Good things you've done for others

farmerlund · Jan 8, 2020

Good thread Truck Shop.
Ten years ago a friend of mine called with a horse problem. ( ya I know all about horse people, he is not in that category) His 12 year old daughter races barrels and her horse stepped in a gopher hole. Breaking about 2 ft of its leg clean off. All that was holing it on was about 1" of hide, not pretty.
So they had the vet on the way to put it down but needed to have a horse funeral. So I loaded up my 25 ton excavator and drove over the 30 miles to his house. When I get there he says you can't just squeeze it with the thumb and throw it in the hole, we need to be gentle. His wife and 2 daughters are watching everything. Very sad day for them.
I dig a nice perfect rectangle grave get the horse laid in there perfectly on its side. Next was blanket and flowers. Covered him up and left.
Only Took about two years before he finally quit asking if I was going to send a bill for the horse funeral. I never did send one.

Bluox · Jan 8, 2020

The bad part about horse funerals is they don't have a potluck afterwards .
Bob

TD24 · Jan 8, 2020

Bluox said:
The bad part about horse funerals is they don't have a potluck afterwards .
Bob

Thuh Fust Baptist-Tupelo, MS has a dinner for the family and the close friends at 12 if the funeral is after noon.
Full boat... I will be proud of what they have when I go.

petepilot · Jan 9, 2020

I have a couple good ones for the thread soon as I get my comp.back up . Trying to write on this thing is a pita

wornout wrench · Jan 9, 2020

My dad used to tell me this story, might be one of the reasons that I always stop to help.

I was very young so 1958-59ish.
My parents went from Vancouver BC to Regina Sk to visit my mom's parents.
On the way home they came back via south of the border.

At the time my dad was driving a Vauxhal. He bought it on the advice of his mentor, an old british gentleman who had taken my dad under his wing. When Vauxhal's were imported and sold in Vancouver he told my dad what a great car they were. So since he had given my dad such great advice in the past, dad bought one.

Well it was a complete POS.

So here they were with two small children, in the states in this POS english car when it starts acting up.
Money was pretty scarce in those days so dad was pretty flustered.
They make it to a garage, remember when there was a garage at every service station with a mechanic working there, anyways they get it to the garage and dad talks to the mechanic. Dad figures he is screwed, aint nobody going to know anything about a Vauxhal in this part of the word, it was hard enough to get it fixed in Vancouver.

You want to talk about luck. The guy that owned the garage had served in England during WW2, as a mechanic. He had worked on Vauxhals and knew what was wrong with the car and knew what he had to do to repair it.

So loads dad mom me and my brother up, takes up to his house and sets us up for the night and tells dad that it will be running in the morning. Come the morning he wheels up in the car and says all ready to go.

Comes time for the bill and he would only take the money for the repairs, nothing for putting us up in his house, food, nothing. He told dad that he enjoyed working on the car and he would probably never get another chance.

Dad paid him what he asked for and got his address, they sent Christmas cards back and forth for years.

This is going back 60 years and i was just a child, I don't even remember it but every once in awhile when dad was reminiscing about the good in people, that story would come out. I just remember how much he hated that car and what a great guy that mechanic was.

fast_st · Jan 9, 2020

I was running the garage one afternoon, a couple from Fla had their lincoln towed in, early 90's town car, blown rear axle, seems there was nothing between the pinion and the ring. they were on their way up to Maine for their son's military ceremony. I called the local hotel in the next town to have them send over a shuttle and said I'd see what I could do. I call my local pal at the junkyard and he finds the right ratio axle in a crown vic for under 100. asked and found out he's taking the ramp truck home so drop that by on your way home. The lincoln had brand new brakes, swapped those over and gave the new axle a quick oil change while I was there and got it all bolted up by 2am. The Hotel van showed up first thing in the morning, I was a little groggy still and gave them the bad news and the good news, bad news, rear end was junk, good news its all fixed and test driven. I handed them the bill for I think it was 350-400 and said they'd not agreed to the repair but figured getting to the graduation is important, and if things were tight they could send me a check later. They happily wrote out a check and were thrilled to be back on schedule.

Vetech63 · Jan 9, 2020

I've had numerous run ins with helping people over the years all the way back to my teens. I was raised in a way …...that's just what you do!
From helping change flats, to giving money to those down on their luck, giving advise based on my knowledge, etc...………………………………
My last was about 2 months ago. Me and the wife had just pulled into a gas statin to fill up and this woman was standing outside her SUV, had the spare tire lying on the ground and the jack next to it. I could tell while I was pumping gas that she was still looking for something, so I walked over and asked if she knew how to change a tire (she had hit something in the road and tore a 4" gash in the sidewall). She said she couldn't find the "thingy" to undo the lug nuts. I showed her that it was part of the jack and proceeded to remove it for her. I went ahead and took the time to change the tire for her and put everything back in her vehicle. I didn't realize she had 3 kids with her until I was done, as she must have told them to stay in the truck ( had smoked glass so you really couldn't see inside). She thanked me and I went back to my truck and went on my way.

The funny part about this story is...…...when I got back to my truck, the wife said" Did she offer to pay you anything?" You see this gal was tall, thin, and blonde and attractive...……….so I KNEW I was going to get questioned. I told her "NO, and I didn't ask either." She said "That's good!" and I thought that was the end of it. 5 minutes later she asked me "Did you think she was attractive?"

So I replied "Yes very much so...…...and I have a confession to make. She did offer to pay me, but since you were with me, she couldn't."

She started laughing so hard I was like WTF? She replied " Dammit, I could have been rid of you!"

Dam wives! LOL

ianjoub · Jan 9, 2020

aighead said:
I find it amazing how much people are willing to help each other. I think if we all were more willing to help maybe we'd need less government to step in and mess it up.

I know if the government would steal less of our money, we would (almost) all be far more generous with our charity.

old-iron-habit · Jan 9, 2020

Like everyone here I have always tried to help people out. A couple special ones come to mind. Many years ago when on the way back to California from a Colorado elk hunt my friend and I came up on a car setting on the shoulder with a flat tire. I seen a person walking down a long ranch driveway. She was a 1/4 mile down the drive at least. I drove down and it was an elderly lady that was about froze. She commented that she could not get her car jacked up. We loaded her up and told her we would change her tire. She mentioned her husband was in the cold car and was unable to walk more than a few feet and only with a walker. We loaded them both in my rig and changed their tire as they warmed up. then we followed them to town to insure they made it on the gas they had. Imagine our surprise at our company Christmas Party when we got a Good Samaritan Award from our employer. This lady seen a business card in my truck and wrote a letter to our employer and told them the story of how we helped them. They did not have our names but the boss figured out whom it was based on her description and knowing we had been there at that timeframe.
Another time in a rural Mexican village I gave a warm jacket to a homeless kid whom looked to be about 10 years old. His smile was priceless. He hung out around the restaurant we frequented and worked cleaning up and doing whatever was asked for food. A couple of days later he came in to the restaurant all beat to crap and said the jacket was gone. Some thugs had beat him bad and taken the jacket leaving him lay in the cold night. It still breaks my heart thinking about it. I could have killed that day.
The last one was here in town a couple years ago. The wife and I was coming home in a sideways blowing snow and stopped for gas. I seen a person parked at the side of the station trying to change a tire. I walked over and asked if he could use a hand. To my surprise it was an old friend I had lost track of 30 years ago. He and his wife had stopped to help a lady that was struggling to change a tire on her car. We got her squared away in short order and went for coffee to catch up.

Truck Shop · Jan 10, 2020

I posted this before, but I thought I was in hot a$$ water towards the end.

It was in the winter of 88-89 and it was a Friday and it had snowed since early morning hours. I had been out for hours running class A and class C towing and winching for some 16 plus hours.
I just finished winching a set of wiggle wagons straight and Millie the owner was on the two way asking who was going to make it to the shop soon. I got there first, she had a two to Yakima,
A woman and her I guess 8 year old son were traveling from Seattle to Yakima and had slid into the ditch twice and all she wanted was to go home and didn't care what it cost. So I hooked up
with old #9 1976 Chev 1 ton 4x4 and away we went. On the way I saw a VW square back lose it on I82 MP3 at the bottom of the hill headed north. I made it to Yakima and backed the car into
her garage and left headed back north on 82, and it was a major pileup on the Fred G. Redmond bridge. So on went the rotators and I wove my way through.

When I got back to MP 3 I saw the VW still setting in 2 1/2 feet of plowed snow. So I stopped and checked to see if anyone was still inside, a woman and four kids. She said right off she was broke
only had 40 bucks and trying to make it over to Seattle area. I told her to hang tough and went to the rig and added up what I brought in for the company that day, I free spooled the winch grabbed
a J-hook and pulled her out. I went to her window and said this is a free one-on the house don't tell anyone I did this for you.

Two weeks later I was putting a front drive in and Millie the boss came walking up in her red high heels and kicked at me on the creeper. Mike I need to talk to you, two weeks ago you towed that
lady to Yakima on your way back did you set a hook on that VW at MP 3? Yes Millie I did and told her the story and she could take it out of my pay. She handed me a letter from the lady driving
the VW all the while tapping her glasses on her thigh giving me the stink eye.---Then Millie said {That's what I expect my guys to do, never leave a woman and kids stranded while driving
my tow trucks, you got to do whats right Mike and we made enough that day}. She walked away with a grin.

Raildudes dad · Jan 11, 2020

I’ve told this one before but here it goes again

. This was years ago before cell phones. I’m cruising back to the office on the freeway. Probably doing 75+ in the left lane. Sky is threatening, definitely looks like rain. Come up on a car on the left shoulder, trunk open, definitely a flat tire, there’s a person looking in the trunk. I give a glance and I think is that a female? Short hair if it is. I debate should I go back / decide to. I’m driving a county road department car, we maintain the freeway so I can legally use the turn a-rounds.

So I double back and pull up behind the car. The person turns around and Oh Yeah, it’s a woman, really pregnant, 9 months pregnant it turns out. My first question is are you driving yourself to the hospital? No just a checkup. Whew, I pass out at the sight of other’s blood LOL. My vehicle has a 2 way radio so I was covered to call 911

She wants me to take her to a phone at the next exit to call her husband. They live about 20+ miles north of town. Did I say it was starting to rain, fortunately lightly.

I told her, get in your car, I’ll just change it quick. You will be sitting here a long time waiting for your husband. She says no to getting in the car, if you’re in the rain, I am too. I give her the umbrella I keep stashed and we had a nice visit while I changed it.

I get it changed and she wants to pay me. Nope, you pay gas tax, consider it one of the services you get. Wants my name, no need to call my bosses, just get on your way to the Dr.

Now days, with everyone having a smart phone or cell phone I’m a lot less likely to stop. Most of the time, they are on the cell phone talking when I go by.

RZucker · Jan 11, 2020

Then there are A-holes that try to take advantage of situations... Couple years back, my other half was driving my old Dodge/Cummins dually home and pulled off the road to use her phone. The "gravel" covered up a spot of bottomless dry sand and she got the pig stuck, it wasn't bad she stopped before it got worse and called me. I told her I would be there in 10 minutes so just relax. I pulled up (in my Ford Ranger) and there was already a guy there in a rusty Chevy 4x4 with a chain hooked up to the ball on the Dodge... He was tapping on the window and demanding $50 for a tow.
I walked up and told him to get lost and I would pull it out. We nearly came to blows 'til the GF yelled "do I need to call 911?". Axxhole turned white and unhooked his chain and pulled away, I pulled Ranger up in 4lo hooked up my chain and eased the Dually out of the sand and life was good.
A year ago the same guy got busted for making and selling meth, took a couple of shots at the cops too.

wornout wrench · Jan 11, 2020

When I was still working, "THE COMPANY" told us that we were allowed to stop and offer assistance but under no circumstance were we to tow a vehicle out of the ditch. Too many liabilities involved.

Well, I'm retired and don't work for them anymore so I can tell you now with out fear of punishment that if I out on a logging road and came across someone who was stuck or in the ditch, I would give them a pull. Within reason of course. If there were obvious signs of impairment, I would toe the company line but for most people, out came the tow strap.

Only trouble with doing the good deed was trying to tell the person that no payment needed, don't stop past the shop and tell my boss what a great guy I was pulling you out of the ditch. Well you get the idea.

kshansen · Jan 11, 2020

I probably posted this on this site before but thought I might add it to the list here. Details are a bit cloudy but I'll try to keep them straight!

This was somewhat easy for me as it was right in my front yard. We were having a heavy snow storm one night and one car pulled in driveway and we went down to see what the problem was. The young girl said she was going to wait for her parents to come by to drive her home as she was not comfortable driving in the snow. Guess have to give her points for knowing when to call it quits!

Well a short time later after she left we noticed through the hedge row there appeared to be a large truck stopped along the road. At first thought it was a plow truck having problems. When we walked down there saw it was a bucket truck like the power company used. Then we could see it was off the road and stuck in the snow bank. At that time the road, state highway, had around 6 inches of snow on it.

Talked to the driver and he said he had moved a bit to his right due to on coming car and the snow bank just pulled him in and he could not get back out. Asked where he was from and going. Figured he was a local guy. Turned out he was from New York City and was up here half way across the state picking up this truck to drive down to Florida where the truck along with others were goring on a boat to one of the Caribbean Islands that had been hit by the bad hurricane that also did all the damage to Puerto Rico that season, for get the year right off 2017?

Anyhow we told him to come up to the house and keep warm while he called his boss in NYC! Well as luck would have it there was not much help his boss could offer from half a state away. So I tried calling a couple towing outfits in the area but as could be expected they were booked up for hours with other accidents.

So now plan was to see if I could do anything with my walk behind snow blower to cut a path for him to get out of the bank. Fired the best one up and plowed a path down driveway and then started attacking the snow bank. The driver went to work with a shovel digging under truck. At some point he thought it might be a good idea to start truck and have it warmed up when we had a path cleared for it. That's when he discovered that when getting out of the truck with the lights and four-ways on he had hit the door locks, and yes the key was in the ignition!

So now the problem is a bit worse! No need to dig it out if we are locked out. Shift gears in to gaining access to truck. Back up to house and grab some thick piece of plastic I had laying around and us table saw to cut a couple wedges out of the plastic. Grab a wire coat hanger and head down to the truck. While using the wedges to pry door open at the top and working with coat hanger to unlock door guess what a car pulls up and who gets out but a county sheriff. I was thinking, what now are we going to be arrested for trying to steal the truck? Guess our story sounded good as he did not arrest us and sat there with lights going while we did mange to unlock the door. Fun part was now the truck would not start because the battery was down from the lights being on for so long.

Okay time to take a break and do some thinking. I believe that was the hot cocoa time in the kitchen. Once the hot cocoa did it's work I said time for running wire and hooking up battery charger. As truck was around 150 feet or more from the closest out let I rounded up all the heavy extension cords I had and worked my way across the lawn in knee deep snow being sure to tie each cord to the next to reach the truck. Then drug the big charger down and hooked it up. Was a bit worried all that cord would cause a voltage drop but it seemed to be good. So while battery charged up we got back to moving snow, me with blower and driver with shovel under truck. He even thought to wedge some heavy cardboard that was in the truck under the front of rear wheels for traction.

Crossed fingers and he got in and it fired right up. After all this time we had not seen a plow go by and I told him if it comes out to just pull in the driveway. After a little rocking he does manage to get it back on the road and into driveway. I had the driveway pretty clean so had him pull up towards the house. We told him no way he was going anywhere tonight and there was a nice warm bed and breakfast in morning waiting for him.

Snow had stopped overnight and roads were plowed so after breakfast he was on his way. I did give him my email address but never heard from him figured it got lost in the shuffle. Just hope that ruck got to where it was heading and helped restore power to some people in the islands!

Truck Shop · Jan 11, 2020

RZucker said:
Then there are A-holes that try to take advantage of situations... Couple years back, my other half was driving my old Dodge/Cummins dually home and pulled off the road to use her phone. The "gravel" covered up a spot of bottomless dry sand and she got the pig stuck, it wasn't bad she stopped before it got worse and called me. I told her I would be there in 10 minutes so just relax. I pulled up (in my Ford Ranger) and there was already a guy there in a rusty Chevy 4x4 with a chain hooked up to the ball on the Dodge... He was tapping on the window and demanding $50 for a tow.
I walked up and told him to get lost and I would pull it out. We nearly came to blows 'til the GF yelled "do I need to call 911?". Axxhole turned white and unhooked his chain and pulled away, I pulled Ranger up in 4lo hooked up my chain and eased the Dually out of the sand and life was good.
A year ago the same guy got busted for making and selling meth, took a couple of shots at the cops too.

A-holes-------Oh My that's rather Nasty! lol

RZucker · Jan 11, 2020

Truck Shop said:
A-holes-------Oh My that's rather Nasty! lol

I was being polite... sheesh.

old-iron-habit · Jan 12, 2020

kshansen said:
I probably posted this on this site before but thought I might add it to the list here. Details are a bit cloudy but I'll try to keep them straight!

This was somewhat easy for me as it was right in my front yard. We were having a heavy snow storm one night and one car pulled in driveway and we went down to see what the problem was. The young girl said she was going to wait for her parents to come by to drive her home as she was not comfortable driving in the snow. Guess have to give her points for knowing when to call it quits!

Well a short time later after she left we noticed through the hedge row there appeared to be a large truck stopped along the road. At first thought it was a plow truck having problems. When we walked down there saw it was a bucket truck like the power company used. Then we could see it was off the road and stuck in the snow bank. At that time the road, state highway, had around 6 inches of snow on it.

Talked to the driver and he said he had moved a bit to his right due to on coming car and the snow bank just pulled him in and he could not get back out. Asked where he was from and going. Figured he was a local guy. Turned out he was from New York City and was up here half way across the state picking up this truck to drive down to Florida where the truck along with others were goring on a boat to one of the Caribbean Islands that had been hit by the bad hurricane that also did all the damage to Puerto Rico that season, for get the year right off 2017?

Anyhow we told him to come up to the house and keep warm while he called his boss in NYC! Well as luck would have it there was not much help his boss could offer from half a state away. So I tried calling a couple towing outfits in the area but as could be expected they were booked up for hours with other accidents.

So now plan was to see if I could do anything with my walk behind snow blower to cut a path for him to get out of the bank. Fired the best one up and plowed a path down driveway and then started attacking the snow bank. The driver went to work with a shovel digging under truck. At some point he thought it might be a good idea to start truck and have it warmed up when we had a path cleared for it. That's when he discovered that when getting out of the truck with the lights and four-ways on he had hit the door locks, and yes the key was in the ignition!

So now the problem is a bit worse! No need to dig it out if we are locked out. Shift gears in to gaining access to truck. Back up to house and grab some thick piece of plastic I had laying around and us table saw to cut a couple wedges out of the plastic. Grab a wire coat hanger and head down to the truck. While using the wedges to pry door open at the top and working with coat hanger to unlock door guess what a car pulls up and who gets out but a county sheriff. I was thinking, what now are we going to be arrested for trying to steal the truck? Guess our story sounded good as he did not arrest us and sat there with lights going while we did mange to unlock the door. Fun part was now the truck would not start because the battery was down from the lights being on for so long.

Okay time to take a break and do some thinking. I believe that was the hot cocoa time in the kitchen. Once the hot cocoa did it's work I said time for running wire and hooking up battery charger. As truck was around 150 feet or more from the closest out let I rounded up all the heavy extension cords I had and worked my way across the lawn in knee deep snow being sure to tie each cord to the next to reach the truck. Then drug the big charger down and hooked it up. Was a bit worried all that cord would cause a voltage drop but it seemed to be good. So while battery charged up we got back to moving snow, me with blower and driver with shovel under truck. He even thought to wedge some heavy cardboard that was in the truck under the front of rear wheels for traction.

Crossed fingers and he got in and it fired right up. After all this time we had not seen a plow go by and I told him if it comes out to just pull in the driveway. After a little rocking he does manage to get it back on the road and into driveway. I had the driveway pretty clean so had him pull up towards the house. We told him no way he was going anywhere tonight and there was a nice warm bed and breakfast in morning waiting for him.

Snow had stopped overnight and roads were plowed so after breakfast he was on his way. I did give him my email address but never heard from him figured it got lost in the shuffle. Just hope that ruck got to where it was heading and helped restore power to some people in the islands!

I would say that you invented the term "going the extra mile" for him.

Good things you've done for others

farmerlund

Senior Member

Bluox

Senior Member

TD24

Senior Member

petepilot

Senior Member

wornout wrench

Senior Member

fast_st

Senior Member

Vetech63

Senior Member

ianjoub

Senior Member

old-iron-habit

Senior Member

Truck Shop

Senior Member

Raildudes dad

Senior Member

RZucker

Senior Member

wornout wrench

Senior Member

kshansen

Senior Member

Truck Shop

Senior Member

RZucker

Senior Member

old-iron-habit

Senior Member