'Tooned' and Ready

By George L. Nitti
Cartoon characters frequently form the basis of tow-truck design themes.
Road Manager Steve Brunet of Robbins Towing in St. Catharines, Ontario, credits his nine-year-old grandson Joseph for inspiring him to use a couple of main characters from the animated movie "Cars" on their 2018 Dodge Ram 5500/Vulcan 994 unit.
"From three years old," Brunet said, "my grandson has been riding in the truck with me and knows how to operate everything. He loved the movie 'Cars.' He said, 'You are towing cars like Tow Mater.' "
With his grandson as a catalyst and using the characters of Tow Mater and Lightning McQueen, Brunet turned to a local graphics company, Auto FX, to help him with the design.
Tow Mater sits center stage on the hood of the unit showing a winch cable extending to the back of the unit, where it is hooked into the red race car, Lightning McQueen.
"Tow Mater is pulling him out of the mud," Brunet said.
The swirling black and orange on the side of the truck draws the eye to the company's logo in a blue-yellow gradient.
One of the biggest challenges in putting the unit together was ensuring that there was plenty of space for Brunet's tools.
"First I needed to find a cabinet that would fit in the back of the truck," he said. "We then created a custom toolbox so that nothing would float around. All of my tools are in there, which I use every day. I do a lot of the crank tows. I do a lot of construction trailers. In the past the tools were put on the floor."
On the back of the truck, just below the lights, lettering clearly states "Slow Down" and "Move Over."
"I find more commercial vehicles slowing down and moving over," Brunet said, "but on average, the motoring public still needs more education. Everyone is in a hurry. Occasionally when I see a tower at work, to help out I'll sit back and block the oncoming traffic."
"I have had a couple of close calls but I wouldn't do anything else," said Brunet, who's been towing for two decades. "It's in your blood. It's in your DNA."
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