From "What the heck can I use this for?" to "How the heck did I ever get anything done without this?". A great outcome for a very unique vehicle.

I just wanna tell you, on this 2 year old video, I'm so glad you share your projects, and don't do videos purely for the views. If ever you see stars that people aren't finishing the videos, they're wrong, because I love to watch a little here and a little there. You've created a comfort show.

There was a time, probably around the 1920's, when people would engineer things from what they had, out of necessity. That's what your tow creation reminds me of. Outstanding work! Wanna see more...

Very cool build..handy tug..4x4 with short wheel base..high capacity..crab steering .. Win ..win.. Just so you know ..treat your cable end with the hook like it's valuable..use a piece of chain to wrap around things ..instead of just cable end..you don't want to shear off your cable when it's under a load ..👍😉😎

I drove these in the Airforce, dragging around lil F-16s, thanks for the stroll down memory lane!

Absolutely marvelous! I binge-watched all three without a break. I'm only stopping because it's very nearly 3:30 am. Some of us have to work you know.

Mate you and all you do is very under-rated, Your knowledgeable and very good at getting your point across. But not a "Know it all" and happy to admit when you dont have all the info. You dont drag out the video, And everything you do is interesting to watch/learn. Keep at it mate your channel will only continue to grow. Best of luck from AUS :)

Lol...I grew up around loggers that were always building something. You turned that into a useful piece of equipment

You should enter this in Matt’s Off-road Tow Truck Olympics!

Badland winches are very legit. If it says 12,000 lb, it means 12,000 lb. Great video as always!

"My head is useful." Great quote, wonderful video. Made my Friday night. Thank You.

I slept in one of those Coleman Tugs aboard a C-141 on the way to Germany in 1981. It was much more comfortable than the 141's web seats. Your cool video brings back old memories. Love your videos.

During Vietnam, the Coleman tug pulled bomb trailers from the ammo dump to the flight line on most Air Force bases. A beast for the most part, but, the electric clutch was the weak link. Too many rpm and dump the clutch and there you sit. Broken TUG is not much good 🙂. Millions of bombs pulled by the tugs ..

SIR your engineering skill is very impressive.

watching you is like watching my Dad ....he does things the same as you ...i love that way of working and just have to find a way no matter what

Pro tip with those winches, get a cheap wireless winch remote kit off Amazon. The control fits in the box on top of the winch and is super easy to setup. Then you can be in the vehicle that's being winches

Love your build, first time I have ever seen a tug like this. My only time I have sen a tug, was a Jeep CJ-10. This(and I am a Jeep guy) is way cooler! I would like to suggest adding chains to hold any load after getting it high enough. So, in short, raise it with the winch, attach the chains on each side, and lower the winch cable so the chains are holding the load and not the winch. One thing I do know is the winch construction is not designed to hold shock, and with a lot of situations, you will get un and down shock with the load. The chains(I suggest a 70K test load) will happily hold the load secure.and, save the guts of your winch and the winch cable. Other than that, I think it is very well designed!

Out of everything going on in the video the thing that got my attention most was the 4x4 RV . I've been wanting to convert a old RV to 4x4 for a while.

1968 -1969 aircraft mechanic stationed at Mather AFB Ca, towed USAF T-29s aircraft 29K lbs with a Coleman tug. Fond memories

You are : A jack of all trades is a master of none, but oftentimes better than a master of one.😎👍 I WILL TAKE THE JEEP.

I hope i can give you a couple of pointers, first when you are winching you need to keep the cable low, if its high it lifts the front of the truck, use a snatch block at the lowest point of the frame/ body, this will make a huge difference, and of you use 2 snatch blocks , one chained to the vehicle to be recovered and then the other on the back of the wrecker run the line in a loop, doubles your pulling power, 2, the lower bars you were using for sling bars need to be mounted up as high as you can get them on a heavy piece of channel, they need to be close to the outside of the bed, on a double pivot, when you are towing those arms need to be in the downward position, if they are level or up at the vehicle when you put the brakes on those bars will over center and you can loose the tow vehicle and cause damage to it hope this helps you

We still use what ee have here in the bush in Australia..called a bush fix💪😁

That tow tug just looks great, a bonus that it is useful.

The badland winches are really good. Fab rate mats off road recovery and many more use and highly rate them.

that tow tugger is awesome; i just noticed that motor home is 4 wheel drive; awesome again friend.

That'd make a great rescue vehicle for off-roaders.

16:12 As a welder, if you came across this type of job again, that I would strongly recommend that you should get a inverter welder, so you can weld SMAW(stick), even if it's a cheap one it's hard to go wrong with one of them. GMAW(MIG) is good for overall applications, but SMAW(stick) is perfect for this application, due to the factors of the metal thickness, rust/paint, and penetration capability of SMAW(stick), it would be a lot stronger then the welds of GMAW(MIG). There's reason that they use SMAW(stick) on brigises. We are all students and teachers in are own right and we should never stop learning because we think we know it all, this world is vast and has a lot to offer. So take advantage of that and learn new things. Thank you for this awesome video and I hope to see more of charming old aircraft tug be put to good use again.

just super cool, it gives an old special vehicle a new life, and it really seems handy in your line of work, its so small and yet so capable

Fantastic build - so great when “fun” and “useful” occasionally collide!

You need to put a couple of d-rings up where your uprights meet the boom so when you're winching to you your distributing the weight and can pull twice as hard. And then another one up by your shiv so when you're lifting your winch doesn't have to work so hard. Nice work

On the Harbor Freight winches, the ZXR winch you can buy an adapter to use a cordless controler. The Apex it comes all ready to use a cordles remote. The Apex is a bit better winch. You might want to consider swapping from the steel cable to the synthetic rope. Lighter, more flexible and safer to use. When steel breaks it can snap back and damage things. If it hits you it may kill. Synth rope doesnt snap back like steel, it mostly just drops to the ground.

Cool build. You can get a wireless winch control with 2 remotes off ebay for around $17. They work well.

Some nice thick rubber bumpers on the rear bumper of the tow tug might be of use. I believe what is most sacred is the crab steering. I can see you using it as a skidder for dragging firewood out of the woods.... well maybe not firewood where you live but again, everyone likes a fireplace. I've owned too many tow trucks and owned a good many so see some handicaps but how you use it is never going to be a problem

Coolest ol junk around. Me and my grade-school buddy used to go hang out at the Coleman plant in Littleton CO

This Tote truck just got way cooler !! And I love that it has rear steer ! Neat build.

You're definitely underrated. I like watching you work

That is truly a AWESOME tow-tug! I love it and I am glad you made good use of it. GREAT JOB! 🙂

Awesome..... Stuff like that as invaluable to have around like the forklift at my dad's machine shop for 25 years we just shoved s*** around and moved to a dollies but a forklift that was an aha moment ...made everything easier

Your videos are great. No bull, just hard work with real results.

I suggest getting a snatch block or two and add some anchor points to your rig. I am sure other ideas will come to you for accessories as you use it good luck

This build is awesome!

Add a thick plate across back of tug and weld on poihts for d rings to attack cables for other pull points

The cab-operated PTO-driven winch seems to be a real common thing on older stuff, and I can't help but wonder if the expectation was that generally there'd be a driver and a driver's helper, at minimum. The RL's somewhat similar to the half-track for winch operation, and it seems *mighty* inconvenient to me solo: Transfer case in neutral & PTO, pop the little pull-knob for disengaging the winch dog & free-spool the winch drum, release the winch brake, climb out of the cab and drag the cable by hand out to where you need it, hook it up, walk all the way back and climb back up into the cab, release the free-spool, clutch in, main gearbox in 1st, and work the winch with the main clutch. What a pain! Remote control is the way forward!

Wonderful piece of craftsmanship

Coolest tow tug I have ever seen! Nicely done!

"Years ago, I collected a couple of pieces of I-Beam"

Now that is super cool!!

Totally awesome tow tug! Great video!

What a great rig really enjoying your videos thank you for sharing

Very inventive!

You have a great show.

All that clutter and haphazzard junk tossed. Around...the marque of a. True professional!!!!!!

That rig is so cool. I’d have a use for one every day!

Neat project James ! You've done it again. Your ingenuity amazes me.

Does it do off-road recoveries? Have you heard of the World Off-road Wrecker Olympics, being planned by Matt from Matt's Off-road Recovery, Rory from Trailmater, Paul from Fab Rats in Grandpa Sheen's Old Town Truck, Eric from BSF Recovery Team

Very, very nice! Thanks.

Thanks for sharing 👍😀

great project

your most interesting project! and as a result an actually useful vehicle.

👍👌👏 I absolutely love when stuff gets recycled respectively upcycled! Well done again! Best regards luck and health

Good looking tug, even better when it saves time and effort ! Your back will thank you . Greets from England

Badlands winch you got from harbor freight and they're very reliable so I'd say you did a real good job

nice rig, a winch with remote revolutionized my work. they are great

Add a pully to the back bumper of the truck so the cable can go through it, now you can pull at ground level straight towards the truck as well

looks good to me and it works great!!

Very nice!!

Excellent build very convenient, certainly in your yard, all the best to you and your loved ones

Very cool! The first video of yours that I've watched :) I certainly need to check at least the previous episodes of this awesome rig! I will say that with @Casey LaDelle 's confidence in Badland winches it will probably serve you well too. Now I've watched, liked commented ... I might as well subscribe also :D

Excellent.

I like the measure once cut three times SNAFU

Tieing up to a headache rack with tie rods or air craft cable would spread your boom weight out. Cheers 🍻

I saw the first few minutes of this video and thought I had to see the first two vids. I have now watched all three and also subscribed. Nice vids to watch and now I am going to watch the jeep covered wagon build of which I saw the thumbnails. Great content. Looking forward to seeing many more builds. :). Ian from UK.

Brilliant !!

Now that looks pretty useful, great project 👍☮️

Awesomeness great job my friend

That thing is going to be "Handier than a pocket on a shirt"! Great video.

We used to have a MB-4 and they are such cool machines it always got waves and puzzled looks but it’s bad ass to see one put to a towing use see though of keeping ours a few times to use it for that purpose because they should be towing beast

Coolest thing ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Love your channel!!

really really cool build mate, you have made a really great yard tool

Dang that a cool unit!

Interesting , Thank You Good Idea

Awesome, you've got the best toys ever

With 10.000 lb winch you should have created some diamond plates for the hoist legs where you cut off and welded.

It looks really useful and it has the weight to pull :o) I’ve just finished making a baby zero turn crane. It has a hydraulic winch so I can’t have a remote, which is a shame because I have a four button Lodar radio remote and it is ace ^-^

We got the same winch at the same time with the same coupon. I've been using it to pull tree stumps out of the ground with my ZJ and a bunch of snatch blocks, works great! I took apart the planetary gears and removed the factory grease to put some good stuff in there.

Nicely done, you can also put a snatch block at the bed height, put the tow wire thru it and use it to pull a vehicle towards you and not lift it up while you're pulling it.

Matt's Offroad Recovery uses one of the Harbor Freight winch believe it is a Badland like the one you bought.

Sweet (antique) lathe!

you have the right idea mate.

I've only just seen your channel for the first time, I love it mate. Having an idea doesn't seem to scare you, I'm going to catch up on the rest of your videos over the next day or two. Thanks for your time.

Those winches are pretty decent and handy

Looks like a lot of fun and real useful. That 4x4 motor home looks like an awesome project too. I was wondering why I hadnt seen anything from you in so long and then I noticed I wasnt subscribed anymore. Weird!

Most if not all of the Badland winches can be operated with a wireless remote also (those I have seen came with wireless) which is great because if the remote batteries go dead you can run it with the wired control as a backup. They have been getting pretty universal good reviews with the only downside being they can have a very short duty cycle in some models.

great build!!! I just watched all 3 parts. I have the other HF 12k winch with wireless remote. Best $700 I spent last year

Please add a sturdy mesh on the back window, so if you sit in the cab and the hook comes loose on a shallow angle, it can't penetrate the window. But better: Switch to soft shackles and a synthetic fiber rope

This is a cool rig, neat channel you have here.

Next steps just add a low boy to the truck and now you winning👍👍👍

That is one good build tow truck nice

Gotta use a pully no matter the winch and load imop. There are certainly cases where a single line pull for speed is acceptable. But if you're pulling hard and you like longevity, I'd use a snatch block religiously. Cheers 🍻

I drove those in the USAF, there were awesome, slow but awesome.