4 Hartford Business Journal • October 17, 2016 www.HartfordBusiness.com
on the tow vehicles were never quite up to
the task, especially for handling ultra-heavy
loads like semis and construction equipment.
"I said, 'there had to be a way to tow a
vehicle without overloading the rear axle of
the tow truck and unsafely lightening the
steering axle of the tow truck,' " Marola said.
Tinkering in his spare time, Marola
eventually devised tow-lift hardware that
the Army and some private-sector buyers
have come to appreciate.
Two types of hauling/towing systems
sprang from Marola's ingenuity. One is a
"fifth wheel towing and recovery device.''
Attached to the turntable of a truck, like the
one semis use to attach truck to trailer, it
uses hydraulics to lift the towed vehicle.
But that alone isn't enough to lift up the
front of a vehicle without taxing the tow-
vehicles rear drive wheels, Marola said.
Also, super-heavy lifts can cause the tow-
vehicle's front axle to lift, compromising
steering and braking. Tru-Hitch's system
solves both, he said.
To achieve better balance between the
towed vehicle and the tower, Tru-Hitch's
fifth-wheel setup has a pair of extra-long
and sturdy steel tow prongs — similar to the
steel lift bars on conventional tow trucks.
When the fifth-wheel's heavy-duty
prongs are extended some 8 to 10 feet
beneath the towed-vehicle's undercarriage,
the Army can lift up to 32,000 pounds and
tow up to 150,000 pounds, Marola said.
Tru-Hitch's other product the Army
covets is a tiltable, flatbed trailer that,
when linked to its heavy-lift cousin, is
capable of "rolling on, rolling off," a vari-
ety of Army vehicles, all except for an M-1
tank, Marola said. Its 102-inch wide bed
can be extended to 114 inches, to accom-
modate wider vehicles.
"We can go in as a tractor-trailer,"
Marola said, describing the workings of
Tru-Hitch's "roll-on, roll-off" setup, "sepa-
rate on the roadway and go in and do the
recovery and bring the [stranded] vehicle
back onto the road. Then, using the winch,
we pull it onto the trailer. Reattach the
trailer and drive off.''
At his Barkhamsted facility, Marola
keeps a "loaner'' Army tow vehicle that he
uses to test fit and fine-tune newly assem-
bled versions of both technologies. With
proper maintenance and timely refurbish-
ment, he says Tru-Hitch's equipment is
designed to last at least 30 years.
"The Army," Marola said, "has an
assortment of six different size tractors
that will attach to our system." n
Axles and other parts stowed at Tru-Hitch's
Barkhamsted yard await assembly into trailers.
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