SUBURBAN & MOSBY’S

Company: Suburban Tow

Location:  Louisville, KY

Owner: Irvin Johns (Brian’s Father)

Employees: 103 Employees

Call Frequency: 95 call per day / 650+ a week

Company: Mosby Tow

Location: Louisville, KY

Owner: Brian Johns (Irvin’s Son)

Employees: 70 Employees

Call Frequency: 400 per day / 2500 a week

Irvin and Brian Johns are a father and son towing duo with the largest combined fleet east of the Mississippi River. Irvin is an infamous character in Kentucky towing. Beyond his towing empire, he’s also known for his car museum and drag racing. Brian is the prodigal son who loves motorcycles, fast boats and anything with a motor. Towing, rescue and heavy machinery are in their blood. Both father and son are in every sense the “Kings of Towing” in their corner of the world. Father and son each own and manage their own, separate companies. The patriarch, Irvin Johns, has owned and operated Suburban Tow for over forty years in Louisville, KY while his son Brian Johns has owned and operated Mosby Tow for nearly five years.

Growing up, Brian had the benefit of getting a free education in towing from the best in the business. By eighteen, Brian was operating 40-ton heavy wreckers and began working his way up in his father's company. As Irvin and Brian grew together, Irvin decided to buy Suburban Towing’s only rivalry in the area “Mosby” and place Brian as the new “King” in charge. Over the years, Brian and Irvin would work together to clean up the local towing industry to be more respected, organized and prosperous. While Suburban and Mosby’s are run separately, they work closely together to help service each other's clientele and overflow. If and when Mosby need’s a piece of equipment that they don’t have access to, they simply reach out to Suburban, and vice-versa. Chances are, if you’re from Kentucky you’re familiar with either Suburban or Mosby towing, if not both!

Operating the largest combed fleet east of the Mississippi river, Brian and Irvin see plenty of excitement and danger on the road. From large scale train wrecks, to airplanes sliding off the runaway, to overturned pig trailers and concrete trucks, to hazardous accidents and more. Some of the most recent recoveries include a 20,000 gallon fuel tank suspended from a bridge and a vehicle suspended nearly 1,300 feet down a local ravine. Suburban and Mosby’s are the companies to call when things are either “extremely bad or hard.” This is towing to the extreme. As Irvin says “can’t” is not in their dictionary and they will get it done no matter what it takes. Louisville, KY is centrally located where multiple interstates align creating the perfect breeding ground for these two large-scale towing operations.

Suburban Fleet

x10 Support vehicles used by incident management consisting of F150s. F350s C2500s.

x5 Light Duty Wreckers- Century 302s , 311 Self Loaders, and a 4x4 wrecker for off road recovery

26 Light Duty Rollback -Internationals, Freightliners, and Hinos all with 21 foot LCG beds.

x8 Medium Duty Tandem and TriAxles Rollbacks consisting of KW T880 and Freightliners

x10 Heavy Duty Wreckers- (5) 50 Ton Centuries 9055s, (5) 30 Ton Centuries Wreckers 5130s

x5 Rotators - (1) 30 Ton Century 1135, (2) 40 Ton 1140s , (1) 50 Ton 1150R and (1) 75 Ton Twinsteer

x43 Road Tractors - 12 TriAxles and 31 Tandems various makes

x19 RGN Trailers, many with multiple axles, 2 are AG Trailers and 1 is a specialized bus trailer.

x37 Landoll Trailers, several witch are TriAxles, 4 Flatbed trailers, 1 Step deck trailer, 4 Van Trailers x1 Refer trailer

Mosby Fleet:

x35 rollbacks

x5 heavy duty wreckers

x9 landoll trailers

x6 road tractors

x4 auto loaders

x16 light service