During the area’s harsh and unpredictable winter, the fleet of bright red and white trucks with True’s Towing and Recovery are a welcome sight to stranded drivers in Cass County and beyond.

While these vehicles carry their weight when it comes to towing cars, pickups, vans and SUVs, when it comes to recovering semis, cement mixers and other several-ton commercial vehicles, employees with the family-owned Dowagiac company are forced to bring out the big guns.

True’s latest addition to the fleet is just the heavy hitter for the job.

The towing company recently purchased a 70-ton rotator wrecker, designed to recover vehicles and equipment weighing up to 140,000 pounds, said manager Rob True. The machine employs a 32.5-foot boom crane, which can swivel 360 degrees.

The wrecker was custom built for True’s by B&B Industries, a recovery vehicle manufacturer in Elkhart.

“They are one of the last companies that builds vehicles to their customers’ specifications,” True said. “Most manufacturers build cookie cutter machines.”

Since joining the towing company’s fleet three weeks ago, True’s employees have used the vehicle for more than a dozen calls, from setting a transformer in place to recovering a commercial vehicle stuck in some sand dunes, True said.

The swiveling crane not only allows crews to recover vehicles from otherwise difficult predicaments, such as pulling sunken cars out of water from a nearby bridge, the machine also allows for faster recovery than traditional rear-mounted tows, True said.

“Emergency management is all about quick road clearance these days,” he said.

The vehicle — the only of its kind between Elkhart and Kalamazoo — is one of 14 currently in the company’s fleet, True said.

The True family has run the business since its establishment by Les True in 1948. Today, Les’ son, Ed, owns the company, while Rob, Ed’s son, handles most of the day-to-day operations.

The company mainly operates in a 50-mile radius around its location on M-51 in Dowagiac, covering Cass County and portions of Berrien, Van Buren and St. Joseph counties. Employees are not afraid to make longer road trips though, as they recently towed vehicles from Grand Rapids and Mendon.

“We go anywhere our customers need us,” True said.

The manager said the new vehicle is just one of the ways the 65-year-old company is continuing to grow. The family is considering building a new shop and opening a new location in the coming years, True said.

People interested in learning more about the company may contact its office at (269) 782-2131.

“We have the experience, the training and the dedication to take care of our customers,” he said. “And we certainly have the equipment. All you need to make is one phone call and we will get your problem taken care of.”