As his Tin Lizzie sped down Old Byrd’s Mill Road one day in 1916, John A. Wiley Sr. suddenly felt the little Ford pull sharply to the right. He gripped the steering wheel with his left hand, while his right arm instinctively grabbed hold of his only passenger, John A. Wiley Jr. But his actions were fruitless. The car flew off the road and down an embankment. In a flash, the Chattanooga, Tenn., business school executive found himself and his son sitting in the cool water of South Chickamauga Creek.

Their Model T touring car had suddenly become a submarine, with the broken and bent bottom half of one wheel sticking up like a periscope. The rest of the vehicle was underwater. Father and son survived the plunge in remarkably good shape.

Having no way to extract the car from the water as easily as they got out themselves, they realized they had a problem. Then, the older man recalled a former student, an exceptionally bright fellow, who operated an automobile repair shop. He walked to a nearby home with a telephone, and called the garage man, Ernest Holmes. “We had an accident, and my car is stuck upside down in South Chickamauga Creek,” said Wiley. “Please tell me that there is some way you can retrieve it for us.”

So goes one account of how the “first” wrecker – or tow truck – came to be. The legend says Holmes worked for nearly an entire day before he was able to drag the wrecked car out of the creek with a block-and-tackle apparatus set up in the top of an overhanging tree.

Afterward, so the story goes, he started thinking about this experience plus other calls he’d had to fix cars with broken axles on the side of the road. Broken axles were common and working on the roadside was dangerous, but necessary. After all, the cars couldn’t be easily moved to a repair shop with their axles snapped.

The corporate history says Holmes, who had 13 years’ experience as an auto mechanic, decided he could design and build a machine to make it easier to handle disabled autos. He made a working drawing to get a patent, then took the drawing to local foundries and machine shops to get his “auto crane” built.

The first Holmes wrecker was assembled in the fall of 1917. These machines were essentially small cranes that could be attached to motor vehicles. In 1917, Holmes rigged one up on the chassis of a heavy auto and used it quite successfully around Chattanooga. In fact, others noticed how well it worked, and he took orders for two more twin-boom wrecker mechanisms that same year. Making wreckers soon became Holmes’ main occupation, and the Ernest Holmes Co. was formed.

Holmes vs. ‘The Manley Crane’

No one doubts that Holmes accomplished all this in 1916-17, but it has been disputed that he was first to market such a device. An advertisement placed by Manley Manufacturing Co. in a 1925 issue of Motor Age magazine stated that Robert E. Manley, of York, Pa., originated the auto-wrecking crane in 1917.

The old Manley advertisement insisted, “The Manley Crane was the first automobile wrecking crane to be manufactured and offered to dealers and garage men of this country.” Manley also laid claim to developing the first self-contained towing saddle (a device that distributes the weight of a towed vehicle over the entire chassis of the towing vehicle, although its base occupies a minimal space).

The company’s slogan in 1925, “Get a Manley,” would seem politically incorrect today. But at that time, the Manley Auto Wrecking Crane was promoted as a “mechanically correct device.” Its outstanding features included a swivel-nose mechanism that permitted disabled vehicles to be pulled directly from any angle. It boasted a tilting beam that allowed adjustments to crane height and overhang, and double handles that could be used to operate the crane from either side of the vehicle.

The Manley also had six leverages and speeds for easy crane operation with varying loads; the choice of a chain or cable for doing the actual towing (chains were recommended); a self-contained saddle, for better load weight distribution; two-gear operation, to reduce friction; and strength beyond the factory-rated capacities.

Holmes may or may not have been the first to market such a crane, but he was soon selling many of his machines to auto repair shops and garages, as well as other businesses interested in retrieving and towing wrecked or disabled autos. His first manufacturing facility was a small shop on Market Street in Chattanooga. The company grew quickly along with the automobile industry. Eventually, his products earned a worldwide reputation for quality and performance.

More cars, wrecks, wreckers

One of his most famous products was the No. 485 Holmes Wrecker, which was extremely popular in the 1920s. With its twin booms, this amazing machine could pull two stranded cars out of a roadside ditch at one time. With both booms used for a single car, the No. 485 Holmes could lift a disabled vehicle completely off the road and carry it home.

In the early days, most tow trucks actually started life as passenger cars. The rear section of a touring car body or the rear deck of a coupe or roadster would be removed from the car. In some cases, a cargo bed and load box would be fabricated to make the vehicle into a sort of short-bed pickup truck. Other operators simply welded or bolted the towing crane right to the car’s rear frame rails.

Another of the major early manufacturers of wreckers was Weaver Mfg. Co., with plants and offices in Springfield, Ill., and Chatham, Ontario, Canada. Its lightweight but husky Weaver Auto Crane could handle 4,000-pound loads with ease.

Other companies such as Taylor-Made, Hubbard and StringfelIow also made early wrecker and towing equipment, although none became as popular as the Holmes and Weaver products. The demand soon became so great that Holmes quit the auto repair business to manufacture wreckers on a full-time basis. He was also forced to move into a new and larger facility.

In the early 1930s, a mechanical hoist for towing disabled cars probably cost under $75. This estimate is based on the $790 price of the 1931 Ford Model 229-A Service Car with the hoist and a built-in tool chest. This vehicle was actually a closed-cab truck with a 131.5-inch wheelbase. It had been developed that year for private garages, gas stations and Ford dealers. Without the special tow-truck equipment, you could buy the Model 229-A for just $715.

Ford dealers got some advertising value out of their Service Cars, but the Model 229-A did not sell well. Factory records show only 521 Model 229-A cars were made by 1932, when Ford terminated the model. However, Ford kept some of the excess Service Car bodies in inventory and mounted them on 1933 and 1934 Ford chassis. Beginning June 6, 1934, the price for a Service Car with crane dropped $15 to $775.

In 1935, Ford developed a “preferred tow truck” package for its 131.5-inch wheelbase truck chassis, because even though the 229-A was gone, company dealers still needed wreckers. The tow truck featured a curved, streamlined open-express-type body with chrome top rails along the side of the body. Even with functional-looking dual rear wheels, it was still quite a handsome truck.

By 1939, Holmes outgrew his factory again. He moved to a new shop on East 43rd Street in Chattanooga. At that time, 69 people were on the payroll. The number rose to about 200 after World War II started, since Holmes twin-boom and other types of wreckers were in great demand for the “new” mechanized U.S. Army.

Towing the Army

Around 1917, an unknown photographer snapped a picture of a Model 25 Velie U.S. Army truck with a crane mounted on it at Kelly Field, Texas. This was definitely not a Holmes wrecker, as the crane was of single-boom design and made of wood. About the only thing it could lift were the fabric-and-wood airplanes of that era, and it was designed for returning damaged aircraft to a base.

By the close of World War I, the U.S. government had bought two or three Holmes wreckers for experimental use. The tests proved their durability and value. By the time World War II broke out, the wrecker truck was an important piece of equipment in the Allies’ military arsenal. Hundreds of Holmes and other wreckers were used in wartime military-vehicle recovery operations.

Military wreckers came in all sizes, from 1.5-ton Chevrolet trucks with single-boom auto cranes to 6-ton, multi-wheel-drive, twin-boom giants that could handle 20 tons on each crane when snatch blocks were installed. The largest wreckers used in daily service in WWII could haul every type of wheeled vehicle the military had, plus light and medium battle tanks. The U.S. Marines, for example, used a streamlined, modern-looking Mack COE with a Holmes twin-boom body outfitted with central stabilizing jacks, oversize tires and extra-sturdy, flat sheet-metal front fenders.

Even bigger and more impressive military models were built by Diamond T, Mack and Kenworth. The Diamond T 969 6x6 heavy wrecker was designed and developed in 1939, and manufactured from 1940-45. It was used to tow and lift disabled vehicles, as well as equipment. Based on a 4-ton truck, it was fitted with a Holmes Model 45 wrecker body. Its twin power booms could handle up to 5 tons each. Some 6,200 of these were built.

There was also a Diamond T 969A with either open or closed cab. It had two Holmes Model 45 winches on the rear, with 200 feet of cable on each spool. About 6,400 of these were built.

The M1-style 6-ton 6x6 wrecker was a third military model built by both fire-engine maker Ward-LaFrance and commercial truck maker Kenworth. Each company built two variations. They were coded M1s or M1A1s, followed by an alphabetical designation for the manufacturer, WF for Ward-LaFrance and KW for Kenworth.

These were the largest military wreckers in daily service during WWII. Garwood Industries, a boat and bus-making firm in Detroit, built the twin-boom wrecker bodies. The maximum tow load for these giants was 70,000 lbs.

Towing booms today

Ernest Holmes Sr. died on June 10, 1945, and Ernest Jr. took over. He had been chief engineer, vice president and president. The product line and the company continued to expand. Holmes was the almost unrivaled leader of the towing equipment industry until well after the end of World War II. Today, a number of builders offer a variety of models. So it seems almost inevitable that tow truck operators paint and hang chrome on their vehicles and pit them against each other at trade shows. Some heavy-duty rigs rival the best Class 8 show trucks.

John Wiley didn’t like having to be towed in 1916, and no one since then has liked it, either. But when you absolutely need a tow, there’s a sense of comfort in knowing there’s one just down the road.

Necessity pulled wreckers into being.

George Kaiser’s restored 1953 Ford F-500 tow truck provides eye candy at a Hershey, Pa., car show in 1990.

In 1947, a former military vehicle was “demobilized” and re-entered civilian life as the official Indy 500 tow truck.

This Detroit Police Department wrecker from the late 1920s or early 1930s probably started life as an auto.

A Holmes wrecker boom sat on this 3/4-ton 1981 GMC at the 65th running of the Indianapolis 500.

If you love trucks and trucking history and plan to be anywhere near Chattanooga, Tenn., the International Towing and Recovery Hall of Fame is a place that you’ll want to see. (423-267-3132) It exhibits wreckers and towing equipment dating back to 1916. Also on exhibit are photos depicting early wreckers, and the men who used them.

Chattanooga was selected as the location for this museum because the city is where Ernest Holmes built his first wrecker 81 years ago. That early “auto crane” was manufactured one block from where the museum currently stands. The museum’s collection includes early wrecker equipment built by Holmes, Manley, Weaver and others. This equipment is mounted on a variety of automobile and truck chassis.

An interesting combination is a Holmes 485 wrecker mounted on a Locomobile coupe. Bob Meyer’s Towing & Recovery of Owensville, Ohio, donated it to the museum. There is also a Manley Crane on a ’26 Model TT Ford truck that came from Scotty’s Carriage Works in Cameron, Mo.

Another Holmes 485 wrecker unit rides in the back of a Model AA Ford express truck donated by Connolly’s Towing, Arvada, Colo. A big Weaver Auto Crane sits behind a second Model M Ford truck that came from Bachman Towing Co., in Moundridge, Kan. A converted ’29 Chrysler passenger car, donated by O’Hare Truck Service of Northlake, Ill., carries a Weaver 3-ton Auto Crane.

The International Towing and Recovery Hall of Fame and Museum is located at 401 Broad St., Chattanooga, Tenn., 37402. For information and exact hours at a certain time of the year, call (423) 267-3132.