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Confession is good for the soul...

Dozerboy

Senior Member
Joined
Jan 18, 2006
Messages
2,232
Location
TX
Occupation
Operator
I hosed down my foremen and the GS with a water truck. While they where looking at a full set of plans on the hood of the GS nice clean truck. They knew it was a mistake but where upset about the plans that where plastered to the truck.
 

Raildudes dad

Senior Member
Joined
Dec 29, 2007
Messages
411
Location
Grand Rapids MI
Another water truck story:). I'm the project engineer on a road construction project and stop by the job site. We're maintaining traffic in an urban area so things are a little tight. I park tight up against the barricade - out of everyone's way - and leave the drivers window down since it was a real hot day. The contractor is grading and compacting for density. The aggregate needs some water so the big water truck is watering away. This is a big KW with the spay nozzles on both front corners so the driver can watch where's he's watering:).


I walk about 3 city blocks to talk to my inspector. In the meantime the water truck is going forward and then backing up just watering away. I start back to my car and as I get closer, I notice the grade checker has my front car doors open and the water truck driver is there. The grade checker has a McDonald's plastic cup and is bailing water out of both front floor wells -both are full:). The driver is all apologetic - he didn't notice the window open until he has backed past the car with the water on full blast.

Pulled the trusty garbage bags out of the trunk (I always keep some in the trunk for emergency seat covers and raincoats:D)) and drove back to the office where they vac'ed it and put fans on it to dry it out. Fortunately, there were no important papers etc in the front seat.
 

2stickbill

Senior Member
Joined
Nov 1, 2009
Messages
677
Location
Romayor Texas
Occupation
Sniffin diesel fumes.
Company I used to work for bought a Military Truck had it rigged for a water truck.I was filling it with water with the self fill pump and the boss had me to show him how.I had to leave and later he drove up pants all wet.Seems I forgot to tell him to close a valve before unhooking suction hose.
 

oldtanker

Senior Member
Joined
Sep 25, 2010
Messages
463
Location
vining mn
Occupation
Ret
HMMMMM...the only dumb thing I've done was to get married!!!!! For the last 37 years!!!


Rick
 

jeff112

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jan 12, 2011
Messages
97
Location
michigan
I was inching my dozer into the shop so I could just touch the blade to the bucket of the backhoe so I could close the door, the dozer I have ran abought 5000 thousand hrs,for some reason instead of pushing the throttle forward to shut it off I pulled it back wide open and pushed the backhoe through the back wall of the shop, the best part was my friend asking me what heck are you doing,I was in such disbelief I was speechless. lesson learned, never take for granted your ability of something that may seem like second nature once mastered.that's when accidents happen.
 

oldtanker

Senior Member
Joined
Sep 25, 2010
Messages
463
Location
vining mn
Occupation
Ret
volvo, nope not at all.....best advice I got fer a guy fixing to get hitched follows....

1. Never tell yer wife she's right about anything......she will never let you forget it!

2. Never point out that she is wrong about anything......she will think that you think she is stupid.......and never let you forget it!

3. Never argue with her.....there are 2 ways to argue with a woman.....THEY DON'T WORK so why bother!!!!

Rick
 

Taylortractornu

Charter Member
Joined
Nov 13, 2003
Messages
481
Location
Iuka, Mississippi
Occupation
Privvate landfill operator/manager
Ive had several flubb ups in my short time on this earth as an operator and mechanic. my biggy was under the dozer forum Here under post 1 and 11https://www.heavyequipmentforums.com/showthread.php?11631-I-got-lucky-yesterday-and-a-new-nickname.&highlight=

I was doing a job at the lake with my little PC 50 grey market Komatsu with linkage controls. I was pulling up some lightning struck cedars and stacking them in some silt dams. I picked one up it had been hit pretty hard. I was swinging back to put it in the pile to pick up with the loader when the top slpit in the thumb and it roled into the cab and pushed back o nthe crowd lever. It has manul control locks and they have to be in neutral to lock. I gotte door open and barled got out . as it was about to crush its own cab a branch thit the throttle and killed the motor. I took the sawsall and delimbed the tree in the cab and finished the next day.

One time dad bought a little 970 JD utility tractor with a loader and subframe mounted JD hoe. I hadnt run a hoe pattern in a while and dad wanted me to run down the road and put in a ditch for some neighbors. It was cold and I was in my Walls COver alls and digging in a pile. I decieded to get off and get my gloves out of the truck. To get off the hoe you have to be an acrobat. I was getting lined up and swung my leg behind the seat and folded it out of the way and stepping down the hammer loop on my cover alls hung the swing and hoist lever of the hoe as I had gotten pastthe point of no return. THis thing was idled up a bit and as I stepped off I reallized iI was hung up and was just gonna fall and not try to fight it too much.


when I hit the ground running that outstretched boom and bucket hit me in the arse end into a big ole pile of manure and soil.


One that happened at work before we got our reactivation permit from DEQ we had to haul waste the the RedBay AL landfill. Its a small city rubbish site and te main operator was out. THe city Mechanic was on the dozer and had ripped a tilt line on the old D6. Instaed of just straight blading the tip off and letting me dump he changed the line. While I was waiting it rained and I was down a slight slope in a 72 steel nosed DM mack rolloff. Well mister mechanid didnt want to push me out or use my cable and tow me out with the dozer .

He gets in his truck and goes to get a 555 NH TLB. I hooked the cable and he snaked me up the hill a one pull at a time. Instead of leaving the chain looped around the bucket and moving himself up with the hoe he would turn half around i nthe seat and push the shuttle forward and jerk itback to neutral when he got close to out of chain. I told him just ease up with the boom and lave the riggers down . Nope been running a hoe for a year and a 24 year old wasnt telling him nothin I got in the truck and was easing up in low gear as he was pulling me. I had an image in my had how many ways this could go wrong. the second to the last pull before I got to gravel road. He was sitting strapped in his seat belt sittin halfway round and about 3/4 throttle. He hadnt throttled the hand throttle back any and he didnt have alot os slack in the cable.

When he liffted his riggers he bumped the shttle foraward and it took off when it ran out of slack it snapped iom bakwards with his hand on the shuttle and as the jerk caused his seat to swing all the way back and lock in the hoe operators position but as he was swinging back He jerked the shuttle back to. So there he was strapped in the seat backwards going almost full throttle in reverse flailing his arms like a dumb a## headed towards my old Mack truck. I had hair lipped the passenger fender the day before on a rebar THat had been hanging out of a smaller dumpster.

I saw this out stretched boom comming for the cab and and radiator and I clutched it and cut the wheels to the right and gave him the hairlipped fender. When everything stopped we pulled the fender off the tire and I got the hoe off the truck and pulled myself up the hill. I still remeber that vividly lol.
 

7.3 Rocket

Member
Joined
Sep 20, 2009
Messages
5
Location
CT
I've got 2 stories.

1st: I used to operate a CAT 236B skidsteer with hydraulic quick-attach at a materials yard. We had a 1yd bucket for mulch and a 1/2 yd bucket for compost and topsoil. This guy in a Dakota kept coming in for 1/2 yard of topsoil at a time. It was probably his 3rd trip of the day at this point. Well I'd been loading trucks without incident for probably 2 months at this point so I knew everything there was to know about it. :rolleyes: I didn't check that my quick connect pins had engaged the bucket and when I went to dump the bucket of topsoil into the guy's truck the bucket went with it.

2nd: I have a little lawn tractor I use to pull my wood splitter around behind the shop at the family business where I keep all my firewood. I was getting tired of blowing up the tires on that mower because they were constantly going flat. I knew my father kept a gallon of tire sealant in his service truck over by the grinder. I knew where that was been over that way a million times. Well I grabbed the sealant put it in my truck bed and went to flip the truck around so I could leave. All of a sudden there's a loud BANG and the truck quits moving. I pull forward a few feet and hop out. Backed into the loader bucket. Awesome! :pointhead Bottle of tire sealant ended up costing me $2300 for a new flatbed to put on my truck. (it was a pickup box before I backed into the loader) That being said.... the tires on that mower hold air to this day.
 
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biggrader

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jan 16, 2010
Messages
221
Location
Red River Valley of the North
Occupation
Owner/Operator
Well..........quess I have to admit I'm not perfect either. back about 15 yrs ago,I was with my dad finishing up a job. We needed to load the vibrating plate packer in the back of the pickup truck. My dad was in the TLB and told me to pull the pin on the quicktach. Having done this a couple million of times, didnt think anything of it. He swung the plate packer over the tailgate to put it in the bed and it fell off. Smashed the &*() out of the tailgate. All i could do was chuckle a bit.. boy was the old man pissed at himself. The truck was only about 4 months old and needed a new tailgate.ha ha ha. ( I'm sure this has never happened to anyone else)
 

orkrule1

Member
Joined
May 11, 2012
Messages
5
Location
USA
Got my first job excavating job a few months ago! I was running a haul truck (Deere 250D) back and forth dropping off dirt at a dump area, a good quarter mile from where they were digging. Ran into some mud right up on a creek bank, tried to back out but couldn't (I hadn't been trained on the machine, just told to "get up there and move it!", so I didn't know to turn on the diff lock). Went back, got another guy in the wheel loader. Went back to the truck and it had slipped into the creek! Guess I forgot to set the parking brake. After a few hours of pulling with a Deere 650 dozer AND hitachi 200 AND 120 excavators... we FINALLY got it free. The ice on the creek had caved in the grille, smashed the (fiberglass?) hood, dinged up the air intake, and crushed all the coolers. I volunteered to take a huge pay cut and work it off, but the owner let me go. He probably was right... but I still miss driving it. Sad part was, he never believed me, thought I drove it into the creek for some reason.
 

Fastdirt

Senior Member
Joined
Sep 16, 2010
Messages
743
Location
GA
Got my first job excavating job a few months ago! I was running a haul truck (Deere 250D) back and forth dropping off dirt at a dump area, a good quarter mile from where they were digging. Ran into some mud right up on a creek bank, tried to back out but couldn't (I hadn't been trained on the machine, just told to "get up there and move it!", so I didn't know to turn on the diff lock). Went back, got another guy in the wheel loader. Went back to the truck and it had slipped into the creek! Guess I forgot to set the parking brake. After a few hours of pulling with a Deere 650 dozer AND hitachi 200 AND 120 excavators... we FINALLY got it free. The ice on the creek had caved in the grille, smashed the (fiberglass?) hood, dinged up the air intake, and crushed all the coolers. I volunteered to take a huge pay cut and work it off, but the owner let me go. He probably was right... but I still miss driving it. Sad part was, he never believed me, thought I drove it into the creek for some reason.

Wow, that's a serious case of bad luck and misfortune. If somebody had just told you about the diff lock, huh. Lot of lessons learned in a short time. Look at the bright side....now when you go to a new company you can actually say you "have experience". Sounds like you liked the job, so stay at it and find another.
 

watglen

Senior Member
Joined
Apr 3, 2009
Messages
1,314
Location
Dunnville, Ontario, Canada
Occupation
Farmer, drainage and excavating contractor, Farm d
Got my first job excavating job a few months ago! I was running a haul truck (Deere 250D) back and forth dropping off dirt at a dump area, a good quarter mile from where they were digging. Ran into some mud right up on a creek bank, tried to back out but couldn't (I hadn't been trained on the machine, just told to "get up there and move it!", so I didn't know to turn on the diff lock). Went back, got another guy in the wheel loader. Went back to the truck and it had slipped into the creek! Guess I forgot to set the parking brake. After a few hours of pulling with a Deere 650 dozer AND hitachi 200 AND 120 excavators... we FINALLY got it free. The ice on the creek had caved in the grille, smashed the (fiberglass?) hood, dinged up the air intake, and crushed all the coolers. I volunteered to take a huge pay cut and work it off, but the owner let me go. He probably was right... but I still miss driving it. Sad part was, he never believed me, thought I drove it into the creek for some reason.

That sucks! As a boss I would be kicking my own a$$ so bad! Its my fault for not having trained you.

It is so easy to forget that not everyone knows what you know and take for granted. Its a good lesson for site supervisors... Don't assume anything with a new hire. Show them everything, and put them with someone who can train them on the job for a few hours. Its money well spent.
 

Lowmark

New Member
Joined
Jan 5, 2014
Messages
3
Location
BC
Occupation
Slave
When I was young running a grader with no brakes, grading a logging road up a hill, owner op skidder skidding down the road to a landing at bottom. I met him halfway up the hill decided to get out of his way by backing down, then decided was going too slow tried to shift up, missed, free wheeled down backwards, cut on one side drop on other. Didn't want to put blade down for fear of ripping it off. Had to sit at bottom for a bit to stop shaking, he says " Im not in that much of a hurry".
Watched one of the best cat skinners I have ever known fuel up his d8 then back over the pickup.
I always try to remember where I started, but will only try to help once, if you don't want help I won't. The old adage "learn something new everyday" is a real good attitude to have ( in my humble opinion )
 

oldtanker

Senior Member
Joined
Sep 25, 2010
Messages
463
Location
vining mn
Occupation
Ret
When I was young running a grader with no brakes, grading a logging road up a hill, owner op skidder skidding down the road to a landing at bottom. I met him halfway up the hill decided to get out of his way by backing down, then decided was going too slow tried to shift up, missed, free wheeled down backwards, cut on one side drop on other. Didn't want to put blade down for fear of ripping it off. Had to sit at bottom for a bit to stop shaking, he says " Im not in that much of a hurry".
Watched one of the best cat skinners I have ever known fuel up his d8 then back over the pickup.
I always try to remember where I started, but will only try to help once, if you don't want help I won't. The old adage "learn something new everyday" is a real good attitude to have ( in my humble opinion )


While I agree in principal I have to disagree. When expensive equipment (that may be owned by the company writing the pay checks) or someone's health or life hangs in the balance you can't just walk away. You, legally have a duty to either teach the person in question or report them. If you don't do that you can be held as partially responsible for whatever happens, to include criminal charges and or subsequent law suits. It's called negligence. As in negligent homicide as an example. And you can bet good ole dumb azz will tell someone that so in so said something but that was it. Now if it's just a case of a guy not taking care of his stuff, yea once told that would be it. Please don't let pride lead to someone being injured of killed.

Rick
 

fixou812

Senior Member
Joined
Dec 17, 2013
Messages
677
Location
Buffalo NY
Occupation
Millwright Equipment Mechanic Welder
"The ring of Fire. ... the ring of Fire! "

We had our heavy trucks already parked around the oil well.
The location was about an acre of a mixture of mud water and sweet green crude oil.
The was no drilling rig or pumping unit (pump jack) there.
This well had out lived it's usefulness. ....pumped dry......if you will.
So it was an open hole......no well head or bop blow out preventer.
Basically an eight inch pipe sticking out of the ground a few feet.......and open.
The pipe did have a flange welded to it which I was to cut off with a torch.
The purpose of the flange was for bolting the not there well head to.
On one of our last jobs it was in the Red Desert and very hot outside.
The case of beer we had was 110 degrees Fahrenheit in the shade and no ice?
What to do?......drink it warm?
I earnestly explained to my skeptical fellow rig pigs that I could turn p warm hot beer
"Ice Cold" in one or two minutes? Sure Steve water to wine...scratch scratch.
I set the case of liquid courage down reverently and opened the carton.
"Time to lock and load girls" I had pulled the pin....
with a kung fun grip on the fire extinguisher I ground pounded that case of beer!
The beer was "Ice Cold" by the time I emptied the fire extinguisher into it.
I was a "Company Hero" and we celebrated.
I should have Never showed them that trick.
Now back to the...........................FIRE!
Torch in hand I was to cut the flange or braiding head off the casing.
I was standing in a muddy pit about three feet deep.
No crude oil there it had been mucked out or shoveled out.
Standard test procedure. ... hold your head away and wave torch over flange.
So far so good.
Well a spark flew away from the three foot deep eight foot diameter muck hole.
Around this hole was mud water with crude oil on top surround by trucks.
It was first light morning...we had just arrived in the 4wd
The trucks were already there we left them there
cold engines no air pressure to unlock the brakes and drive them away.
The whole location lit up quick! "Get the Fire Extinguishers!"
Running through mud and fire they got to the fire extinguishers
some of them in the now beginning to burn trucks with sweet crude oil on the
tires and rubber mud flaps.
every one in turn point and shoot.......empty....allegations And... fire extinguishers didn't work like several.
get the shovels and move them trucks.
The ten wheel cement truck was closest and burning the best...burning rubber mud flaps had already melted the tail lights
before I could drive it away I had to break loose a hard line hammer union which was hooked to another piece of equipment
standing in two and three foot "spotty flames" low spots burning other not so much
with a sledge hammer I broke loose the hammer union... screw the four inch rubber lines they
were burning anyway and the truck ended up ripping them away.
the other guys were helping more the other heavy trucks or helping
curtail the fire with shovels. I got in that pump truck started it and let it rev it really wanted sixty pound of air to release those brakes while it was burning. After driving the pump truck out of harms way we managed to put out the fire.
Amazing lee not a whole lot of damage for a wide area of Fire mud flaps tail lights surface scorched tires and some four inch lines.
So we cleaned up a bit and went to the bar.
we managed to put out the fire!
 

kshansen

Senior Member
Joined
Mar 11, 2012
Messages
11,129
Location
Central New York, USA
Occupation
Retired Mechanic in Stone Quarry
Well I did a dumb thing today. Not that that's too unusual!

Was working on a 980G 3406 engine trying to cut down on some of the oil leaks. Last week was dropping the oil pan and replacing that gasket after fighting the counter weight bolts that have been in for over ten years. Today was going to be easy, replace replace upper and lower valve cover gaskets. Upper covers come off easy. When I went to remove the lower housings found that the aftercooler and thermostat housing were just a tad too close and housing would not come out. Oh well, probably not a bad idea to replace the thermostat. The found that the pipe from turbo to aftercooler would not let the rear housing out. Those yellow intake orings sure like to stay in place after ten years! Once all the extra work was done I temporarily installed the housings and valve covers to keep internal parts clean in what can be a dusty shop. Picked off the front cover and housing as a unit to clean the top of head one more time and put a dab of sealant on the joint in the lower housing gasket. As I rolled the assembly to clear the after cooler I hear what can only be described as the Pinball Machine sound of a 5/16 valve cover bolt making it's way down through internals of a 3406:eek: Last sound I heard was the thunk of the bolt hitting the bottom of the aluminium pan. Good thing is I had not put oil back into the engine so I was at least sure the valve cover bolt made the full trip. First thought is,"Do I have to take out the 40 pan bolts including those nasty ones above the rear axle just to find the bolt?" Being a bit on the lazy side decide to try something else first. Take out the 1 inch pipe plug from the left front corner of the pan. Slip small telescoping magnet in and on second try guess who is stuck to the magnet?:notworthy All in all what could have been hassle cost all of 5 minutes to correct. Valve covers are now on and torqued, no one getting inside again;)
 
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