What is a 'Holmes Tree?'

By Randall C. Resch In the December 2014 print issue of "American Towman," my article "Adding Off-Road Recoveries to the Mix" referenced using a "Holmes Tree." Not soon after that issue came out, I received several email requests to explain the Holmes Tree. At first I thought these guys were messing with me; but I remembered there's a new generation of towers that may not be familiar with some old-school slang. As we veteran towers know, the Holmes Tree was never a tangible piece of tow truck equipment. It wasn't something you'd buy from your equipment supplier, nor was it something listed as an option from manufacturers. It's not something you'd even see inside the towing and recovery museum in Chattanooga. The Holmes Tree was slang for attaching a snatch block pulley to a strategically located tree to change direction of the wire rope's path when conducting creative recoveries. In the old days when Holmes tow trucks were prominent, the Holmes Tree was commonly combined with rigging techniques that included splitting the truck's booms. One of the best attributes of Holmes tow trucks was the capability of pulling top-boom-mounted T-pins, located at the sheave-heads of the boom ends. Pulling the boom's T-pins allowed operators to split the booms and tie off to solid objects; one winch side cable running starboard, while running the working end of the truck's winch line to the casualty vehicle portside. Doing so in this manner meant that tow trucks could conduct difficult recoveries when straight-line winching (from the tow truck's rear dock bumper) wasn't possible on narrow back roads. Tying off gave much-needed stability to the tow truck while winching casualty vehicles back to the roadway. You'll find that in today's towing and recovery world, many tow companies still run 600, 750 and 850 Holmes wreckers for recoveries. When combined with creative snatch-block rigging, employing the Holmes Tree is still a viable option of off-road recoveries as long as the tree's physical size is capable of holding the load under extreme pull. Using a Holmes Tree takes a few seconds to employ by wrapping recovery chain at the solid base of the tree itself. Protecting the tree from chain damage requires operators to crib or wrap the tree's trunk with sufficient protection to prevent the chain from cutting into the tree's bark. I don't know about other industry trainers, but I still throw in a bit of nostalgia and whimsy when it comes to the next generation of towers. On one side of the coin, it's painfully clear that the old-school days are rapidly fading, while younger generations are growing by leaps and bounds. It's my desire to keep tow history alive by never letting go of old-school techniques—simply something else that's useful to put in the new tower's mental toolbox. NOTE: Photo courtesy of Bryce Weber, Aces Towing, Midway, Ont., CanadaRandall Resch is American Towman's and Tow Industry Week's Operations Editor, a former California police officer, tow business owner and retired civilian off-road instructor for Navy Special Warfare. Randall is an approved instructor for towers serving the California Highway Patrol's rotation contract. His course is approved by the California law enforcement community. He has written over 500 industry-related articles for print and on-line. Randall was inducted into the International Towing & Recovery Hall of Fame in 2014.