As you may know, besides the American fire engines, the tow trucks and wreckers on the other side of the Atlantic are my favorites. But, there are also recovery vehicles in this country that look very attractive and are also powerful. After my two books about tow trucks and heavy tow trucks from Germany I thought why not build a tow truck from Germany as a model. Original photos in the archive.
Then I went looking for a suitable vehicle. And not far from me, about 15 minutes by car, I found this MAN TGA with Empl-Bison mountain body. It belonged to a forwarding company in Bad Salzuflen. The owner allowed me to enter his premises on a few Saturdays to measure and photograph the MAN, I had to do this because the Austrian company EMPL did not want to provide me with any drawings. On request, I received a chassis drawing from MAN and therefore didn’t have to redraw the four-axle vehicle, it would have been a lot of work.
The question that remained was which MAN kit should I use for the components I need to build the model. Neither Revell nor Italeri had a TGA as a model, the company EMEK had a four-axle tipper in their range, but not with a large cab, LX-cab. So I bought the MAN TGA truck, just used the cab from it and built everything else from scratch. Although on a scale of 1:25, but I didn’t care, I just build a model in this size. The Americans also all have this standard.
This is the MAN TGA type EMEK tractor unit that I am using for my conversion. The Finnish manufacturer reproduced it true to the original, although it is actually “only” a children’s toy and was intended for the sandpit. Chassis, wheels and axles, I couldn’t use any of these parts, they were presented too simply.
If you want to see the construction of the tow truck, you will find it in the Wettringer-Modellbauforum.
