Heavy Towing and Equipment Float Service in North Bay
Heavy towing and equipment float service is the moving of machinery, heavy vehicles and oversized loads that a standard tow truck cannot carry. Tow Truck North Bay runs heavy wreckers for disabled trucks and buses, and float trailers for excavators, skid steers, farm machinery and anything else that must travel by trailer. The work is local and regional, and every move is priced on the phone before a truck is dispatched.
What is an equipment float service?
An equipment float service, as Tow Truck North Bay runs it, is a low-deck trailer that carries machinery from one site to another: the excavator due at a different jobsite Monday morning. The machine drives or is winched onto the deck, gets chained down, and rides.
Floating exists because working machinery is not built for road distance: tracks chew pavement, wide loads crowd live traffic, and slow equipment ties up a highway. The float turns a half-day crawl into a routine trip.
The heavy wrecker side handles what the float does not: vehicles that are broken rather than slow. A dead transport truck, a disabled bus, a dump truck that quit on a grade. If your problem is a car, pickup, SUV or van, that is the standard 24 hour towing service, and the rest of the lineup is on the services page.
Heavy tow vs equipment float: which one does your job need?
The two services solve different problems.
| Point of difference | Heavy tow (wrecker) | Equipment float |
|---|---|---|
| The problem it solves | A heavy vehicle that cannot move itself. | A working machine that should not travel by road on its own. |
| Typical loads | Transport trucks, buses, dump trucks, cube vans, RVs. | Excavators, skid steers, tractors, attachments, oversized loads. |
| How the load travels | Lifted and towed behind the wrecker on its own wheels. | Driven or winched onto a low trailer deck, chained down. |
| When it usually happens | Right now. Breakdowns do not book ahead. | Scheduled around your jobsite or season. |
| What dispatch asks first | What is it, where is it, and can it roll and steer? | Weight, dimensions, attachments, and both addresses. |
How a machinery move works
A good float move is decided on the phone.
The call. Tell dispatch what the machine is, roughly what it weighs, its dimensions with any attachments mounted, whether it runs, and the pickup and drop-off addresses. Wide or tall loads get flagged here so the route and timing are planned around the load.
The quote. The full price is given on that call. Nothing is dispatched until you agree to it.
The move. The operator loads the machine by ramp or winch, secures it, and delivers it ready to work. Mention farm lanes, bush roads or tight gates on the call and the loading plan accounts for them.
Machinery stuck in mud, snow or a ditch gets recovered before it gets floated. That recovery work is covered on the winch-out and recovery page.
What drives the price of a heavy tow or float?
Tow Truck North Bay prices every heavy move on the phone, because four variables move the number and no two jobs share all four.
Distance comes first: a hop across North Bay and a run out to Mattawa are different trips. Weight and size decide which wrecker or trailer the job needs. Conditions matter: gravel beside a wide gate loads faster than the soft end of a farm lane. And time of day, because a scheduled weekday float and a middle-of-the-night breakdown are not the same call-out.
Dispatch walks through those four and gives the full price before anything rolls. A truck at the end of its working life is sometimes worth more as metal than as a repair bill; see the scrap car removal page.
Local and regional hauling, not coast to coast
Tow Truck North Bay is a towing and float operation for the North Bay region, and says so plainly.
The working territory runs along the Highway 11 and 17 corridors: North Bay and Callander at the centre, Bonfield, Corbeil and Astorville to the east, Sturgeon Falls and West Nipissing to the west, Mattawa up the 17, and Powassan, Trout Creek and South River down the 11. Jobsites, farms and camps inside that territory are the daily work.
What Tow Truck North Bay does not offer is freight forwarding, logistics brokerage or cross-country shipping. A load crossing the country needs a freight carrier. A load crossing the region, on a wrecker or a float, is exactly this service: call 705-315-0421 and dispatch will tell you straight whether the job fits.
Heavy towing and float service: frequently asked questions
Can Tow Truck North Bay move an excavator or skid steer?
Yes. Tow Truck North Bay floats excavators, skid steers, tractors and similar machinery between sites across the North Bay region on a low-deck trailer. Give dispatch the weight, dimensions and both addresses, and the move is quoted on that call.
Does Tow Truck North Bay handle long-distance freight or logistics?
No. Tow Truck North Bay is a local and regional heavy towing and float service, not a freight forwarder or logistics broker. Loads that need to cross the province belong with a freight carrier, and dispatch will say so honestly if your job is one of them.
What information does dispatch need for a heavy tow?
Tow Truck North Bay dispatch asks what the vehicle or machine is, where it sits, what it weighs, whether it can roll and steer, and where it needs to go. For floats, add dimensions with attachments mounted. Those answers pick the right truck and produce the quote on the first call.
Can a loaded or disabled transport truck be towed?
Yes. Tow Truck North Bay tows disabled heavy vehicles, including transport trucks, buses and dump trucks, with heavy wrecker equipment. Tell dispatch whether the vehicle is loaded, since combined weight is part of matching the wrecker to the job.
How do I get a price for a float or heavy tow?
Tow Truck North Bay gives the full price by phone at 705-315-0421 before any truck is dispatched. The number reflects distance, load weight and size, loading conditions, and time of day, so it is quoted per job rather than posted as a flat rate.