Flawless Combine Recovery

By Josh Schafer

On March 22, 2022, on a snowy and windy day in Minnesota, Pulver Towing responded to an emergency request from the Minnesota State Patrol involving an incident on US HWY 14 where a John Deere S780 combine track slid off of a trailer and was blocking the roadway.

Pulver, led by lead operator Josh Schafer, responded with the specialized equipment needed to recover the combine. Equipment included a 2006 Kenworth Century 9055 50 Ton, 2006 Freightliner Jerr-Dan 35 Ton, and 2018 Peterbilt 389 Century 1150 Rotator. The team of operators at scene also included Mark Schafer, Christian Riester, Bob Jaster, Justin Staeffler, Aaron Beek, and Darcy Beek.

Upon arrival, the first Pulver operator discovered that the combine was overturned and was cross ways blocking both lanes of US HWY 14. The Pulver professionals along with the Minnesota Balaton Fire Dept. took emergency corrective actions to mitigate the leaking fluids, using all the speedy dry they had available. Pulver used 18 bags of spill tackle rapid absorbent and 14 absorbent pads. The leaked fluid was contained to the roadway, curb and gutter and stopped from reaching the storm drain that went to the lake.

Pulver professionals then addressed the overturned combine. The rear planetary drives on the combine needed to be removed to prevent damage to them and the underside of the combine. Pulver removed the two planetary drives and placed them in the incident managers response truck.

Pulver professionals then rigged the combine to be up righted with a catchline to safely lower the combine to the ground. Pulver used two heavy recovery trucks to upright the combine. Once the combine was up righted, Pulver used a heavy recovery truck to extract the combine from the roadway to a side street allowing the US HWY to be reopened to the motoring public. The combine had no wheel / tracks on it and extra precautions were used to not damage its underside.

Once the combine was extracted from the US HWY, Pulver professionals and Balaton Fire removed the absorbents from the US HWY. The city of Balaton brought out a wheel loader to place the debris in and the City of Balaton disposed of the debris.

Pulver’s rotator was on a different incident at the time, causing a short delay until it would be available to lift the combine onto a lowboy trailer. When the rotator arrived, it was positioned to lift the combine. Pulver professionals used specialized rigging to lift the combine from four points on the combine. The fact that the combine did not have wheels or tracks on it was a challenge. The weight of the combine needed to be close to the rotator to safely lift it.

The lowboy trailer had to be backed under the combine and the rotator outrigger legs needed to be clear to allow the trailer to get under the combine. The combine was lifted and placed back on the lowboy trailer. A lot of consideration and planning transpired to perform the job safely and not create any damage to the combine that had a value of over $400,000.

After the combine was removed from the side street, Pulver professionals took corrective actions to clean up the absorbents on the street and in the curb and gutter. Pulver used a flatbed ramp truck to transport the containers of waste that was removed from the street and gutter. The waist was disposed of in the hazardous container at Pulver Marshall location.    

The recovery ended flawlessly and the combine was brought to a local dealership for repairs. ............................. Pulver Motor Service, with several locations in Minnesota, has been towing for 100+ years, incorporating in 1920. Pulver's trucks, equipment, and experience handles all towing needs: light-duty towing, medium-duty towing, heavy-duty towing and recovery, equipment transport, local/long-distance towing, roadside assistance, lockout services, and jumpstarts. The company also does light to heavy-duty truck repair.

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