Wreckers, Tow Trucks, and other recovery vehicles.

[Spencer]

Does anyone have rules for equipping a wrecker? I'd like to come up with a simple set of accessories, such as a tilt flat bed for a car hauler, a hoist rig for towing a disabled vehicle, and a big hoist for oversized vehicles.
It seems to me that these items would be important in a world where wrecked vehicles would be more common. I'd like to build some wreckers and recovery vehicles so that I can create local rules for hiring a towing service, and to allow my players the option to create their own recovery vehicles (which might be interesting, seeing as it opens up possibilities for scenarios where salvaging a damaged vehicle plays a part).

[ckosacranoid]

One of the issues of ADS have rules for tow trucks and towing. I can not recall which issues it is is without pulling out the box with the issues right now. I know the first Cecile guide had a bus for hauling a car in the back for salvage.

[Spencer]

ADQ 3/3. I'll mark it as another item to move up the list.

[43Supporter]

Originally Posted by ckosacranoid

I know the first [Vehicle Guide] had a bus for hauling a car in the back for salvage.

_Scarab_. _VG1_ also has the _Collector_ semi-trailer, which can carry upwards of *two* Pickups.

[Spencer]

Is there a heavy-duty wrecker for oversized vehicles?

[juris]

Pretty much - there's rules for vehicles as cargo, and there's a dual level flatbed trailer.

There's nothing that would carry off a wrecked big rig, but you could homebrew a heavy towbar and haul it with practically any decent tractor

Originally Posted by 43Supporter

_Scarab_. _VG1_ also has the _Collector_ semi-trailer, which can carry upwards of *two* Pickups.

[43Supporter]

Originally Posted by juris

There's nothing that would carry off a wrecked big rig,

Not quite correct -- one can put a wrecked big rig on 1-2 40' Flatbeds; one has to be *very* careful about speed and cornering, tho'. :) (Also takes not-a-few Winches to get the things onto the Flatbeds.)

[Spencer]

That's where I run into a dilemma. I know that one can haul a tractor on a flatbed (with several caveats, of course). However, what I'm thinking about is a heavy-duty tow truck/wrecker. These can hook up to and haul a broken down tractor or wreck, and they can also retrieve the wreck from off road areas where a tractor should not go, such as down an embankment, or flip the rig back onto its wheels (such as they are after a big wreck).
Somehow, I don't see the Brotherhood allowing this type of recovery to go away entirely, although a heavy-duty wrecker would command a big fee. I also can see where a gang of mercs might want to have one as well as a spare tractor, since such wreckers would travel with at least one experienced mechanic and a portable shop and could patch together enough repairs to haul off the rig. The cargo has value, of course, but there's a lot of salvage value in the rig and trailer, and a rig which entirely disappears could provide a nasty conundrum for players to solve.
I'll have to get ahold of those rules to figure out what needs to be adapted and how it would change. Naturally, I'll want something that approximates reality without giving up simplicity.

[swordtart]

It is also such a niche role that you can probably make up whatever rules you want in that regard ADQ 3-3 is all you need.

There is no need to develop rules for something that will never be gamed, I can't imaging rig recovery making much of a scenario compared to say protecting a rig recovery operation. It's all about the combat.

Once you have off-loaded cargo the actual all up weights of the tractor and trailer individually are within the lift limits of a dedicated heavy-lift transport helo. The only issue would be the low capacity of a winch, but you can handwave that away as you could use fixed length cables, multiple winches or use the super winch from ADQ 3-3.

A conventional electric plant heavy lift helo made using the compendium rules would need to be lightly armoured and unarmed and thus would need escorting, but it also isn't much value as a target. If you use the gas engines from Aeroduel you can retain plenty of armour and still have a useful lift capacity (enough to lift a fully upgraded and loaded sleeper longnose). An alternative would be to use an airship to lift or a large transport aircraft to transport a crippled rig.

An ingenious wrecker could even use multiple hot air balloons to offset much of the weight of the rig and use conventional means to make up the difference and add manoeuvrability. It would take some time, and significant organisation. You would need less than a dozen 15 cell balloons to lift a fully equipped tractor. Balloons are fairly cheap and it would cost at most $36,000. If your wrecking vehicle was oversized you could run them off the wrecker vehicles plant for a while as each 15 cell balloon only needs 100PF to keep it aloft for an hour (you need to do some maths here to convert from PF to PUs as oversized plants don't have PU's). It's easier to just use a dedicate Large car PP. The only recurring cost is the PP recharge ($50). The whole set-up including tethers (which double as lift cables) a dedicated large plant to power it all could be towed in a 10' Van Trailer.

The obvious question though is that if a rig had fallen into such circumstances where it required all this gear, how much of it would still be intact enough to be worth salvaging anyway. It might be more efficient to strip it in situ for parts and leave the chassis where it lies. A heavily uplifted tractor chassis still has significant value (as long as it didn't burn), but a trailer chassis almost certainly isn't worth the cost of salvage.

EDIT:
On reflection you don't even need a transport helicopter. A small helo has 19 spaces which is plenty of room for a pilot, passenger (a lift coordinator) and the largest electric plant (fully upgraded). After taking the 16,200 maximum all up weight for a tractor it has 700lb spare for fixed cables* and some bottom armour or other accessories. Realistically the tractor crew will have disembarked and you could probably have upwards of 1000lb spare.

*Heavy chain looks like 3/4lb per 1000lb lift capacity / metre. This is 4-1 safety factor. That's 12lb per meter Cable might be lighter and polymer cable lighter yet.

[Spencer]

Alright, so if we game the protection of the rig recovery, we might want to have the recovery vehicles on site. We could also game a scenario where a motorcycle gang is stealing a recovery rig and has to defend the rig itself long enough to get away, as I can see where a gang with its own recovery assets would potentially make a lot more by simply hauling off the wrecks. That might result in a Brotherhood raid, where the object is to either steal or completely destroy the recovery rig.
And those are just a few scenarios where I might want to have the rig itself, with full stats. I might want to put it on the board, and therefore I need to know what those stats are.