The young boy looking at the tow truck parked outside Carl Chase's garage seemed a little disappointed. "I've seen wreckers that big before," he said. He had heard stories, and he was expecting something bigger. Then he stepped through the garage door, and his eyes grew wide. "That one is big!"

You need wide eyes to take in all of Carl Chase's pride and joy, a 1993 Peterbilt with a Magnum wrecker spec'd to a lifting capacity of 100 tons. Fitted with a 600-hp Cummins, the truck is 40 feet long, has a 360-inch wheelbase, and weighs 110,000 pounds.

The big lifting is accomplished with two 100,000-pound Tulsa winches, each wound with 350 feet of 1-inch cable. The boom extends 36 feet. Lettering on the hydraulic rams reads, "If we can't pull your rig, we don't charge."

"It's a big animal to play with," says the owner of C.L. Chase Used Auto & Truck Parts in Camp Douglas, Wis. Drawing on his own experience (he's been in the towing business since he built a 1-ton wrecker in 1968), he designed the rig with a friend, Roger Johnson of J&R Engineering.

"A lot of my own thoughts and homework went into this," says Chase. "I've used 50-tonners for years, but a lot of times you take them right to the edge – you can feel it. This rig can take the place of three or four units, which is important when you're working beside the highway or where space is limited."

Chase and the rig have appeared on TNN in special pulling events, but he insists the rig is more than just a giant plaything. "I think we're ahead of what's needed, generally, but it's coming. "Things are bigger, taller, wider. It takes weight to move weight. Otherwise the equipment on the road today will destroy you," he says.

Chase has used the rig to right tractor-trailers and to lift an excavator back to the roadway. "Anytime you can lift something in one piece, and not drag it, you're not pulling against Mother Nature, and it's not as hard on stuff."

Chase currently operates a fleet of 12 wreckers. The 100-ton star only comes out for special occasions. "Customers will call and say, 'Bring the biggest thing you've got‚'" chuckles Chase. "I like to make sure to talk to them first, to make sure we don't overdo it." And give them a serious case of wide eyes.