Friday I picked up a load of steel with my 1999 F350 2WD dually. 8350 lbs on my GN trailer for a combined total of about 22,500 lbs. Serpentine belt snapped and took out my transmission cooling lines, lower radiator hose and so I'm stuck on the side of I-20. Problem appears to be the water pump bearings as the belt and all idlers were replaced earlier this year. After several phone calls, it's obvious I'm not going to get this fixed here. Called a wrecker service who dispatched out a big rotator truck. The operator picked up the front end and attached the stinger to the twin I-beams, and then disconnected the rear driveshaft. 125 mile trip with no problems. He tried backing the entire rig thru my 14 ft gate with no joy. I had him drop it along side the road. Problems started when he tried to get the stinger disconnected. I believe it was the change in angle between his truck and mine. Using his remote, he pushed the truck and trailer fore and aft until he got the chains loose and disconnected. As the driver's side came loose, we saw that the I-beam had snapped. Just wonderful. He called his office, etc...so they refunded me $150 of the $1443.75 towing fee. I used my tractor to get the truck in my garage, and welded a gooseneck hitch in the bed of my utility body truck to get the trailer off the side of the road. Pulled the I-beam out...quite the joy, to say the least. Removed a good one from a parts truck in the back yard and the side by side view shows he bent it pretty good. Started putting it back together today and now I see the passenger side is bent too. Hard to see from underneath, but I confirmed it with a straight edge. There goes another day without even getting to my original issue.

I had no luck with searching the internet for similar situations. I do have a shop manual which details how to remove and reinstall the beam. What I really would like to know is how common is this? Hind sight is 20:20 and next time I'll make them use a roll back for my truck and they can transport my trailer to their yard for me to pick up when I can. The driver said he's towed many superduty's by the I-beams with no issues.

Driver's side beam bent and snapped by tow truck driver

It clearly says "Do not bend"

Clean break - nothing to indicate that there was previous damage

Other side of break...

 

I pulled the water pump as the 4 pulley bolts had sheared off which is what caused the serpentine belt to break. Water pump rotated smoothly and there was no damage to the impeller. Not, until I ripped it loose to get a pipe wrench on the shaft to remove the fan clutch. Any ideas what caused the bolts to shear? Could they have just been loose?

Pulley came loose and snapped the serpentine belt

Removed impeller and used a pipe wrench to hold the shaft

Al 4 bolts sheared off...

 

Damn, that’s some carnage! My guess is that the added weight of the trailer was transferred to the front end when he picked it up. I’m thinking the bolts were loose and when the fan clutch locked up they sheared off. How do the mounting brackets look for the beams, still straight? At least you’re home...

 

I agree. Moving 22,500 pounds by the I beams was too much.

 

Yeah 22500 pounds should only be moved by the frame I’d make them pay for it

 

Is there anyone familiar with the towing business who can point the way to documented procedures I can use to back this up? The beams were bent to the back, not the front. They bent when he used the stinger to push the rig forwards and backwards as he tried to loosen the chains. The rig was in the grass median in front of my house.

 

Bent to the back I’d assume some because of the stinger being moved but there was no way for him to apply brakes to the load. That’s a lot of force on a small concentrated spot. As to proper procedure I don’t remember how I was told the shop I worked for does it but I know they prefer to hook to a frame when possible on light duty vehicles. The rotator was overkill and why the bill was so high.