Our newest installment of The Journey examines a rare 1933 Dodge Brothers H44 Tow Truck and delivers an in-depth exploration of innovation, utility engineering, and Depression-era American commercial automotive design
The JBS Collection and owner Jack Boyd Smith Jr. announce the release of Season 2, Episode 5 of the acclaimed automotive series, The Journey. The newest installment of the popular series examines The JBS Collection’s rare 1933 Dodge Brothers H44 Tow Truck, delivering an in-depth exploration of innovation, utility engineering, and Depression-era American commercial automotive design.
The episode highlights one of the most historically important and increasingly rare forms of early heavy-duty roadside service vehicles—machines built not for luxury or speed, but for endurance, strength, and the essential task of keeping America’s rapidly expanding automotive network in motion.
In Season 2, Episode 5, Smith Jr. and renowned restoration expert Travis LaVine of LaVine Restorations, Inc., examine one of the most compelling surviving examples of early wrecker technology. Built during the height of the Great Depression, the 1933 Dodge Brothers H44 Tow Truck—winner of the Chairman Award at the 2023 Boca Raton Concours d’Elegance—represents an era when commercial vehicles were engineered not for comfort or style, but for uncompromising strength, reliability, and serviceability.
“This Dodge Tow Truck represents an often-overlooked but absolutely essential part of automotive history,” said owner Jack Boyd Smith Jr., whose collection is currently ranked No. 82 among the Top 100 collections in the world per The Classic Car Trust’s The Key publication. “While people tend to focus on luxury or performance cars, the truth is that vehicles like this were the backbone of American mobility. Without them, automotive travel would not be what it is today. What makes this truck so special is not just its rarity and beauty, but its honesty—it was built to work, and, all these years later, it still tells that same story.”
A significant rarity
Dodge’s early 1930s H44 heavy-duty commercial platform was engineered with reinforced chassis construction and torque-focused drivetrain design intended for industrial and roadside recovery applications.
The H44 tow truck chassis was engineered for strength under load, and optimized for low-speed pulling power.
By 1933, Dodge Brothers—operating under the Chrysler Corporation umbrella—had established a strong reputation for producing some of the most durable and capable commercial vehicles in the American market.
Tow trucks of this era were not standardized as they are today; instead, they were often custom-bodied or adapted by regional equipment builders and owners to meet local and individual service needs.
Many were scrapped, and others lost to time due to their hard-working nature and utilitarian use, and as a result, surviving factory-era or period-correct examples such as the one in The JBS Collection are exceptionally scarce.
Very few intact 1930s Dodge tow trucks remain today, making each surviving example a valuable and historically significant artifact of early roadside service infrastructure vehicles.
Restored to tell its tale
The 1933 Dodge Brothers H44 Tow Truck featured in The Journey is particularly significant as both a restoration achievement and a historical artifact.
The hauler—which remarkably features its original, fully functional Weaver Auto Crane boom and hand-crank winch system rated for 7,000 pounds of hauling capacity—has been carefully preserved and restored under the stewardship of LaVine Restorations, Inc., maintaining its authentic working character while stabilizing and preserving its original engineering integrity.
“The JBS Collection exists to preserve vehicles and tell important stories from automotive history—not just the glamorous side, but the essential machinery that supported it,” said Smith Jr. “This Dodge heavy hauler, as utilitarian as it was, was in fact ahead of its time as one of the earlier commercial vehicles to feature hydraulic brakes. This vehicle is an important reminder that innovation wasn’t limited to the luxury showrooms. It lived on the roadside, in garages, and in the hands of the working people who toiled so hard to keep our society advancing forward.”
The Journey launched in October of 2024, and the series premiere featured Smith Jr.’s 1934 Packard Twelve 1108 Custom Convertible Sedan by Dietrich. The award-winning vehicle, painstakingly restored by Smith Jr. and LaVine, was first commissioned and owned by the renowned California heiress-turned-explorer Louise Arner Boyd, one of the world’s first female Arctic explorers.
Season 2, Episode 5 continues The Journey’s commitment to showcasing both historically significant luxury automobiles and the working vehicles that formed the foundation of American automotive culture.