued by some of my friends in the Business in Ct,restored and placed into their working fleet . Look up Nelco,................
I would hate to be on the job driving something like that, only to find the vehicle you have to tow turns out to be a crummy little Toyota Yaris.
A beauty!
James Campbell Truly!
Its a beauty....
22 ladies mistakenly clicked on this video and did thumbs down.
Wow some wrecker one of my favourite’s
Now that is a truck
BADASS
Is that a Caterpillar that I see
Caterpillar c15 6NZ yes it’s a 1673C
I just seen this truck on 'my classic car' . Originally it was a cement truck.
Instead of low cab forward, it high cab backwards, gotta suck to access the clutch, drop the front suspension to get the trans out?? Or is it mounted on a cradle like some buses, just undo the drive shaft and engine/ trans come out together? Very curious
Jaime Davis needs one of these monsters
pretty modern looking for beeing 50 years old
Shit if this truck was a man it would have a third ball. I love gear like this. Pretty and Plastic isn't that pretty. But this is
WOW!!!
I've never seen anything like that wheelbase
Overhang....there's no stinkin overhang here ! *front axle under driver and nose length for miles* 😂
WINCH truck....Look under the rear..... HUGE rear hydraulic spade. This was built in the Guaranteed shops for heavy pulling,they had a bunch of 750,850, and big hydraulics to do the TOWING. They also had a least two Silent Cranes that worked the Wrecks. They were the GO TO company if you had a BIG problem and the Giovanni's were ahead of the time in the business. Immaulate fleet in white.
the only thing Ugly
...........is your empty wallet when he is done
That's one of Avella's Garage or HighPoint towing's old trucks.
David Smith the mechanic at guaranteed, mark, built this body and boom. It was guaranteed’s before anyone else owned it.
@@LetsFNgo , I stand corrected. I think they built more than one truck though. I recall reading somewhere that Steve Avella mentioned that their truck " UGLY " had a twin out there. Avella's truck also had a 6-71 Detroit Diesel and not a Caterpillar.
Same truck highpoint bought it then sold their business and trucks after some problems with the state of New Jersey
That is a cabover with a hood on it.
Different that's for sure.
By any chance do you know what engine on that big boys toy ???
Rafael Berrios it’s a cat 1673c, basically the precursor to the 3306. You couldn’t get high hp with awd.
@@LetsFNgo Thanks a lot for the response.
Over all it's a nice and rugged truck but the set back of the front axle is weird.Fire trucks of that brand don't have set back axles like this one.
Wait... This isn't Welker Farms??
I didn't know tow trucks could have down syndrome. It looks nice though.
Shame you can’t sling most new tractors now a days.
That’s one ugly ass truck but you just know it’ll pull the devil out of hell if you tell it to.
Does it work good on towing vehicles
why are the front wheels so far back not flush whit the bumper just wondering
This is an extreme example but typically when a front axle is set back it allows for a smaller turning radius as well improved weight distribution for heavy loads.
I'm sure they could have gotten an 'f' on that license plate.
so is the engine just hanging out the front or is it just a cabover with the front for storage?ive never heard of oshkosh yet so just wondering
That is correct.
What a nice old truck. Anybody should be proud to own a rig like this. I can't believe anybody never heard of an Oshkosh b'gosh.
@@spencergreenhill7728 You're joking right? "Oshkosh b'gosh" manufactures clothing for kids. Oshkosh requires no explanation.
Does this wrecker have a Detroit 8v92?
I don't believe so. Large Cat I think.
Had a 1693 Cat as I remember
Sounds like a Brockway I knew way back when. That old bird was definitely a Detroit.
is it a working tow truck or just a show truck?
More show than work nowadays.
What more,cat?
Obviously a CAT. Is it a 3206B?
There was no 3206b.
3208
3406.
It has a precup rattle to it so I'm going to guess a 3306 pc
1673C, basically the precursor to the 3306
so is that stricktly a show truck or is it a working wrecker
Working.
That's a beautiful rig. Gorgeous. She still on the road
what motor is in it and is that a mars 888 fire truck light on the bumper?
Sorry, no idea.
As I remember a 1693 Cat and YES on the Mars light
What motor,,cat??
very nice ,,, but what use is it really.
what front axle is that?
Hate the ultra short wheelbase on what appears to be the later model C's. The 60's look like the front axle is a couple of feet further foreard. Is the super short wheelbase for better maneuvering or to clear the oil pan ?
In the case of an old sling style wrecker it would be to get weight distribution right. If this thing was in fact originally built to tow cement trucks, especially front dumper cement trucks it would be an absolute necessity to get proper weight balance. Modern heavy wreckers carry the load directly on the rear axles, sling trucks carry it behind them.
@@coreyschmidt1647 I don't follow your logic on the sling wreckers. There is not more weight out in front of the "fulcrum" (the rear axles) in this case. There is actually less. Putting the axle in the normal location would actually increase the "counterweight effect" to some extent (because the axle is quite heavy). The front axle was set back for maneuverability, and if the truck was originally a ready-mix truck as some here have said, that would make perfect sense. Ready-mix trucks often need to be able to maneuver in tight places. To illustrate that, back in the 90s, Mack made a front-discharge ready-mix truck that had a much longer wheelbase than similar trucks made by any other maker, and most companies that purchased these trucks ended up HATING the things for that reason (oh, and they also hated them because Mack decided not to equip them with a two-speed transfer case, resulting in very poor ability to crawl through soft soil or up steep slopes, and that mistake was unforgivable and amazingly stupid, but that's another topic).
@@ericl2969 well you're wrong on the piviot point. Modern wreckers have the rear axle as the piviot point. Sling wreckers do not since one end of the sling Carrie's weight at the very back of the wrecker, nearly 2 feet behind the centerline of the rear axle, the other end is carried by the boom mounted well ahead of the axle, so now your center of gravity for load on the sling is half way between the centerline of the rear axle and the rear of the truck, putting it roughly a foot behind the rear axle. On a modern wrecker the boom Carries the entire load on the boom thus making the rear axle the center of gravity for your carried load. And the setback is all about distribution of weight, not making the nose of the truck weigh more. With the axle where it is it can carry upwards of 20,000 of weight when loaded, but for every inch you move the axle foreward about 100 pounds of weight gets shifted from the steer axle to the drives, not only making for illegal axle loading but also making a truck that will keep going straight no matter which direction you turn the steering wheel.
@@coreyschmidt1647 I might be misunderstanding what you call a sling, but it sounds like you are misunderstanding the physics of levers. Within a rigid system, in this case a boom or any rigid device that is attached to the frame, it doesn't matter where the boom attaches in terms of the final result of where the load is effectively applied relative to the fulcrum. Now, it DOES matter in terms of engineering for strength of the various parts, but ultimately not in regard to the affect of that rearward weight in terms of leverage within the whole system. And I did not say that the axle placement toward the rear makes the nose weigh more. I said the opposite, and I thought that you were saying it made the nose weigh more (but must have misunderstood your reasoning). In any case, Oshkosh DID design this model as concrete truck, and it may be true that getting the front axle to share more of the carried load was a design goal, as this was before it was common to add extra axles for that purpose.
@@ericl2969 ok I understand what you're getting at, but weight loading on truck frames isnt as straightforward as you think. Where the boom mounts absolutely matters as far as weight distribution, and when you're towing weight distribution is the name of the game. To simplify the difference between a modern wrecker with an axle lift and this one with a sling lift I'll put it like this. The sling lift is like having a bumper mounted trailer hitch on a pickup truck towing a heavy load, an axle lift is like towing the same load with a gooseneck hitch mounted in the center of the bed of the pickup. If you have any questions feel free to ask, I've got nearly 20 years experience hauling heavy equipment, and over a decade of heavy wrecker experience. And I'm one of the few people under 40 that still know how to run the oldschool winch only wreckers like the one in this video.
It’s ugly as sin but if it works
worst approach angle in history
those Oshkosh people have always being on drugs.
whats the transmission 10 or 18 speed
It's a 10 speed main with a 3 speed auxiliary transmission.
too short of a wheelbase for towing. Maybe useful for winching but that about it.
edbigtruck 20ish years of pictures would prove your statement wrong.
Wierd lookin truck.
Ugly fucking truck ,they can do some better, i see it they dont care 😡