One Winch Length at a Time: How a Bobcat Saved a Stranded Semi

Jan 14

3 min read

By George L. Nitti A tractor-trailer, attempting to reach a distribution center near Bridgeport, Ohio, had gone somewhere it never should have been, especially in winter conditions. After missing the correct route, the driver traveled more than a mile and a half down a narrow rural road coated with snow and ice. The road sloped downhill, tightened to barely the width of the truck, and ended at a creek.

“It probably made it three or four miles from the distribution center,” said Chad Coulson, owner and lead tow operator at Bill’s Towing in Bridgeport, Ohio. “He found himself on this road that he was on, traveled a mile and a half or so back that road, and it was snow and ice down over the hill and found his way to a creek.”

The night the call came in, Bill’s Towing initially dispatched a 50-ton rotator. But once their tow operator arrived on scene, the plan changed immediately.

“He got there, looked at it, and said he’s not taking our rotator down that road,” Coulson said. “You couldn’t even walk down it.”

With the road too slick and steep to safely deploy a heavy duty wrecker, the team made decision to use a different kind of equipment.

A Skid Steer Solution

The next day, Bill’s Towing returned with a Bobcat T770 skid steer outfitted with a heavy-duty winch box, an unconventional but increasingly vital recovery tool in rural terrain.

“It’s our Bobcat skid steer with the winch box,” Coulson explained. “We decided to recover the next morning using that skid steer so we could actually get down in there and travel that road the way it was.”

The winch system mounted on the skid steer is rated between 30,000 and 35,000 pounds and carries approximately 150 feet of wire rope. While that may sound limiting on paper, the setup proved to be the safest and most effective option given the conditions.

“The winch will only hold 150 foot of cable,” Coulson said. “So we’d pull out 150 foot, winch him up 150 foot, then set him there and keep repeating that process.”

Inch by Inch, Uphill

The recovery began by hooking to the trailer and winching the unit backward roughly 100 yards until the crew reached a wider spot in the road. From there, they were able to turn the truck around and begin the long pull uphill—this time with the tractor facing forward. From that point on, it was a methodical, stationary process.

“There was no way we could track pulling him up the hill with how steep it was without spinning out ourselves,” Coulson said. “We’d set the skid steer, dig it in, winch him up, hold him there, back up paying out cable, reset the machine, and start the process again.”

The climb stretched more than a mile and a quarter, with some sections offering no margin for error.

“The road was as wide as the truck and trailer, and there was about a 200-foot drop on the driver’s side,” Coulson said. “Every time we had to reset the cable, there was the risk of him sliding back down the hill.”

Ice, snow, terrain, and gravity all worked against the operation—but patience and planning won out. It took hours of repetitive pulls to get the truck safely back to the top.

Why Skid Steers Matter in Rural Recoveries

While skid steers with winch boxes aren’t standard equipment everywhere, Coulson says they’re essential in rural areas like southeastern Ohio.

“We use them a lot around here,” he said. “Drivers follow GPS all the time, and it puts them places they shouldn’t be. Honestly, it’s safer for us to use that than taking our high-dollar wreckers down roads like that.”

The investment is significant. By the time the skid steer and winch system are purchased and outfitted, the cost can reach into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. But Coulson says the safety benefits and equipment protection make it worthwhile.

“It’s just easier and safer,” he said.

A Fortunate Ending

Once the semi reached the top of the hill, conditions improved. The roadway was clear enough for the driver to continue under escort back to a main road.

“He was able to drive away,” Coulson said. “We got him escorted back out, and he was able to make his delivery.”