King Kong Lives On

The Making of a Legend

By George L. Nitti

Who was the greatest Kong of all?

That’s debatable, for so many stories of King Kong abound, but in the towing industry, one Kong stands out as a true piece of Texas history: a 50-ton, heavy-duty wrecker that was a renowned fixture in San Antonio from the early 1980s through the ’90s. It was eventually sold to D&G Wrecker of Gonzalez, Texas, where it has resided for more than 20 years, continuing to work and serve the industry.

Originally ordered by City Towing Associates, Inc. with an ’81 Freightliner and Hubbard body, it was owned by Louis and Franklin Keilman, whose company had an exclusive towing contract with the city. As one of the largest heavy-duty wreckers in the state, it was rightly dubbed “King Kong.”

In addition to the distinguishable Hubbard three-stage boom, there were a number of other custom features. These included wire-spoke wheel inserts, a chrome truck tow bar for hookup, front stabilizer legs, and a chrome one-piece solid stabilizer across the bottom rear of the tow truck for lifting and anchoring. In addition, the wrecker had an H-beam support structure on the rear of the main boom, and a 25,000-pound deck winch.

Commenting on this setup, Bobby Tuttle, a 30-year veteran in the towing industry who worked as an operator at City Towing from 1977 to 1990, explained that, “The H-beam support structure made this tow truck a beast for winching sideways off the rear of the tow truck. Most modern tow trucks use independent rear stabilizer legs. This was very unique. I believe Hubbard was the first or only manufacturer doing this at that time.”

To amplify Kong’s brand, handpainted graphics were applied that included a mural of King Kong in front of the San Antonio skyline, and stitched embroidery on the front grille with the initials KK alongside a cartoonish black graphic of Kong. The name “King Kong” was emblazoned on the unit’s front side. The wrecker certainly lived up to this bold presentation.

Tuttle recounted one story where King Kong singlehandedly picked up a piece of marble weighing 55,000 pounds. “It had rolled off a flatbed on its way to Mexico and needed the services of King Kong to get it back on track,” he recalled. “The rock was no match for the 50-ton Hubbard Recovery Vehicle.”

Tuttle, who now works as a Complete Incident Response Manager (CIRT) in San Antonio, added, “Kong had such a big impact on incident management in San Antonio that it’s not an exaggeration to call this tow truck legendary. Even today, when San Antonio

Police Dept. officers request a HD tow truck some of them advise their dispatcher to send ‘a King Kong’ wrecker. Even the newer/younger officers use the name.”

After the truck was in service for about a decade at City Towing Associates, the company hired Don Walters, owner of DeWalt Manufacturing, to add a wheel lift and to do some refurbishing.

“They asked me to tear it down, put seals on the boom, add my wheel lift and rehose it,” Walters said.

“The Old Hubbard was tough. Kind of simple looking. It didn’t have the appeal to the eye, but that boom is unheard of, going from 16 to 18.5 and dropping down to 14 ½ and 12 feet.”

How did the wrecker end up at D&G? Around 1999, owner Glenn Glass was searching for a heavy with an under-reach and discovered that Kong had been bought by someone else and was sitting in a barn in Pleasanton, Texas.

“I made a deal to purchase it,” Glass said. “We agreed it would be stripped down and painted and then I would pick it up.”

Under D&G, Kong ran for another 12 or so years in its original form, but after a couple of accidents, Glenn and his wife Linda decided that they needed to make some major changes to it.

“You might say we had a love/hate relationship with it,” admits Glass. “It near killed me once when I was coming home. It blew a tire and mowed down some trees. When we wrecked it, my wife said, ‘Pull the bed. Get another chassis.’ So, I got a newer Peterbuilt, a ’95 389, and shipped out the bed for refabrication.”

Enter Don Walters once again, who was well reputed for his refab work on heavy duty wreckers, having worked on over 400 that were scattered across the country.

“Glenn called me and said, ‘I’ve got King Kong. I want to redo it. Top to bottom,’” Walters recounted.

“I shipped him the bed and we brought the Peterbuilt up,” Glass recalled. “When he got it, he took the box off. Then he rebuilt the original boom and the underreach and mounted it on the Peterbuilt, adding three new 50,000 pound planetary winches, and replacing the 30,000 pound worm gears.”

They also stretched the truck to a long wheelbase and made the Hubbard heavier and bigger so that it could withstand those winches and brought it back as close to original as possible.

“It’s a beast!” Walters notes. “It can do what any of these new ones can do.”

But the job wasn’t complete until Glass could figure out a new graphic for King Kong. “We were considering getting a paint job on it, but they wanted 50 grand.‘No way.’” he retorted, “That’s when we found Digital Designs.”

Although Digital originally presented him with cartoon characters of Kong, Glass held fast on finding a bigger, meaner gorilla, and settled on a wrap of an image from the movie Jurassic Park.

“I remember when we had just gotten it put on the truck,” he laughed. “I turned out of the parking lot there was an old lady beside me in her car. That big monkey was looking at her with his ferocious teeth and eyes and she jumped in her seat.”

Today, Kong is still going strong, used regularly once a day, or at least every other day.

“The guys that built the truck back in the day really knew their stuff,” Glass points out. “It’s a helluva truck. Somebody could offer me a free rotator and I’d probably turn it down.”